Quinzaine 2026: Asia Argento and short film 'Oh Boys' filmed in Cilento

The only all-Italian production included in the Quinzaine des Cinéastes at Cannes 2026 is Antonio Donato's short film 'Oh Boys', competing among the 19 features and 9 shorts selected for the 58th edition of the event. It is not, however, the only Italian presence in the Festival's parallel section as Jorge Thielen Armand's co-production feature film 'Death Has No Master' (La muerte no tiene dueño), starring Asia Argento, has also been selected.

Produced by Premiere Films with Courageous Donuts, VIA73, and Andromeda Film, "Oh Boys" was filmed in Pisciotta, a small village in the Cilento region of Salerno province. In a coastal village, three stories of competition and male pride unfold, complete with flashy solos, ferocious ping pong matches, awkward dates, as the members of a local band compete to outdo each other in virtuosity; a tourist desperately tries to impress his new girlfriend over lunch; and an amateur ping pong player is humiliatingly defeated by a young girl. Everything changes when a saxophonist breaks free of the local competitive spirit and goes against the grain.

"Oh Boys" was developed at Premiere Film's Pisciotta Film Lab, a creative workshop that is part of "Attractiveness of Villages" (Mission M1C3.2), European Union programme for the cultural and social regeneration of historic villages.

The cast includes Luca Lacerenza, Meg Bellamy, Tom Byrne, Antonio De Rosa.

Quinzaine: 'Death Has No Master,' starring Asia Argento

The feature films selected for the Quinzaine include the Venezuelan-Italian-Canadian-Luxembourg co-production Death Has No Master (La muerte no tiene dueño) by Jorge Thielen Armand, starring Asia Argento with Jorge Thielen Hedderich and Dogreika Tovar.

The story centres around middle-aged Caro’s return to Venezuela after twenty years away to sell her late father's cocoa plantation. She finds that the plantation is occupied by his former workers who are determined to stay at all costs and a dangerous game of manipulation ensues, where the victims become as violent as their oppressors. Long-buried secrets are revealed and the line between obsession and reality blurs and culminates in a violent harvest that spares no one. A question of inheritance becomes a war of wills, highlighting how property, memory, and violence are shaped by colonial heritage.

Death Has No Master is produced by La Faena Films, Volos Films, and Deal Productions. International sales are handled by Lucky Number.

Monica Bellucci is expected on the Croisette, in the cast of Histoires de la nuit (The Birthday Party) by Léa Mysius (France), in Competition. She also stars in the Quinzaine’s opening film, Butterfly Jam by Kantemir Balagov.