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ITAFF25: La Grazia

Synopsis

LA GRAZIA

Australian premiere

The ST. ALi Italian Film Festival is delighted to present Oscar-winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino’s highly anticipated new drama La Grazia (“Grace”), direct from its world premiere at Venice where it recieved an enthusiastic 4-Minute Standing Ovation

The iconic Toni Servillo stars as Mariano De Santis, President of the Italian Republic (with no connection to any real-life presidents; he is entirely a product of Sorrentino’s imagination).

A widower and a Catholic, De Santis has a daughter, Dorotea (Anna Ferzetti), who is a legal scholar like himself. As his term draws to a close, amid seemingly uneventful days, two final duties arise: deciding on two delicate petitions for a presidential pardon. These are true moral dilemmas which become tangled, in ways that seem impossible to unravel, with his private life. Driven by doubt, De Santis will have to decide… and so with a deep sense of responsibility, that is exactly what this remarkable Italian President will do.

When announcing La Grazia’s prestigious selection as the Venice Film Festival’s Opening Night Gala, artistic director Alberto Barbera remarked “Sorrentino’s return comes with a film destined to leave its mark for its great originality and powerful relevance to the present time.”
Australian audiences will have the pleasure of discovering this for themselves, within days of its international debut.

2025 | Italy | Italian with English subtitles

FESTIVALS & AWARDS

OFFICIAL SELECTION (Opening Night Gala) | Venice Film Festival 2025
WINNER | Best Actor, Venice Film Festival 2025
NOMINEE | Best Film, Venice Film Festival 2025

Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Born in Naples in 1970, Paolo Sorrentino is a writer and director. He is known for visually striking and complex dramas including Loro (IFF19), Parthenope (IFF24), Oscar-nominated Youth (2015) and The Hand of God (2021), HBO series The Young Pope (2016) and The New Pope (2019), and the critically acclaimed The Great Beauty (2013) winner of the 2014 Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

Rating

Length

131m

Reviews

Director Paolo Sorrentino is on irresistible form in this wonderful film.

The Times UK

Sorrentino has made some beauties in his career. This is one of his best.

Deadline

Toni Servillo is magnificent in Paolo Sorrentino’s exquisite character study.

The Hollywood Reporter

A stylish, soigné film, ruminative and enigmatic.

The Guardian

As always with the director, the level of craftsmanship is dazzling. La Grazia is a visually luxuriant film with a highly seductive sheen, but it’s the movie’s warmth and emotion, its spirit of forgiveness, understanding and hard-won wisdom that creeps up on you.

The Hollywood Reporter