GRAND PRIX WINNER – 2026 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL (Critic’s Week)
Widely heralded as the major discovery of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, writer/director Marine Atlan’s stunning debut feature follows a class of French high school students on a life-changing excursion to Naples.
As they await their university acceptance letters, a spirited group of teens travels south by train with their Latin teacher, Madame Mercier (a remarkable Antonia Buresi). Among the ruins of Pompeii - where the eruption of Vesuvius froze a civilisation in time - they begin to confront the murky realities of who they are now, and who they are becoming. But the trip proves as emotionally volatile as it is enlightening... gradually consumed by the demands of her role, Mercier struggles to keep her students in line, including the attention-seeking Toni (Colas Quignard), whose unexpected ties to the region hint at deeper currents; his cocky object of affection, James (Mitia Capellier); and Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin), an introspective outsider. As tensions simmer within the group, rivalries, pent-up emotions and betrayals build with mounting intensity. One by one, they are swept up in the region’s overwhelming beauty and their own awakening desires, until they surrender to them completely…
At once sensuous and searching, LA GRADIVA is an immersive journey through the culture and vistas of southern Italy, capturing the fragile threshold between adolescence and adulthood. With striking assurance, Atlan draws deeply naturalistic performances from her cast, rendering each character with empathy, nuance and profound care, their futures resonating well beyond the final frame.
Echoing the impact of such classic films as Peter's Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock, Alba Rohrwacher's La Chimera and Laurent Cantet's The Class, the film marks Atlan as an artist of extraordinary talent.
