Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3187
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Valeria Golino represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 38 years in, and Valeria is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Valeria Golino appears in 24 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Valeria. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the clearest case: a film rated 7.9 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for drama, comedy, history. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Nicolangelo Gelormini, Ludovica Rampoldi, Pablo Larraín and others, Valeria Golino helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) as La Comtesse · Rain Man (1988) as Susanna · Frida (2002) as Lupe Marín
Career snapshot
Ranked #3187 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
24
1988–2026
Career length
38 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Most frequent director
Gabriele Salvatores
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Gabriele Salvatores
Most common genre
Drama
16 titles
Average runtime
1h 49m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.7
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2000s
7.4 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Frida — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.4
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Rain Man, Big Top Pee-wee.
Most productive era
2020s
8 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.81 film | 6.93 films | 7.41 film | 6.45 films | 6.36 films |
| Action | — | 6.43 films | — | 6.41 film | — |
| Thriller | — | 5.91 film | — | 6.31 film | 5.82 films |
| Comedy | 5.01 film | 6.43 films | — | 6.41 film | 6.21 film |
| Crime | — | — | — | — | 6.21 film |
| Romance | — | 7.02 films | 7.41 film | 6.32 films | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Career peak
1988Rain Man
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Susanna. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2019Portrait of a Lady on Fire
7.9 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2026Gioia
The current state of the argument, as Gioia.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
24 of 24 films
as Lupe Marín
Directed by Julie Taymor
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Susanna
Rain Man (1988)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Susanna gives Valeria Golino a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
La Comtesse
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Performance score7.9
Portrait of a Lady on Fire asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. La Comtesse is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Gioia
Gioia (2026)
Performance score7.4
Gioia asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gioia is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Goliarda Sapienza
Fuori (2025)
Performance score7.2
Fuori asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Goliarda Sapienza is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Susanna
Start here. Rain Man is the clearest statement of what Valeria Golino does — accessible, 134 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Valeria at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Frida (2002)
Keeps the drama register of Rain Man but asks for a colder reading of it.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Keeps the romance register of Frida but asks for a colder reading of it.
Fuori (2025)
Keeps the drama register of Portrait of a Lady on Fire but asks for a colder reading of it.
Gioia (2026)
Keeps the drama register of Fuori but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jim Abrahams
Director
2 films together
Notably Hot Shots!
Gabriele Salvatores
Director
2 films together
Notably Volare
Randal Kleiser
Director
1 film together
Notably Big Top Pee-wee
Barry Levinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Rain Man
Sean Penn
Director
1 film together
Notably The Indian Runner
Bernard Rose
Director
1 film together
Notably Immortal Beloved
Mike Figgis
Director
1 film together
Notably Leaving Las Vegas
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Four Rooms
John Carpenter
Director
1 film together
Notably Escape from L.A.
Julie Taymor
Director
1 film together
Notably Frida
Costa-Gavras
Director
1 film together
Notably Adults in the Room
Céline Sciamma
Director
1 film together
Notably Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Claudio Cupellini
Director
1 film together
Notably Land of the Sons
Thea Sharrock
Director
1 film together
Notably The Beautiful Game
Pablo Larraín
Director
1 film together
Notably Maria
Ludovica Rampoldi
Director
1 film together
Notably A Brief Affair
Nicolangelo Gelormini
Director
1 film together
Notably Gioia
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jim Abrahams
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Hot Shots!Gabriele Salvatores
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
VolareCéline Sciamma
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Portrait of a Lady on FireBarry Levinson
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rain ManJulie Taymor
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FridaMike Figgis
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Leaving Las VegasBernard Rose
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Immortal BelovedNicolangelo Gelormini
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GioiaCosta-Gavras
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adults in the RoomPablo Larraín
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MariaSean Penn
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Indian RunnerThea Sharrock
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Beautiful GameLudovica Rampoldi
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Brief AffairClaudio Cupellini
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Land of the SonsJohn Carpenter
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Escape from L.A.Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Four RoomsRandal Kleiser
Director
1 film together · 5.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Big Top Pee-weeSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
as La Comtesse
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
as La Comtesse
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Rain Man
as Susanna
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Frida
as Lupe Marín
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Rain Man
as Susanna
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Valeria Golino has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
38 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
16 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
as La Comtesse
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
as La Comtesse
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Fuori
as Goliarda Sapienza
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Catholic School
as Ilaria Arbus
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
as La Comtesse
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Invisible Boy: Second Generation
as Giovanna
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
as La Comtesse
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Hot Shots!
as Ramada Thompson / Scarlett O'Hara / Lois Lane
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
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David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Have your say
Community
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Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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