Francesco Sossai is making his debut on the Croisette with The Last One for the Road, an Italian-German co-production that is set to be world-premiered at the 78th Cannes Film Festival as part of Un Certain Regard.

Francesco Sossai and Adriano Candiago wrote the screenplay for this story of friendship and growth that sees Filippo Scotti (Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Talent at Venice for The Hand of God [+lire aussi :
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interview : Paolo Sorrentino
fiche film], seen recently in American Backyard [+lire aussi :
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interview : Pupi Avati
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interview : Alessandro Roia
fiche film], The Negotiator [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]) and singer-songwriter Pierpaolo Capovilla playing the lead roles. Carlobianchi and Doriano, two broke fifty-somethings, are obsessed with one thing: going to have one last drink. One night, by chance, while driving around aimlessly from bar to bar, they bump into Giulio, a shy architecture student. The encounter with these two unlikely mentors will profoundly transform Giulio’s way of seeing the world and love, and of imagining the future. It’s a road movie across the endless Venetian plains that progresses at exactly the same speed as a hangover recovery. The cast also includes Roberto Citran and Andrea Pennacchi.

“I’m happy and excited that the journey of The Last One for the Road will bring us, and our eccentric protagonists, from Veneto to the Croisette,” states Sossai. “Returning to Cannes, in the official selection for the first time, is an honour that I share with all of the people who have made this film possible.” The 36-year-old director, who hails from the province of Belluno and is a graduate from Berlin’s Deutsche film-und fernsehakademie, was previously in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes with his short film The Birthday Party (2023), which was subsequently nominated for the German Film Prize, and shortlisted for the European Film Awards and the Césars. His feature debut, Other Cannibals [+lire aussi :
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interview : Francesco Sossai
fiche film] (2021), was presented in the First Feature Competition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, among other events.

The Last One for the Road is being produced by Marta Donzelli and Gregorio Paonessa for Vivo Film (Italy) together with Rai Cinema, and is co-produced by Philipp Kreuzer and Cecilia Trautvetter for Maze Pictures (Germany), with support from Eurimages and the MIC - Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo. The film was made with contributions from the Veneto region (PR FESR del Veneto 2021-2027), with backing from the Veneto Film Commission Foundation, and with contributions from Filmförderungsanstalt and Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien.

The editor of the movie is Paolo Cottignola (David di Donatello Award in 2002 for his work on The Profession of Arms), the DoP is Massimiliano Kuveiller (Nineteen [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], With the Grace of a God), the original score was composed by Krano, the production design was entrusted to Paula Meuthen, and the costumes were handled by Ilaria Marmugi and Guillem Soler Pou. The assistant director was Ciro Scognamiglio, the sound recordist Marco Zambrano, the production secretary Gabriella Gobber, the sound designer Sebastian Pablo Poloni, the sound mixer Francesco Tumminello, the hair and make-up artist Fenix Guzman, the production manager Gian Luca Chiaretti, the delegate producers Giacomo Mangini and Serena Alfieri, and the associate producers Alessio Lazzareschi and Alessandro Roia.