Olivia Wilde Brings 'The Invite' to Locarno's Piazza Grande, Calls It the Highlight of Her Career
More than 8,000 people filled Locarno's Piazza Grande on 7 August 2026 for the European premiere of Olivia Wilde's 'The Invite', a sold-out open-air screening that followed a protest remembering 60,000 people killed in Gaza (Variety).
Wilde, who directed and stars in the film, told the festival crowd that 'The Invite' was "the highlight of my career" (Variety). She also said the film "melted the cynic out of her" (Variety).
'The Invite' is a remake of the Spanish film 'Sentimental'. Wilde stars alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton as two couples who meet for a dinner party. The festival's official synopsis sets the scene: Joe and Angela's marriage is on thin ice, and they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbours, Piña and Hawk, over for dinner (Locarno Film Festival). Locarno described the film as "a riotous and rueful rumination on how our closest relationships can come to define us" and a "sex comedy of manners" (Locarno Film Festival).
The cast and screenwriters workshopped the script together before production (Variety). Variety critic Owen Gleiberman reviewed the film favourably, calling it "a bravura dinner-party dramedy that's like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? redone as vintage Woody Allen" (Variety).
Wilde used the Locarno stage to make a case for cinema itself. She said she fought for 'The Invite' to be released theatrically and that the film's financier gave her the decision (Variety). She noted that companies offer what she called a "bribe" to bring movies to streaming platforms instead of cinemas (The Hollywood Reporter).
The film has already become what Variety called "a rare hit summer comedy" (Variety) — a notable outcome for a four-handed chamber piece, the kind of film that streaming platforms have increasingly absorbed into their libraries rather than sending to theatres.
The 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival announced Wilde's attendance in a press release ahead of the event (Locarno Film Festival). The festival listed the film as Wilde's 2026 directing credit for a US production (Locarno Film Festival).
For a film about two couples circling each other over dinner, a crowd of thousands watching under the Swiss sky feels like its own kind of answer to Wilde's argument for the theatrical experience.
