Sua Santità papa Leone XIII

{{Short description|1898 short film featuring Pope Leo XIII}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Sua Santità papa Leone XIII

| image = Leone XIII.webm

| caption = Complete copy from the Vatican Film Library

| director = William Kennedy Dickson

| writer =

| based_on =

| producer =

| starring = Pope Leo XIII
Francesco S. Della Volpe
Rafael Merry del Val

| narrator =

| cinematography =

| editing =

| music =

| studio =

| distributor = Biograph Company

| released = {{Film date|df=y|1898}}

| runtime = 156 seconds

| country = Kingdom of Italy

| language = Italian

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Sua Santità papa Leone XIII (Italian for 'His Holiness Pope Leo XIII') is an 1898 short film directed by William Kennedy Dickson for the Biograph Company and is one of the first existing films shot in the Kingdom of Italy.{{Cite news |last=Bonanata |first=Eugenio |date=2023-11-10 |title=Una ricerca cambia l'attribuzione della paternità del primo filmato di Leone XIII |url=https://www.vaticannews.va/it/vaticano/news/2023-11/filmoteca-vaticana-primo-filmato-leone-xiii-della-maggiore.html |access-date=2025-05-09 |language=it |agency=Vatican News}}{{Cite news |last=Wilcox |first=Marrion |date=1898-11-26 |title=Daily life of Pope Leo XIII |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_harpers-weekly_harpers-weekly_1898-11-26_42_2188/page/1150/mode/1up |access-date=2025-05-09 |work=Harper's Weekly |publisher=Harper's Magazine Company |page= |pages=1150-1151 |publication-place=New York |volume=42 |issue=2188 |issn=0360-2397}}{{Cite web |date=2023-11-13 |title=American role in first-ever papal film scrubbed by Vatican due to 'lascivious' use |url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2023/11/american-role-in-first-ever-papal-film-scrubbed-by-vatican-due-to-lascivious-use |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=Crux |language=en}} The short film was shot in the Vatican gardens between June and July of that year,{{Cite web|date=2023-11-10 |title=Filmoteca Vaticana, il falso storico dei film su Leone XIII |url=https://stream24.ilsole24ore.com/video/italia/filmoteca-vaticana-falso-storico-film-leone-xiii/AFee4WaB?refresh_ce=1 |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=Il Sole 24 ORE |language=it}}{{Cite news |title=Le riprese cinematografiche di Papa Leone XIII, non solo dei fratelli Lumière |url=https://www.acistampa.com/story/23715/le-riprese-cinematografiche-di-papa-leone-xiii-non-solo-dei-fratelli-lumiere |date=2023-11-13 |work=ACIStampa}}{{Cite book |title=Andate in tutto il mondo: i vaticanisti italiani raccontano Giovanni Paolo II |last=Schiavazzi |first=Piero |publisher=EDB |year=2004 |pages=580 |language=it}} after a long wait and negotiations with the prefect of the Apostolic Chamber Francesco Salesio Della Volpe and with the intercession of the pontiff's nephew, Count Pecci.The Anaconda Standard, Sunday, June 4, 1899, p. 14. It is a montage of three different shots with the blessing of Pope Leo XIII, eighty-eight years old at the time, and was probably filmed on Kodak film.

The film was long thought to have been directed in 1896 and attributed to the Lumière brothers' company and to the Turinese cinema pioneer Vittorio Calcina.{{Cite news |last=Scaramuzzi |first=Iacopo |date=2023-11-12 |title=Vaticano, il primo film con un Papa fu proiettato in luoghi lascivi con immagini licenziose: trovata la prova della 'dannazione' del regista |url=https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2023/11/12/news/vaticano_primo_film_papa_dannazione_regista-420169742 |access-date=2025-05-08 |work=La Reppublica |language=it |type=Requires subscription}}{{Cite web |date=2023-11-10 |title=Vaticano: Leone XIII e il cinema, presentata la ricerca di Gianluca della Maggiore. Interventi di Paolo Ruffini, mons. Dario E. Viganò e Paolo Mieli - AgenSIR |url=https://www.agensir.it/quotidiano/2023/11/10/vaticano-leone-xiii-e-il-cinema-presentata-la-ricerca-di-gianluca-della-maggiore-interventi-di-paolo-ruffini-mons-dario-e-vigano-e-paolo-mieli/ |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=AgenSIR - Servizio Informazione Religiosa |language=it}} The Holy See, in fact, had revoked the concession of the images to the American company, disapproving the screening of the film in variety theaters; at that point the footage was given to the Lumières. The story was reconstructed by the historian and researcher Gianluca della Maggiore by studying the Vatican archives.{{Cite book |title=Le vedute delle origini su Leone XIII. Vaticano, Biograph e Lumière tra mito e storia |last=della Maggiore |first=Gianluca |publisher= Utet Università |year=2023 |ISBN=978-88-6008-945-8 |language=it}}