Pallaoro's film, built from Bertolucci's final screenplay, enters the Golden Lion conversation after a standing ovation at the 83rd Venice Film Festival.

Andrea Pallaoro's The Echo Chamber premiered in the main competition of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on September 6 and earned an eight-minute standing ovation from the Sala Grande audience.

The film is built from a screenplay by Bernardo Bertolucci, the final work the Italian director completed before his death in 2018, co-written with Ilaria Bernardini and Ludovica Rampoldi. Producer Nicola Giuliano brought the script to Pallaoro in 2024. "The first time I have taken on a screenplay I did not originally conceive myself," Pallaoro said of the project. Filming concluded in late 2025.

The cast is led by Luca Marinelli and Alicia Vikander, with Susan Sarandon in support. According to the Venice official synopsis, the film follows "a love story where the boundaries between presence and absence, care and dependence, desire and control blur until dissolving." The score is by Clément Ducol, the Academy Award-winning composer behind Emilia Pérez.

The Echo Chamber is a co-production between Italy's Indigo Film and Rai Cinema and Belgium's Versus Production. It opened in Italian theaters via 01 Distribution on September 10. U.S. distribution is not yet secured. The Golden Lion is to be awarded at the closing ceremony on September 12.

The ovation and the Bertolucci connection give the film weight in the early awards conversation. Pallaoro's restraint as a filmmaker and a divided critical response suggest the prize race will be competitive.