Italy's national association of cinema and audiovisual industries, ANICA, has selected writer-director Maura Delpero's deeply moving historical drama 'Vermiglio' as the country's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards. Fresh off capturing the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, Delpero's second narrative feature beat out 18 competing Italian titles—including Paolo Sorrentino's 'Parthenope'—to earn the nod from Rome's selection committee.
Set during the final winter of World War II in 1944, 'Vermiglio' unfolds across four seasons in the isolated high-altitude village of the same name in northern Italy's Trentino region. The narrative centers on Cesare (played by veteran Italian actor Tommaso Ragno), the stern yet devoted local schoolteacher, and his large household, whose fragile domestic equilibrium is forever altered when Pietro, a traumatized Sicilian soldier deserting the front, seeks refuge in the valley and falls in love with Cesare's eldest daughter, Lucia (Martina Scrinzi).
Visual Poetry and Authentic Regional Memory
Drawing inspiration from the childhood memories of her late father's family in the Dolomites, Delpero crafted the screenplay through months of oral history interviews with village elders and insisted on filming in the authentic local Trentino dialect. Celebrated Russian cinematographer Mikhail Krichman—renowned for his collaborations with Andrey Zvyagintsev on 'Leviathan' and 'Loveless'—captured the austere snowbound landscapes and candlelit interiors with painterly stillness reminiscent of Ermanno Olmi's 'The Tree of Wooden Clogs.'
Critics at Venice and the Toronto International Film Festival praised 'Vermiglio' for shifting the lens of wartime cinema away from battlefields to examine the unspoken burdens carried by rural mothers, sisters, and daughters bound by patriarchal tradition.
“Vermiglio captures the quiet resilience of mountain communities and the profound emotional echoes of war on women and families with extraordinary visual poetry.”
Italy's Historic Oscar Pedigree and Awards Season Outlook
Italy remains the most decorated nation in the history of the Academy's international category with 14 competitive statuettes and three Special Awards, having reached the final five last year with Matteo Garrone's 'Io Capitano' and winning most recently with Paolo Sorrentino's 'The Great Beauty' in 2014.
Produced by Cinedora with Rai Cinema alongside French and Belgian co-producers Charades and Versus Production, 'Vermiglio' will be distributed in North America by Sideshow and Janus Films—the indie powerhouse behind Oscar winner 'Drive My Car'—before the Academy announces its 15-film shortlist in December.
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