The film was selected for competition in September 2003 at the 60th Venice International Film Festival, receiving significant critical acclaim, and was also appreciated by the relatives of Aldo Moro. At the same time, the film was released in cinemas, becoming the highest grossing film ever made by Marco Bellocchio at the cinema, with around 4,000,000 euros in Cinetel revenue. Some former Red Brigades, such as Morucci and Gallinari, said they had seen the film; the former also expressed a moderate appreciation: "His friends denied the authenticity of his letters while some of us, in reading them, we were associating them with those of the condemned to death of the Resistance. This is underlined by the film, and it is really true. It was a shocking thing." Although the film was seen as a favorite to win the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, its only significant award was for the screenplay, arousing much controversy among experts; the director Marco Bellocchio, disappointed, abandoned the event, delegating to the actor Luigi Lo Cascio the task of collecting the prize. Following the statements of the jury president Mario Monicelli, which corroborated the motivations that had not convinced the jurors to assign the maximum recognition to the film ("it was impossible to convince foreigners ... this film was not up to its precedent, "My Mother's Smile""), Rai Cinema announced in protest that it no longer wanted to participate in the Show: a declaration right after following a meeting between the then president of the Venice Biennale, Franco Bernabè, and the CEO of Rai Cinema Giancarlo Leone.