La Gradiva: Cannes Winner Eyes Oscars, US Release
Variety has published its review of La Gradiva, the debut feature from director Marine Atlan, on Sept. 14. The film runs 2 hours 25 minutes and centres on French pupils on a final-year school trip to Pompeii, according to Variety. That trip is the engine for the whole story.
Suzanne Gerin leads as Suzanne, with Colas Quignard as Toni and Mitia Capellier-Audat as James. Antonia Buresi plays their teacher, Mme Mercier, according to Variety. The screenplay is by Atlan and Anne Brouillet.
The film is a co-production between France and Italy, with dialogue in French and Italian. Those details are listed by the Toronto International Film Festival, where La Gradiva was billed as a North American Premiere, according to TIFF. Critics' Week at Cannes, a parallel section devoted to first and second features, selected the film for its 2026 line-up, according to Variety.
It then took the Ami Paris Grand Prize, the top honour at the 65th Critics' Week in 2026, according to Variety. In August, Atlan received the $140,000 Bright Horizons Award for the film at the 2026 Melbourne International Film Festival Awards, according to Variety Australia. Two prizes. Two continents.
France has shortlisted La Gradiva among five films in contention to become its entry for the international feature Oscar, the Academy Award for films made outside the United States, according to Variety. In the United States, distributor 1-2 Special, the company handling its cinema release, acquired the film out of Cannes for a December release, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The plan is to open in New York on Dec. 18 before a national rollout, according to Variety.
Early aggregation numbers were reported as a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 98 on Metacritic and a 4.0 average on Letterboxd, according to Variety. The Hollywood Reporter, in a review by Jordan Mintzer, called it a "stunning debut", according to The Hollywood Reporter, while Screen Daily described it as an observant French debut about volatile youths on an Italian school trip, according to Screen Daily.
What makes this stand out on the calendar is the route. Cannes to Toronto to New York in December puts a first feature inside the winter awards corridor, when distributors often open films city by city to build word of mouth. For fans, this means a short wait: festival screenings first, then a New York opening before wider US dates follow.
