“A stunning debut…this deserved winner of the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize announces the arrival of a formidable new talent.” - Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
“It’s a travel saga, a coming-of-age drama, and a movie of precisely drawn, superbly individuated young characters who are nonetheless locked in myriad crises of identity, flailing about for a deeper understanding of who they are.” - Justin Chang, The New Yorker
“A major work played in a minor key, cinematographer-turned-director Marine Atlan’s magnificent, melancholic and moving feature directorial debut LA GRADIVA is one of those true discoveries that you only get a few times in life.” - Chase Hutchinson, The Wrap
Opens December 25 | In the shadow of Vesuvius, a group of French teenagers on a class trip to Naples grapple with the anxiety and exhilaration of their upcoming high school graduation amid the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Toni (Colas Quignard), adrift and impulsive; his best friend, James (Mitia Capellier-Audat), popular, alluring, and self-possessed; and Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin), an aspiring artist who feels rejected by her peers, contemplate faded frescoes and debate their generation’s aspirations and shortcomings. While their exhausted but motivated teacher Mme. Mercier (Antonia Buresi) attempts to direct their attention to their breathtaking surroundings, the students’ passions and insecurities lead them toward an irreversible fracture. Winner of the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize, Marine Atlan’s revelatory debut feature imbues the coming-of-age story with a sense of mythic grandeur in this work of classical beauty and overwhelming emotion. Working as her own co-cinematographer, Atlan captures the dizzying contradictions of youth with an almost documentary-like precision.
Awards & Nominations
2026 Cannes Film Festival - Winner, Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize
2026 New York Film Festival - Official Selection
2026 Toronto International Film Festival - Official Selection
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu