Youth

Paolo Sorrentino's Youth (Italian: La giovinezza) won the European Film Award for Best Film at the 28th European Film Awards ceremony in December 2015 — Sorrentino's second EFA Best Film prize after The Great Beauty two years earlier, an unusual back-to-back recognition. It also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song (David Lang's Simple Song #3) at the 88th Academy Awards in February 2016.

The film is Sorrentino's second English-language feature after This Must Be the Place (2011) and the project that fully consolidated his transition to international productions. The cast pairs Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel in the central two-friend roles, with Rachel Weisz, Jane Fonda (in a small but dominant supporting performance that earned her a Golden Globe nomination), Paul Dano and the Italian veteran Roly Serrano in support. Caine has spoken in interviews about the role as among the most personally significant of his late career.

The film was shot largely at the Hotel Schatzalp in Davos and the Waldhaus Hotel in Sils Maria — the same Sils Maria that gives Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria (also 2014) its title and setting. Cinematography is by Luca Bigazzi, Sorrentino's regular collaborator across nearly his entire feature filmography. The score is by David Lang, the American composer best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Little Match Girl Passion; the production also includes substantial extracts from real classical-music repertoire including Stravinsky and Sibelius. The film was a substantial commercial success across European territories on a budget of approximately €13 million.