Cinema Italian Style 2026: Gioia
November 20, 2026
Presented by Cinema Italian Style. A high school teacher and a troubled student forge a forbidden bond that becomes essential to them both.
Following the screening: Q&A with the film's director, Nicolangelo Gelormini, a guest of Cinema Italian Style.
SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this screening.
Tickets
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Friday, November 20, 2026
Gioia is a french literature teacher who has never known love, except for the suffocating kind from her parents, with whom she still lives. Among the students at her school is Alessio, who uses his body as a means to earn money and help his mother, a cashier in a supermarket. A forbidden, fragile, and inexplicably necessary bond grows between Alessio and Gioia. But Alessio's desire for social and personal redemption becomes a silent poison that keeps him from fully surrendering to Gioia's disarming sweetness. And so, he destroys everything and erases the only person who has ever loved him.
- Original Language Title: La Gioia
- Director: Nicolangelo Gelormini
- Principal Cast: Valeria Golino; Jarmine Trinca; Saul Nanni; Francesco Colella; Betty Pedrazzi
- Country: Italy
- Year: 2025
- Running Time: 108 min.
- Producer: Valeria Golino; Viola Prestieri
- Screenplay: Benedetta Mori; Giuliano Scarpinato; Chiara Tripaldi
- Cinematographers: Gianluca Palma
- Editors: Chiara Vullo
- Music: Tóti Guðnason
- Awards: Best Director and Best Actor at Mar del Plata International Film Festival; 5 Nominations at the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Silver Ribbon)
- Language: Italian, with English subtitles
- Has Subtitles: Yes