Italy Chooses The Spiral for 2027 Oscars Race
Italy has chosen Paolo Strippoli's The Spiral as its candidate for Best International Feature Film at the 2027 Academy Awards, Variety. The category honours feature films made outside the United States, with countries putting forward a single title each. That choice sends Strippoli's film into the opening round of Academy voting for the international prize.
The decision was taken by a commission of experts named by ANICA, Italy's motion picture association. ANICA is the short name for the Associazione Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche Audiovisive e Digitali, the sector body that represents companies across the cinema, audiovisual and digital supply chain. The organisation dates its founding to 10 July 1944, according to ANICA. Its experts chose from a longlist of 21 films released theatrically in Italy between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026, according to Deadline.
The longlist included Nanni Moretti's It Will Happen Tonight and Marco Bechis's Back to Buenos Aires. The commission selected The Spiral from the 21 titles. The announcement was reported on 23 September 2026. In practice, the commission's task is to pick one title to carry the country forward.
The Spiral premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival, the section for films vying for the festival's top prizes. The film stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as The Stranger and Jasmine Trinca as a young mother. In the story, Trinca plays a desperate mother who confesses a series of Faustian bargains, deals that promise gain at a heavy personal price, to her estranged daughter, according to TIFF.
The next steps follow a set calendar. The Academy will announce its shortlist on 15 December and reveal the final selection on 21 January. Members vote in stages, with the December list acting as the first cut before the final nominations. The winners will then be decided at the 99th Academy Awards ceremony on 14 March in Los Angeles.
Italy has won this prize before. It last won in 2014 with Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty. That victory came twelve years ago. The new choice opens another campaign for the country on the road to March.
For fans following the race, this is only the starting gun. The national entries will be reduced to a shortlist in December before the final nominations are confirmed. It will show whether Italy's choice has survived the first round of international voting. The first concrete signal on The Spiral's progress will come with that December announcement.
