It Will Happen Tonight
TL;DR: A 2026 Nanni Moretti drama starring Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca, built from Eshkol Nevo's short fiction. Expect a multi-character ensemble about contemporary relationships and emotional messiness. No release date outside Spain confirmed yet; Movie OTT is tracking where to watch when it lands.
Why a Nanni Moretti Film in 2026 Actually Matters
Here's the thing about Moretti — he doesn't make films often. The Son's Room won the Palme d'Or in 2001. That gap between projects? It's not laziness. It's precision. His work sits with grief, with the small moments where people realize they've already lost something they didn't know mattered.
It Will Happen Tonight is his first feature since 2011's We Have a Pope. That's fifteen years. The fact that he's returning now, with a European co-production and an ensemble cast, signals something deliberate — not a film chasing trends or box office comfort, but a director working at the exact scale he needs.
The source material helps explain why. Eshkol Nevo's Hungry Heart — a short story collection — doesn't give Moretti a single spine to follow. It's deliberately fragmented, moving between characters the way real life does: without clean transitions, without tidy resolution. Instead of adapting one story, Moretti and his co-writers Federica Pontremoli and Valia Santella borrowed Nevo's instinct for emotional honesty and built something cinematic around it.
That's harder than it sounds. Anthology-adjacent drama lives or dies on whether the separate threads feel genuinely connected or just editorially convenient.
What It Will Happen Tonight Is Actually About
The film weaves together multiple storylines exploring contemporary emotions, fears, and the messy, often contradictory nature of modern relationships. Think of it less as adaptation and more as excavation — Moretti pulling out the emotional architecture underneath Nevo's fiction and rebuilding it for cinema.
No plot synopsis has been released yet (and honestly, that's probably intentional — this kind of character-driven ensemble doesn't benefit from marketing spoilers). What we know is that the film will track several intersecting lives, likely the way Nevo does: with empathy, precision, no wasted sentiment. The cast list suggests geographic scope — France, Italy, Spain all represented in the ensemble.
If you've found yourself drawn to films like Clouds of Sils Maria or Happy as Lazzaro — character studies where the emotional weight is doing the structural work — this is the register we're talking about.
The Cast & Production Details
Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca anchor the ensemble, supported by:
- Angela Finocchiaro
- Elena Lietti
- Antonio De Matteo
- Pietro Ragusa
- Hippolyte Girardot
- Andrea Lattanzi
- Paolo Sassanelli
- Nanni Moretti himself (he's a longtime habit of appearing in his own work)
The film is a co-production between Italy, France, and Spain — which you can see reflected in both the cast and the production companies involved: Sacher Film, Fandango, RAI Cinema, BTeam Pictures, and Irusoin.
According to IMDb, the film is currently in production. No trailer has surfaced yet, though Letterboxd is already tracking community interest.
When & Where You Can Watch It
Expected release: 2026. Spain has a reported December 25, 2026 theatrical date — though wider international distribution hasn't been announced yet.
Here's the honest part: streaming rights are completely unconfirmed. No platform has publicly claimed the film. Once that changes, Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker will update automatically — so if you bookmark this page, you won't have to hunt through five different subscription services wondering where it landed.
Given the tri-national production and festival-circuit pedigree, don't be shocked if this appears at Venice or Cannes before hitting multiplexes. That's the typical route for Moretti films.
What's Worth Paying Attention To
The cast mixing is interesting (and I keep coming back to this) — French cinema royalty in Garrel, Italian ensemble depth in Trinca and Finocchiaro, Spanish production infrastructure. That's not accidental. It suggests a film with genuine European reach, not a regional title that'll struggle in translation.
Moretti working with Nevo's precise, unsentimental emotional language? That alignment feels rare. Most directors would soften Nevo's work, add more plot, more conventional arc. Moretti's more likely to strip it further — to trust the audience to sit with contradiction, with people who want things they can't articulate, with the weight of ordinary life.
Is it going to be an easy watch? Probably not. Is it worth following? Absolutely.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does It Will Happen Tonight come out? 2026 — with December 25, 2026 confirmed for Spain. Other territories haven't announced yet.
Is it available to stream? Not yet, and no platform has claimed distribution rights. Check back here or set up alerts on Movie OTT to catch the announcement the moment it happens.
Who's directing this? Nanni Moretti, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Federica Pontremoli and Valia Santella.
What's it based on? Eshkol Nevo's short story collection Hungry Heart — loosely. This isn't a direct adaptation; it's more of an emotional translation.
Who's the lead? Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca share the ensemble spotlight, along with Angela Finocchiaro, Hippolyte Girardot, Paolo Sassanelli, and others.
If I liked [X film], will I like this? If you connected with The Son's Room, In Another Country, or quiet European character studies that trust silence over exposition — yes. This is that register.
What to Track Now
Set a reminder for late 2025 when festival announcements typically drop. If It Will Happen Tonight lands at Venice or Cannes, that's your signal a trailer and wider release dates are coming. Until then, keep this on your radar. The ingredients here — Moretti returning, this cast, this source material — don't align often.
