Fresh off screenings at TIFF and Fantastic Fest, Deadline reports that Italy has selected Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral (L’Estranea) as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards.
The Faustian horror drama made its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival. It stars Jasmine Trinca as a woman who arrives at her daughter’s apartment during a storm to confess a series of lies and bargains made that eroded their relationship and irrevocably altered their family’s very foundation.
Romana Maggiora Vergano, Adriano Giannini, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi also star.
The Spiral was selected from a shortlist of 21 potential candidates that also includes Nanni Moretti’s It Will Happen Tonight and Marco Bechis’ Back To Buenos Aires, as well as Orizzonti title The House of the Monkey, which won Best Screenplay and Riccardo Scamarcio, Best Actor.
In a note explaining their selection, the selection committee said it had been driven by the fact that The Spiral is “a new genre film, by a young director who has recently begun his career and has been appreciated by audiences and national and international critics.”
The Spiral marks Strippoli’s fourth feature after award-winning The Holy Boy (2025), Flowing (2022) and A Classic Horror Story (2021).
It earns its Oscar selection. I wrote in my TIFF review, “Prideful self-image and selfish desires lead to hollow tragedy in The Spiral, one that sees a mother make shocking choices for the sake of appearances in juicy ways. Its mordant, deadpan sense of humor and a confining sense of atmospheric dread, paired with Trinca’s impressive turn and an incredible Mephistopheles in Tedeschi, make Strippoli’s latest his most entertaining, relatable, and thrilling yet.“
