16/07/2025 - Margherita Spampinato makes her feature debut with a story about a tech-savvy and hyper-connected child who enters into his elderly aunt’s world which is dominated by a magical sense of religion

After several of her short films being selected for numerous international festivals, Margherita Spampinato is making her feature-film directorial debut by way of Gioia mia, which has been selected in the Cineasti del Presente competition of the upcoming Locarno Film Festival (read our news). Produced by Benedetta Scagnelli and Alessio Pasqua on behalf of Yagi Media, in association with Gianluca Arcopinto (Oceans Are the Real Continents [+see also:
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Nico, a spirited, surly and impertinent child who’s being raised in a secular family within a modern, technological and hyper-connected world, is forced to spend the summer in Sicily, staying with his highly religious, crabby, unmarried, elderly aunt who lives alone in an ancient building bursting with legends and superstition and lacking wi-fi and electrical appliances, a home without any kind of technology, totally outside of time. The aunt is annoyed by his arrival and vehemently tries to integrate him into her world of angels and spirits, which is dominated by a magical sense of religion. Their stormy relationship is marked by a clash between modernity and the past, between reason and religion and between speed and slowness. But, little by little, a profound bond develops between them which neither of them previously realised they needed.

Stepping into the two lead roles, we find the incredibly young Marco Fiore, who previously starred in Giorgio Farina’s I Saw A King, which screened out of competition at the most recent Torino FF, and seasoned actress Aurora Quattrocchi, who boasts a prestigious (and ongoing) theatre career and has appeared in some of the most significant titles released over the past 25 years. These include One Hundred Steps by Marco Tullio Giordana (in competition in Venice 2000), Malèna by Giuseppe Tornatore (in competition in Berlin 2001), Golden Door [+see also:
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interview: Emanuele Crialese
interview: Emanuele Crialese
interview: Fabrizio Mosca
film profile] by Emanuele Crialese (awarded the Silver Lion for Best Newcomer in Venice’s 2006 competition), Black Souls [+see also:
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interview: Francesco Munzi
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interview: Pierfrancesco Favino
film profile] by Mario Martone (in competition in Cannes in 2022), for which she was nominated as Best Supporting Actress at the David di Donatello Awards and at the Nastri d’Argento Awards. The cast also stars Martina Ziami and Camille Dugay (of Sacred Heart and the TV series Luna nera [+see also:
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Cinematography on Gioia mia comes courtesy of Claudio Cofrancesco (Palazzina Laf [+see also:
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(Translated from Italian)