Olivia Wilde told the Locarno Film Festival that making her third feature, The Invite, made her "so much more romantic" and "melted the cynic out of me" (Variety, 2026). The film, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, is screening in Locarno's Piazza Grande section — the festival's open-air showcase — on 5, 8, and 9 August 2026 (Locarno Film Festival).

The Invite follows two couples who come together over a single evening for a dinner party. Joe and Angela, played by Seth Rogen and Wilde, invite their upstairs neighbours Piña and Hawk, played by Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, for a night the Locarno festival describes as a "sex comedy of manners" and a "riotous and rueful rumination on how our closest relationships can come to define us" (Locarno Film Festival). The film is based on Sentimental, a 2020 film by the Spanish director Cesc Gay (Locarno Film Festival). Adam Newport-Berra served as cinematographer (Variety, 2026).

Wilde, who was 35 when she made her directorial debut with Booksmart in 2019, also stars in the film — though she was not originally supposed to play Angela (Variety, 2026). The Invite is her third feature as director, following Booksmart and Don't Worry Darling (2022). She described the process of adapting Gay's film as all-consuming: "I found myself wrestling with the themes of the original film as though I were in a relationship with it" (Locarno Film Festival).

Getting the film into cinemas was its own fight. Wilde told IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit on 8 July 2026 that producers on The Invite could have "just tossed it on Netflix" for more money, but she pushed for a theatrical release (IndieWire via Instagram, 2026). She reiterated that stance at Locarno, telling Variety she fought for the film to reach theatres rather than going straight to streaming (Variety, 2026).

The theatrical bet appears to be drawing a younger crowd. Wilde said The Invite's largest audience in the United States is under 35, with a large portion in their twenties (Variety, 2026). That audience profile is notable for a film based on a Spanish chamber drama, structured around a single location and four adult characters talking through one long evening.

For a festival that fills an 8,000-seat open-air piazza each night, a film of that scale is a deliberate choice. Locarno's Piazza Grande programme pairs crowd-pleasers with more intimate work, and The Invite — four actors, one apartment, one dinner — sits in that tradition. The festival had flagged Wilde as one of the major names expected on the Lago Maggiore red carpet this edition (Locarno Film Festival).

The final Piazza Grande screening of The Invite at Locarno 79 is scheduled for 9:30 PM on 9 August 2026.