14 International Film Festival; Winner Locarno 2025 Best Director, Special Jury Prize.

Nico, a lively, stubborn, and cheeky boy raised in a secular family in a modern, technological, and hyper-connected world, is forced to spend the summer in Sicily, staying with his grumpy and devoutly religious elderly aunt. She lives alone in an ancient mansion filled with legends and superstitions, without Wi-Fi, appliances, or any form of modern technology a place completely frozen in time. The aunt receives him with annoyance and tries to forcefully pull him into her world, inhabited by angels and spirits and dominated by a mystical sense of religion. The clash between modernity and the past, reason and faith, speed and slowness marks the beginning of their stormy relationship. Yet, little by little, a deep bond grows, one that neither of them knew they needed. Inspired by director Margherita Spampinato’s own childhood, “Gioia mia” celebrates the small miracles of everyday life, the magic hidden in rituals, and the universal need for connection across generations.

IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES