Oscars: Italy Submits Paolo Strippoli’s ‘The Spiral’ For Best International Feature Film

Italy has selected Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral (L’Estranea) as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards.

The drama, which world premiered in Competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival, stars Jasmine Trinca as a woman who arrives at her daughter’s apartment during a storm to confess a lie that will undermine the family’s foundation and their relationship as it comes out in the open.

Trinca is joined in the cast by Romana Maggiora Vergano, Adriano Giannini, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.

It is Strippoli’s fourth film after award-winning The Holy Boy (2025), Flowing (2022) and A Classic Horror Story (2021).

The film is lead produced by Marina Marzotto and Mattia Oddone at Rome-based Propaganda with Rai Cinema, in coproduction with France’s Paris-based Kazak Productions, Belgium’s Tarantula and Italy’s Bari-based Dinamo Film.

01 Distribution will release the film in Italy on October 18. Le Pacte is handling international sales.

The Spiral was a selected from a shortlist of 21 potential candidates which also included another two Venice 2026 Competition titles, Nanni Moretti’s It Will Happen Tonight and Marco Bechis’ Back To Buenos Aires, as well as Orizzonti title The House of the Monkey which won Best Screenplay and Riccardo Scamarcio, Best Actor.

The selection committee was overseen by Italian cinema guild Anica and gathered Giorgio Carlo Brugnoni, Cristina Comencini, Federica Lucisano, Francesco Melzi D’Eril and Nick Vivarelli, who voted on the choice.

In a note explaining their selection, they said it had been driven by the fact that The Spiral is “a new genre film, by a young director who has recently begun his career and has been appreciated by audiences and national and international critics.”

Italy last won the Best International Feature Film Oscar in 2014 with The Great Beauty by Paolo Sorrentino.