La Gradiva is a 2026 coming-of-age drama film directed by Marine Atlan in her feature film directorial debut, co-written with Anne Brouillet. Starring Antonia Buresi, and newcomers Colas Quignard, Suzanne Gerin, and Mitia Capellier-Audat, it follows a French high school class as they travel to Pompeii shortly before their graduation.

The film had its world premiere at the Critics' Week section of the 79th Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2026, where it won the section's Grand Prize and was nominated for the Caméra d'Or and Queer Palm. It received widespread critical acclaim, with praise towards the screenplay and Atlan's direction. It will be theatrically released in France by Tandem on 21 October.

During a school trip to Pompeii, James and Angela have sex in the train cab, while Toni and Suzanne take a quick look from the outside. Suzanne, a seemly introverted teenager, fails to convince Toni to work with her on the trip's assignment. Shortly after, Toni shares with some of his classmates his Italian heritage through his maternal grandmother, a former maid of an aristocratic family in Naples, who had fled the country pregnant after the death of her boss and lover during the 1980 Irpinia earthquake.

In Naples, Toni, through Grindr, ignites an affair with a local, but lies about his age and pretends to be traveling with his college classmates. Suzane and many other classmates are visibly annoyed by Toni's troublemaker behavior during the class's visit to one of the city's archeological sites. Madame Mercier, a Latin teacher, had organized the week-long trip with her class during the final weeks of the school year, since most of the students came from a diverse working class background and had never left France, but she confesses to being exhausted and overwhelmed during a quick conversation with the bus driver.

Meanwhile, Toni begins to search for his maternal grandmother's family, and writes an emotional essay about his feelings towards his family and Naples. But his behavior continues to annoy Mercier during the trip, who calls him "dumb" in front of the class, and refuses to accept his essay which he hands in late. In a restaurant, Mercier also refuses to discuss politics with the students, and watches some of the classmates ignite a heated discussion about the supposed recurrent strikes in the country, where Amaury admits supporting the French far-right outraging James and Jean-Eudes.

Angela shares, in the girls' room, her disappointment with James's ghosting after they had sex in the train cab, while Suzanne admits being insecure towards her own image, feeling she is not sexually desired by her classmates. After a small party, an apparently drunk Toni tries to kiss James who rebuffs him. Toni later leaves for his affair's apartment. In a dream, Suzanne wanders through Pompeii and has sex with James, and later Angela, both in the train cab.

The following morning, she pranks James with red paint in his jacket, which causes a small argument between him and Toni. Toni calls his mother, who appears to be dependent on him and uninterested in her son's trip. Madame Mercier and James walk back to the hotel, where she invites him to her room, but decides not to kiss him at the last moment. James tries to make amends with Toni, but is rebuffed.

Suzanne observes friction between Toni and James when Mercier returns the essays with constructive criticism towards James. An upset Toni is surprised when Suzanne asks to follow him to his grandfather's former mansion. Toni realizes the mansion was never destroyed by the earthquake, while Suzanne helps him to reflect how the relationship between his maternal grandparents could not be consensual. At the hotel, the class shares their college admission results. James fears living the same life of his mother, and Toni shares a passionate hug with him and refuses to further explain about his trip with Suzanne.

As Madame Mercier celebrates with her class, Toni leaves his phone and wallet behind in the room and departs to the city's harbor. James and Suzanne notify Mercier about Toni's strange behavior and the belongings he left behind, and as she calls the police, she decides to finally read his essay, realizing his complicated feelings. The next morning, the police confirm Toni's suicide, leaving James emotionally overwhelmed. In a voice-over, Suzanne shares that Toni was framed as being unstable and a drug addict, and how James never recovered from his death, quitting the last week of class and his college application altogether.

La Gradiva marks director Marine Atlan's debut feature film, which she co-wrote with Anne Brouillet. Atlan was inspired to create the film after reading Wilhelm Jensen's 1903 novel, Gradiva, to which the film's title refers.^[1] She stated, "I wanted to create a kind of clash between the group of youngsters, their present reality, and the eternal nature of the [Pompeiian] ruins".^[2] The film was produced by Inès Daïen Dasi for Les Films du Poisson, in co-production with Arte France Cinéma and Angelo Barbagallo's Bibi Film.^[3][4] The majority of the cast comprises newcomers, however, Atlan personally approached actress Antonia Buresi to play the role of Madame Mercier.^[5][6]

Principal photography began on 7 April 2025.^[7] The film was shot on location in and around Naples, specifically at the National Archaeological Museum; Torre del Greco; and Pompeii; until 21 May.^[8][9][10] Later that year, the students' train journey was shot in Clermont-Ferrand over five days, from 27 to 31 October 2025. The two trains used in filming were provided by Train à Vapeur d'Auvergne [fr].^[11] The first cut of the film was four hours long, but was later trimmed to 145 minutes.^[1]

The film had its world premiere in the Critics' Week section of the 79th Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2026.^[12] It was also selected for the Centrepiece section of the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival^[13][14] and the Main Slate of the 2026 New York Film Festival.^[15]

The film will be theatrically released in France by Tandem on 21 October 2026.^[9][16] Following its Cannes premiere, the North American distribution rights were acquired by 1-2 Special,^[17][18] and it is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on 18 December 2026.^[19]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 16 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 9.4/10.^[20] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 98 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[21]

In his five-star review, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called the film "stunning" and "superbly acted and directed".^[22] Cédric Succivalli of the International Cinephile Society also gave the film a five-star rating, finding that it "stay[s] lodged in the body like ash, like the imprint of a life cut short at the precise moment it was becoming itself".^[23] Amber Wilkinson of Screen Daily called the film "an ambitious, layered work", specifically noting the film's realistic teenage dialogue and "avoidance of coming-of-age cliches".^[24] Giving the film an A rating for IndieWire, Marya E. Gates called it a "wholly transporting story of youth". She gave special praise to cinematography as well as the actors' performances, specifically that of Colas Quignard.^[25] Fabien Lemercier of Cineuropa commended La Gradiva as a "multi-faceted and particularly accomplished first feature film".^[26]

• La Gradiva at IMDb