Italy has chosen Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral as its official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.
The high-concept thriller centers on a mother-daughter relationship that spirals out of control following a shocking revelation. The story opens as Anna, a well-off, fashionably dressed woman, turns up unannounced at her daughter Alice’s Rome apartment during a torrential storm, insisting she has a dark family truth to share. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi plays The Stranger, a demonic figure who entices Alice’s mother into a Faustian pact, setting off the film’s descent into supernatural horror.
The film stars Jasmine Trinca as Anna, Romana Maggiora Vergano as her daughter Alice, Adriano Giannini, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as The Stranger.
Paolo Strippoli is an Italian director and screenwriter from Corato, known for his work in horror and thriller filmmaking. He studied performing arts and sciences at Sapienza University of Rome before training in film direction at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, and worked as an assistant director for Gianni Amelio and Daniele Luchetti before striking out on his own. He won the Solinas Prize for Best Screenplay in 2019, then made his feature debut in 2021 with A Classic Horror Story, co-directed with Roberto De Feo, which won them the Best Direction award at the Taormina Film Fest.
He followed that with his first solo feature, Flowing, in 2022, and The Holy Boy in 2025, which premiered out of competition at Venice and won him a Nastro d’Argento for Best Original Story. The Spiral is his fourth feature and marks his first time competing in Venice’s main competition for the Golden Lion.
The Spiral was chosen by a commission of experts appointed by Italy’s motion picture association, ANICA, from a shortlist of nine films that had all been theatrically released in Italy between October 2025 and September 2026. The shortlist included several other Venice 2026 titles, among them Nanni Moretti’s It Will Happen Tonight and Marco Bechis’s Return to Buenos Aires, both of which had also competed for the Golden Lion, along with Isabel Coixet’s Three Goodbyes, Damiano Michieletto’s Primavera, and Roberto De Paolis’s Serpenti.
The Spiral premiered in the main competition of the 83rd Venice Film Festival on September 7. Reviews were mixed but largely positive. Variety’s Guy Lodge called it a stylish, faintly absurd Faustian fable that further cements Strippoli’s status as Italy’s rising horror auteur, even if he found it less original than The Holy Boy. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw was more enthusiastic, giving the film four out of five stars and calling Bruni Tedeschi’s performance the best of her career. Screen International’s Lee Marshall was more measured, noting that the film promises more than it ultimately delivers.
Italy has a long tradition of submitting films for the Best International Feature Film category and last won the award in 2014 with Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty. The country has also produced numerous past nominees, including recent entries in the category, reflecting Italy’s status as one of the most consistently represented nations in the race.
The film was shot over seven weeks in Rome and Bari, with production wrapping in July 2025, and will open theatrically in Italy on October 8 through 01 Distribution. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce its shortlist for the Best International Feature category on December 15, with final nominations revealed on January 21. The 99th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on March 14 in Los Angeles.
With The Spiral now representing Italy in the international feature race, Strippoli’s Faustian family thriller enters the competition fresh off its Venice premiere, carrying the weight of a country with one of the category’s strongest submission histories.
