The Spiral () is a 2026 thriller film co-written and directed by Paolo Strippoli. A co-production of Italy, France, and Belgium, it stars Jasmine Trinca, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Adriano Giannini, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on 7 September 2026, where it competed for the Golden Lion. It will be theatrically released in Italy on 8 October 2026.
It was also selected as the Italian entry for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards.
Cast Jasmine Trinca as Anna Romana Maggiora Vergano as Alice Gabriella Telegrafo as young Alice Adriano Giannini as Walter Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as The Stranger Andrea Genovese as Tobia Alessandro Carbonara as young Tobia
Production Principal photography began on 3 June 2025. Filming took place in Rome and Apulia, with specific filming locations in the latter including Bari, Gioia del Colle, and Monopoli. The film was shot over seven weeks, with production wrapping on 25 July 2025.
Release
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on 7 September 2026, where it competed for the Golden Lion.
Le Pacte owns the international sales rights to the film. It will be theatrically released in Italy by 01 Distribution on 8 October 2026.
Reception Critical response Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Guy Lodge of Variety described the film as "a faintly absurd Faustian fable blown up to grand guignol proportions", and, although he considered it less original than Strippoli's previous work,The Holy Boy (2025), he saw it as further establishing the director as "Italy's new horror virtuoso". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film a four-star rating, calling it an "uproarious edge-of-the-seat gripper", and hailing Bruni Tedeschi's performance as the best of her career. Deadline'''s Damon Wise also praised the film, characterizing it as a "more grounded mix of Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty and Saki's short horror story The Monkey's Paw," and lauding its "quite fantastically inventive" ideas and Bruni Tedeschi's and Trinca's performances.
Max Borg of The Film Verdict wrote that "what The Spiral may lack in meticulous build-up it makes up for in successive pay-offs". He also called the film "propulsive and exhilarating, a ray of sunshine despite the gloomy clouds that bookend the framing device." In a less positive review, Screen Daily'''s Lee Marshall referred to the film as "a self-consciously stylish number stuffed full of flashy crane shots, extreme shallow focus and woozy wide-angle shots" which "promises more than it delivers".
Accolades Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Venice Film Festival 12 September 2026 Golden Lion The Spiral Toronto International Film Festival 20 September 2026 People's Choice Award: Midnight Madness
See also
List of submissions to the 99th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film List of Italian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film
References
External links