# The Holy Boy (film)
**The Holy Boy** (Italian: *La valle dei sorrisi*, "The Valley of Smiles") is a 2025 horror drama film directed by Paolo Strippoli, an Italian–Slovenian co-production about a grieving teacher who moves to a remote Alpine village whose residents stay happy by hugging a teenage boy who absorbs their pain.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/482296/) It premiered out of competition at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on August 30, 2025, opened in Italian theaters on September 17, 2025, and runs 122 minutes.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33382323/releaseinfo/) • [1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/482296/) • [3](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/560764)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original / international title | *La valle dei sorrisi* / *The Holy Boy*[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/482296/) |
| Director and screenplay | Paolo Strippoli; screenplay by Jacopo Del Giudice, Paolo Strippoli, and Milo Tissone[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/482296/) |
| Origin | Italy and Slovenia, 2025, in Italian; 122 minutes[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/482296/) • [3](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/560764) |
| Premiere | Out of Competition, 82nd Venice International Film Festival, August 30, 2025[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33382323/releaseinfo/) |
| Italian release | September 17, 2025, distributed by Vision Distribution[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/482296/) |
| Lead cast | Michele Riondino (Sergio), Giulio Feltri (Matteo), Paolo Pierobon, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Roberto Citran[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/482296/) |
| Box office | $469,589 worldwide, of which $376,210 in Italy[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt33382323/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Sergio Rossetti, a physical education teacher tormented by a past tragedy, is transferred to Remis, a village in a secluded mountain valley known as the happiest town in Italy.[5](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/out-competition/la-valle-dei-sorrisi) Through Michela, the young owner of the village inn, he learns the community's secret: one night a week the villagers gather to hug Matteo Corbin, an introverted fifteen-year-old capable of absorbing the pain of others, whom they call the Angel of Remis.[5](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/out-competition/la-valle-dei-sorrisi) The village's serenity dates from a train crash that left several dozen dead; a hug from Matteo does not erase grief but renders it painless.[6](https://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/541782/the-holy-boy-review-folk-horror-worth-canonizing-venice-film-festival-2025/)
Matteo is marketed and exploited as a living saint by his father and the local church, and his own suffering grows with each transfer of pain.[7](https://buschmediagroup.de/portfolio/the-holy-boy/) Sergio, a former national judo champion who carries his own bereavement, bonds with the boy and tries to rescue him from this collective use, encouraging him to have a life of his own; the attempt awakens the darker side of the community and of Matteo himself.[5](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/out-competition/la-valle-dei-sorrisi) • [8](https://moveablefest.com/holy-boy-paolo-strippoli/) The screenplay also follows Matteo's queer longing for a classmate and his search for an identity apart from his gift.[9](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2026/tamaki-makaurau-auckland/the-holy-boy/)
In his director's statement, Strippoli described the film as horror used as a symbolic space for portraying the fragility of identity and the desperate need for belonging, with Matteo as both sacrificial body and redeeming entity, and growing up depicted as a loss of innocence and an act of resistance.[5](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/out-competition/la-valle-dei-sorrisi) He has said the film is a story about the desperate need to belong, and that no character is entirely innocent or guilty.[10](https://www.filmtv.it/articoli/2476/la-valle-dei-sorrisi-film-sky-trama-cast-foto-trailer/)
## Production
The project began as the subject *L'angelo infelice* ("The Unhappy Angel"), which won the Premio Solinas for best subject in 2019 for Strippoli, Del Giudice, and Tissone; the three also wrote the final screenplay under the new title.[11](https://www.comingsoon.it/film/la-valle-dei-sorrisi/66114/scheda/) Development was long: the script passed through several production companies before Stefano Sardo and Ines Vasiljevic acquired it for Nightswim, with Fandango joining.[11](https://www.comingsoon.it/film/la-valle-dei-sorrisi/66114/scheda/) Strippoli said the team spent seven years defending the idea of a horror film without antagonists.[12](https://www.cinematografo.it/riflettori/interviste/la-valle-dei-sorrisi-paolo-strippoli-vi-racconto-chi-e-langelo-di-remis-dsh4vzw7)
**Filming.** [Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) ran from August 23 to October 4, 2024, a six-week shoot in the province of Udine, at Tarvisio, Malborghetto, Pontebba, and Sappada, with support from the Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission.[11](https://www.comingsoon.it/film/la-valle-dei-sorrisi/66114/scheda/) • [13](https://www.italyformovies.com/filmset/detail/461/) The film is a co-production of Fandango (Domenico Procacci, Laura Paolucci), Nightswim (Ines Vasiljević, Stefano Sardo), and Slovenia's Spok Films (Jožko Rutar, Miha Černec), in collaboration with Vision Distribution and Sky.[5](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/out-competition/la-valle-dei-sorrisi) Cristiano Di Nicola was the cinematographer, Federico Palmerini the editor, Marcello Di Carlo the production designer, and Federico Bisozzi and Davide Tomat the composers.[5](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/out-competition/la-valle-dei-sorrisi) Giulio Feltri made his screen debut as Matteo.[11](https://www.comingsoon.it/film/la-valle-dei-sorrisi/66114/scheda/)
Strippoli, born in 1993, had previously co-directed *A Classic Horror Story* (2021) for Netflix and directed *Flowing* (*Piove*, 2022); *The Holy Boy* is his third feature.[14](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-holy-boy-review-paolo-strippolis-third-feature-is-a-warped-coming-of-age-tale/5207856.article) • [15](https://www.visiondistribution.it/film/la-valle-dei-sorrisi/) He cited coming-of-age films about identity, including *Let the Right One In*, *Thelma*, and *Carrie*, and the folk horror tradition of *The Wicker Man*, while describing his own film as horror without antagonists.[12](https://www.cinematografo.it/riflettori/interviste/la-valle-dei-sorrisi-paolo-strippoli-vi-racconto-chi-e-langelo-di-remis-dsh4vzw7) • [16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0ALS0yVz_c)
## Release and reception
After the Venice premiere on August 30, 2025, the film screened at the [BFI London Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/bfi-london-film-festival) (October 11, 2025), the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, and the Warsaw Film Festival, among others.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33382323/releaseinfo/) At Fantastic Fest in Austin it won the Audience Award and the award for Best Director.[7](https://buschmediagroup.de/portfolio/the-holy-boy/) At Venice it received the FEDIC Prize for Best Feature Film in the Out of Competition section, and it was later nominated for best visual effects at the 2026 David di [Donatello](https://www.edgepedia.org/donatello) awards.[17](https://filmitalia.org/en/film/125/177809/) • [11](https://www.comingsoon.it/film/la-valle-dei-sorrisi/66114/scheda/)
**Distribution.** Vision Distribution released the film theatrically in Italy on September 17, 2025.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/482296/) Later theatrical dates included France (September 2, 2026, via Grindhouse Paradise Pictures) and Russia (2026, via World Pictures), with Busch Media Group handling German DVD and Blu-ray.[18](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33382323/companycredits/) • [19](https://www.placedecinema.com/film/the-holy-boy/) In North America the film was acquired by Shudder and released in limited theaters on November 27, 2026.[20](https://www.movieinsider.com/m25608/the-holy-boy) • [21](https://www.fantasticfilmfestival.com.au/films/the-holy-boy) Worldwide gross reached $469,589, with $376,210 from Italy, where it opened to $182,077.[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt33382323/)
**Critical response.** On Rotten Tomatoes the film held a 91% Tomatometer score from 11 reviews.[22](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_holy_boy) Jonathan Romney, reviewing in *Screen International*, wrote that the film has a premise and visual style that brim with invention but suffers from an over-crammed, over-extended narrative.[22](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_holy_boy) Reviewers noted its echoes of *The Wicker Man* and *Midsommar*, with the German site Filmstarts calling it "the Italian answer to 'Midsommar' & Co." while faulting an under-revised screenplay.[23](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/1000024164/kritik.html) Cineuropa's Giorgia Del Don read the villagers' dependence on Matteo as a critique of a society-wide demand for resilience, in which the quest for permanent emotional equilibrium destroys the source of salvation.[24](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/493125/) Amber Wilkinson of Eye for Film highlighted Cristiano Di Nicola's cool, wide-angle cinematography and the film's focus on people's desire for a quick fix over working through their pain.[25](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-holy-boy-2025-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)
## References
1. [The Holy Boy (La valle dei sorrisi), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/482296/)
2. [The Holy Boy (2025) – Release info, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33382323/releaseinfo/)
3. [La valle dei sorrisi, scheda film, ASAC – La Biennale di Venezia](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/560764)
4. [The Holy Boy – Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt33382323/)
5. [La valle dei sorrisi, Biennale Cinema 2025, Out of Competition](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2025/out-competition/la-valle-dei-sorrisi)
6. ['The Holy Boy' Review: Folk Horror Worth Canonizing, Dread Central](https://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/541782/the-holy-boy-review-folk-horror-worth-canonizing-venice-film-festival-2025/)
7. [The Holy Boy, Busch Media Group](https://buschmediagroup.de/portfolio/the-holy-boy/)
8. [Venice Film Fest 2025 Review: Paolo Strippoli's "The Holy Boy", The Moveable Fest](https://moveablefest.com/holy-boy-paolo-strippoli/)
9. [The Holy Boy, New Zealand International Film Festival](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2026/tamaki-makaurau-auckland/the-holy-boy/)
10. [La valle dei sorrisi: Il dolore degli altri nel film su Sky, FilmTV.it](https://www.filmtv.it/articoli/2476/la-valle-dei-sorrisi-film-sky-trama-cast-foto-trailer/)
11. [La Valle dei Sorrisi – Film (2025), Comingsoon.it](https://www.comingsoon.it/film/la-valle-dei-sorrisi/66114/scheda/)
12. [La valle dei sorrisi, intervista a Paolo Strippoli, Cinematografo.it](https://www.cinematografo.it/riflettori/interviste/la-valle-dei-sorrisi-paolo-strippoli-vi-racconto-chi-e-langelo-di-remis-dsh4vzw7)
13. [La valle dei sorrisi, scheda set, Italy for Movies](https://www.italyformovies.com/filmset/detail/461/)
14. ['The Holy Boy' review, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-holy-boy-review-paolo-strippolis-third-feature-is-a-warped-coming-of-age-tale/5207856.article)
15. [La valle dei sorrisi, Vision Distribution](https://www.visiondistribution.it/film/la-valle-dei-sorrisi/)
16. [Paolo Strippoli interview on The Holy Boy at Venice Film Festival 2025, The Upcoming (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0ALS0yVz_c)
17. [The Holy Boy (La valle dei sorrisi), Filmitalia](https://filmitalia.org/en/film/125/177809/)
18. [The Holy Boy (2025) – Company credits, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33382323/companycredits/)
19. [The Holy Boy, PlaceDeCinema](https://www.placedecinema.com/film/the-holy-boy/)
20. [Everything You Need to Know About The Holy Boy Movie, MovieInsider](https://www.movieinsider.com/m25608/the-holy-boy)
21. [The Holy Boy, Fantastic Film Festival Australia](https://www.fantasticfilmfestival.com.au/films/the-holy-boy)
22. [The Holy Boy, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_holy_boy)
23. [Kritik zu The Holy Boy, FILMSTARTS.de](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/1000024164/kritik.html)
24. [Review: The Holy Boy, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/493125/)
25. [The Holy Boy (2025) Movie Review, Eye for Film](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-holy-boy-2025-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Folk horror films*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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