Sting Narrates Nino Rota Documentary Heading to Venice, With Global Constellation Handling International Sales
Global Constellation has boarded international sales on Nino: A Film About Nino Rota ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it is scheduled to screen on 12 September 2026 (Variety).
The documentary is directed by Walter Fasano, the longtime editor of Luca Guadagnino's films, and narrated by Sting, the 17-time Grammy Award winner. It runs 120 minutes and is an Italian production, listed on the Venice Biennale's official programme under its original title Nino - Un film su Nino Rota (Venice Biennale).
Its subject is one of cinema's most prolific and beloved composers. Born in Milan, Nino Rota scored more than 150 films across a career that began in 1933 with his first of 138 film scores (Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Digital Concert Hall). He wrote the music for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, winning an Academy Award for the sequel. He collaborated with Federico Fellini on films including La Dolce Vita, 8½ and Amarcord, and composed the score for Luchino Visconti's The Leopard (Variety).
The documentary brings together voices from across the musical world to talk about Rota's legacy. Interview subjects include Alexandre Desplat, Park Chan-wook and Vince Mendoza, with the Venice Biennale listing also crediting Caterina D'Amico, Mino Gabriele, Joe Lovano and Michele Marvulli among the cast (Variety; Venice Biennale).
The film is produced by Be Water Film, Sugar Play, Adler Entertainment, I Diavoli, Marco Morabito and Fasano, in collaboration with Rai Documentari. Be Water Film and Adler Entertainment will co-release the documentary in Italy. Global Constellation, the sales agent handling rights outside that territory, has been active on the festival circuit this year — the company previously boarded international sales on the live-action family feature Emil and the Detectives and secured early pre-sales on the World War II drama Crux, debuting first footage at the European Film Market in Berlin (Variety; Variety, 15 Feb 2026; Variety, 13 Feb 2026).
For a composer whose melodies are hummed by people who have never heard his name, a documentary at one of the world's flagship festivals feels overdue. Rota wrote themes that became inseparable from the films they served — the mournful trumpet of The Godfather, the carnivalesque swirl of Fellini's dreamscapes — and the film's lineup of interviewees, from an Oscar-winning French composer to a South Korean auteur, speaks to how far that influence reaches.
