La Dolce Vita at Ca' Sagredo, Venice, during the closing days of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival
VENICE, ITALY, 11 SEPTEMBER 2026. The boats came up the Grand Canal in the last of the light, and as the 83rd Venice International Film Festival counted down its final days, Ca' Sagredo opened its doors on La Dolce Vita, the Royal Gentlemen Gala Dinner and Congress Awards.
Inside the frescoed salons, cinema, fashion, music, beauty, jewellery and philanthropy spent an evening in the same rooms.
Alisa Roever, Anna Stukkert
It began with recognition. Among the guests honoured at the Congress Awards were Alisa Roever and the Venetian actor Alessandro Bressanello, two figures working at opposite ends of the same idea, that culture has to be handed on to somebody. Roever founded Angels Helpers, a philanthropic organisation supporting children without access to professional arts education, musical instruments and mentorship, born of her own encounter with the cost of serious music study.
Alessandro Bressanello
Bressanello has answered the same question from the stage rather than the foundation. Born in Venice, he opened the Tag Teatro in the city in 1976 and has built much of his career around Commedia dell'Arte, carrying it into the Carnival of Venice. International audiences know him from Paolo Sorrentino's The Hand of God and from Spectre, and most recently as Giovanni Battista Meneghini, the husband of Maria Callas, opposite Angelina Jolie in Pablo Larraín's Maria. He was honoured in his own city, during its festival.
Anna Stukkert, Lidia Weber, Oliver Weber
The room then turned to Oliver Weber Collection, the official jewellery partner, which chose Ca' Sagredo to present its new Dolce Vita Collection, introduced by Lidia Weber, Director of Special Projects. The Austrian house was founded in Tirol in 1994 by former Swarovski managers and is known for its hand set Swarovski crystal. The new pieces take their cue from the lagoon, the Carnival and the light on Venetian water.
Christina Duxa
Fashion arrived through Christina Duxa, Founder and Creative Director of AI Filmfest Athens and founder of her own couture label, whose collections have often been tied to philanthropic causes. The same Athens festival was co organised by Manana Palagashvili, singer, producer and artist manager, who came as an organiser and stayed on as a performer.
Azul Coral
Argentine model Azul Coral arrived at Ca' Sagredo from the red carpet of a Venice Film Festival premiere. Her international career began with a debut in Milan and has taken in a campaign for Sephora and the Fendi runway in Rome, plus work across Europe, Dubai and Asia. She also founded the real estate venture Azur Propiedades, and will compete in Miss Universe Argentina next year.
Caroline Azmy
Cinema in its most public form belonged to Caroline Azmy. Trained at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Egypt, the actress began on stage and found a mass audience through Egyptian television, in productions including The Godfather, Ramadan Kareem and Abu Al Arousa, before later roles took her beyond her early romantic parts.
Massimiliano Giobergia
Industry had a voice too, in Massimiliano Giobergia, General Manager of Cosmetic Tailors, the Made in Italy division of BEAUTICON VALLEY, which develops bespoke beauty products in Italy for international beauty companies. Fragrance came in three voices.
Velichka Gospodinova
Velichka Gospodinova arrived from Cannes, where the International Investment Congress Awards had given her its Special Talent Award, as founder of the Bulgarian luxury house LABOR8. The brand is built around awakening eight human senses and treats fragrance as a combination of emotion, memory, energy and identity, with numerology written into the line itself. Its scents are developed with perfumers in Grasse and produced in Bulgaria.
Victoria Dimitrova
She came with Victoria Dimitrova, founder of LEDEN8, whose argument is technological. The Bulgarian brand combines LED light, microcurrent and contemporary design in devices for skincare and haircare, moving professional studio treatments into an ordinary routine at home.
Nadine Ahmad
The third story was the most personal. Nadine Ahmad, founder of Young Voyage, presented Musk Thé, the debut scent of the house, in a strictly limited edition of 1,000 bottles, composed to stay close to the skin rather than fill a room. Ahmad also spent two years defending the Young Voyage name in a legal dispute with Hermès, and kept it.
Manana Palagashvili
Then the lights moved to the music. Manana Palagashvili sang for the guests, bringing the performer out from behind the producer. Soprano Alina Zamalieva, who studied at the Belcanto Academy with the legendary Mirella Freni, carried the classical tradition into the palazzo, and with it the thread Bressanello's Callas had opened. Yuri and Ksenia Wheelman, known as Wheelman Duo, followed with their Couture Crossover concept, which sets classical voices against film music and contemporary sound, a partnership begun at the Bolshoi Theatre. Rezeda Kalimullina, whose career runs through soul, jazz and pop, closed the programme.
Anna Stukkert, Thomas Misse
The hosts, Thomas Misse and Marek Harmony, founders of Royal Gentlemen Club, build their gatherings on a chosen guest list, a distinctive location and enough time for people to talk. The evening formed part of the Congress Awards, founded by Anna Stukkert in 2016, which has gathered guests in Munich, Berlin, Monaco, Paris, Cannes and Davos.
The Grand Canal supplied a backdrop no production designer would dare invent, and in the most crowded week of the film calendar, La Dolce Vita made its quiet case for what culture looks like when its separate worlds share one room.
EVENT INFORMATION
Royal Gentlemen Gala Dinner and Congress Awards | Friday, 11 September 2026 | 6.30 pm | Ca' Sagredo Hotel, Venice | Black Tie
Hosted by Royal Gentlemen Club | Thomas Misse and Marek Harmony | Congress Awards founded by Anna Stukkert | Official Jewellery Partner Oliver Weber Collection | Press contact info@royalgentlemen.fr
CA' SAGREDO HOTEL | 11 SEPTEMBER 2026