Valia Santella (Writer)

The Art of Joy

Born on the 1st of January 1900 in a poor family in rural Sicily, Modesta pursues happiness since her childhood without falling victim to the constraints of society. After a tragic event that takes her away from her family, Modesta is welcomed into a monastery, where she becomes the Mother Superior’s protégé thanks to her intelligence and stubbornness. Later, she arrives at the villa belonging to the Princess of Brandiforti, where she makes herself indispensable. This relentless process of emancipation goes along with a journey of personal growth and sexual awakening, which lead her to discover and claim the right to pleasure and happiness.

Release Date2024-05-30

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count6

Vote Count22

La Sposa

Release Date2022-01-16

DepartmentWriting

JobStory

Episode Count3

Vote Count12

The Traitor

Palermo, Sicily, 1980. Mafia member Tommaso Buscetta decides to move to Brazil with his family fleeing the constant war between the different clans of the criminal organization. But when, after living several misfortunes, he is forced to return to Italy, he makes a bold decision that will change his life and the destiny of Cosa Nostra forever.

Release Date2019-05-23

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count1370

Naples in Veils

In a Naples suspended between magic and superstition, madness and rationality, a mystery envelops the existence of Adriana, overwhelmed by a sudden love and a violent crime.

Release Date2017-12-28

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count461

Euphoria

Matteo is a young successful businessman, audacious, charming and energetic. Ettore instead, is a calm, righteous, second grade teacher always living in the shadows, still in the small town from where both come from. They’re brothers but with two very different personalities. A dramatic event will force them to live together in Rome for a few months, bringing up the opportunity to face their differences with sympathy and tenderness, in a climax of fear and euphoria.

Release Date2018-10-25

DepartmentWriting

JobStory

Vote Count198

Three Floors

Follows the lives of three families who live in a three-story building in a Roman neighbourhood.

Release Date2021-09-23

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count301

Troubling Love

When her elderly mother is found dead under sordid circumstances, Delia returns to her native Naples for the first time in years to attend the funeral. Trying to piece together her estranged parent's secret life, she'll face the hidden memories that shaped her family history.

Release Date1995-04-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobScript Supervisor

Vote Count29

The Inner Cage

A prison drama where an old mobster and a prison guard must find a way to coexist so that imprisonment can become less so, and perhaps reveal the paradox that is behind the very concept of captivity.

Release Date2021-10-14

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count262

Red Istanbul

Orhan who lived in London for years and did not come back to Turkey agrees to help Deniz -a famous director- edit his first book. Deniz has been living in a mansion with his family which started to lose its old brightness and power. Orhan finds himself in the middle of Deniz's complicated relationships, mysterious friends and stange family members. This is the first movie of Ferzan Ozpetek which is shot in Turkey after a long time. It is also based on his own book which has the same name with the movie.

Release Date2017-03-02

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count131

A Brighter Tomorrow

An old film director, unhappy with the movie he's shooting about a Hungarian circus stranded in Rome during the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, faces divorce from his producer wife and other problems.

Release Date2023-04-20

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count312

La scuola

In a high school in the outskirts of Rome, it's the last day before the summer holidays. A literature teacher reminisces the past year and wonders what will become of the students he cared for as if they were his children.

Release Date1995-04-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobScript Supervisor

Vote Count114

Sweet Dreams

Turin, 1969. Nine-year-old Massimo’s idyllic childhood is shattered by the mysterious death of his mother. The young boy refuses to accept this brutal loss, even if the priest says she is now in Heaven. Years later in the 90s, adult Massimo has become an accomplished journalist. After reporting on the war in Sarajevo, he begins to suffer from panic attacks. As he prepares to sell his parents’ apartment, Massimo is forced to relive his traumatic past. Compassionate doctor Elisa could help tormented Massimo open up and confront his childhood wounds…

Release Date2016-11-10

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count217

Mia madre

Margherita, a director in the middle of an existential crisis, has to deal with the inevitable and still unacceptable loss of her mother.

Release Date2015-04-16

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count362

Aprile

Nanni Moretti takes another look at the ebbs and flows of life in April 1996, as he becomes a father for the first time and seems unable to focus on his documentary about the upcoming national elections.

Release Date1998-03-27

DepartmentDirecting

JobScript Supervisor

Vote Count229

Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician

Naples, 1959. Pure Mathematics professor Renato Caccioppoli, Bakunin's grandson, is a tortured soul. Recently discharged from the psychiatric hospital, left by his wife, and increasingly disillusioned with academia and the Communist Party, he lives his last days with painful detachment.

Release Date1992-09-08

DepartmentDirecting

JobScript Supervisor

Vote Count34

Honey

Irene, nicknamed 'Miele', has devote herself to people looking for help, and tries to alleviate their suffering even when they make extreme decisions. One day she has to cope with Grimaldi and his invisible malaise.

Release Date2013-05-01

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count63

Sud

During a hot Sunday afternoon in a small Southern Italian town, a school serving as a polling place is occupied by a group of three locals and an Eritrean immigrant, all unemployed, desperate and armed.

Release Date1993-10-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobScript Supervisor

Vote Count58

The Story of Frank and Nina

Frank, a school dropout, meets Nina, a teenage wife and mom seeking education. As they study together, their bond grows, redefining family and reality itself in their eyes.

Release Date2024-10-03

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count3

Sacred Silence

A young priest crusades against organized crime in his Naples neighbourhood but falls in love with a 13-year-old boy. It's the chance the gangsters were waiting for to get rid of the thorn in their side. Will they be able to force the boy to accuse the priest of sexual harassment and have his reputation destroyed?

Release Date1996-09-05

DepartmentDirecting

JobScript Supervisor

Vote Count17

Arriva la bufera

Depressed magistrate Damiano Fortezza relocates from Milan to a small town in Campania, where the three Fontana sisters, owners of a chain of incinerators, dominate. The youngest, Eugenia, is about to marry a well-known crook Fortezza has to prosecute. However, he ends up falling in love with Eugenia and questioning the priorities of his job.

Release Date1993-03-25

DepartmentDirecting

JobScript Supervisor

Vote Count13

Rehearsals for War

A group of actors meet with little money in a unofficial theatre in Naples' Spanish Boroughs. Director's plan is to travel to Sarajevo, still under siege, to stage a classic Eschilus' play about civil war in Tebe. While they rehearse in the theatre cast members come and go and another kind of war goes on every day in nearby streets of old Naples.

Release Date1998-04-29

DepartmentDirecting

JobScript Supervisor

Vote Count6

Te lo leggo negli occhi

Release Date2004-09-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

The Black Sheep

Nicola is a man who has spent much of his life in a mental institution, though not always as a patient. Nicola's mother suffered from mental illness, and when young Nicola grew old enough to understand some of her stranger behavior as well as the family's other dark secrets, a few of the adults around him preferred to suggest he was disturbed like his mother, and he was encouraged to visit an asylum not far from his home. As an adult, Nicola has spent enough time around people who have a tenuous connection with reality that he has a superficial resemblance to them, and has developed a strange set of imaginary friends to go along with his eccentric real-life companions and the woman he loves from afar, Marinella.

Release Date2010-10-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobFirst Assistant Director

Vote Count26

The Yes Man

Cesare Botero, an ambitious and corrupt young minister, hires a new spokesman, honest and polite high school professor Luciano Sandulli.

Release Date1991-04-05

DepartmentDirecting

JobScript Supervisor

Vote Count57

Pericle

A failed porn actor, working as an enforcer for a mafia kingpin, finds himself confronted with an all-out turf war after an errand goes drastically wrong. Going on the run is his only option.

Release Date2016-05-12

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count43

Nina

The contemporary architecture of Rome are at the heart of the beautifully shot and winsomely appealing Nina, which charts the oddball escapades of a young woman in a depopulated Rome during one hot summer. This heartwarming tale of a lonesome girl who teaches singing and dog-sits during her holidays on the outskirts of Rome. Its striking cinematography evokes Nina's indefinable anxiety. By opening herself up to life she conquers a vision of her future full of imagination and beauty.

Release Date2012-10-23

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count12

Notes of Love

A woman suffering from compulsive-type psychological problems falls for an older divorced neighbour. Will her love be returned? A slow story of confusion and loneliness.

Release Date1998-04-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobScript Supervisor

Vote Count1

It Will Happen Tonight

The film will explore contemporary emotions, fears, and relationships through intertwined stories, resembling Nevo's narrative style.

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Armandino e il Madre

An italian short comedy

Release Date2010-03-26

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count3