Maura Delpero’s Venice Silver Lion Winner Vermiglio Chosen as Italy’s Oscar Contender

Maura Delpero’s award-winning film Vermiglio has been selected as Italy’s official candidate for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2025 Academy Awards. The film, which recently garnered the prestigious Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, tells the story of three sisters in a post-World War II Alpine village whose lives are disrupted by the arrival of a soldier.

Vermiglio had its North American premiere in the special presentations section at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it continued to receive critical acclaim. In her review for Variety, critic Jessica Kiang praised the film as “quietly breathtaking,” highlighting how it “unfolds from tiny tactile details… into a momentous vision of everyday rural existence in the high Italian Alps.”

This intimate drama is Delpero’s second feature following her 2019 debut Maternal, which gained attention on the international festival circuit for its portrayal of life inside an Argentinian refuge for teenage mothers run by nuns.�

The producers of Vermiglio include Francesca Andreoli, Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli, Delpero, and Santiago Fondevila Sancet. It is co-produced by Carole Baraton, Pauline Boucheny Pinon, Jacques-Henry Bronckart, and Tatiana Kozar, and backed by a variety of production houses including Cinedora, RAI Cinema, Charades Production, and Versus Production. Sideshow and Janus Films will handle the U.S. release of the film.

The decision to submit Vermiglio as Italy’s Oscars entry was made by a committee of experts appointed by Italy’s motion picture association, ANICA. In a statement, the committee praised the film for its “ability to narrate the Italy of its rural past, with emotions that feel both universal and current.” The selection comes as a surprise, as many had predicted Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, a drama about a young woman born in Naples, to be the frontrunner. Sorrentino is a past Oscar winner for his 2014 film The Great Beauty.

As Vermiglio begins its journey toward the Oscars, anticipation builds for the impact this poignant, visually striking tale may have on the global stage.