In essence, it is a film about the life of a saint, yet it does not aim for the typical hagiographic tone nor does it present ostentatious, official settings. In the TV movie about Carlo Acutis, “the first Millennial saint” as the Church has often labeled him throughout the canonization process, the true focal point appears to be the influence of Carlo’s spirituality on the people around him.
Even the locations of My Name Is Carlo are, more than churches and pulpits, the places frequented daily by the young Milanese computer enthusiast. Let’s discover together where the TV movie was filmed, airing exclusively on Canale 5 and streaming on Mediaset Infinity on Sunday September 27 in prime time.
What it’s about
My Name Is Carlo tells the story of when, at six years old, Carlo Acutis (portrayed in these scenes by Nicolò Caruz Jaramillo) demonstrated an unusually early spirituality that could, above all, inspire others. Later, at eleven (now played by Edoardo Vitalone), Carlo discovers a passion for computers that will accompany him throughout life and, in effect, lead him to sainthood: from his bedroom he understands that the Internet can be used to tell the faith and to draw younger people closer to Christ. When he is sixteen (with the face of Samuele Carrino, known to many from the lead role in The Boy in Pink Pants), he is struck by a sharp form of leukemia; Carlo does not lose hope and, above all, continues to give hope to those around him: his parents (played by Lucia Mascino and Flavio Parenti in the film for Mediaset), the domestic worker who arrived from Mauritius, and the numerous doctors at the Milan hospitals where he is hospitalized.
Where the film was shot
Milano
The majority of locations for My Name Is Carlo are situated in Milan, in a “quadrilateral,” as the film’s producer described to Corriere della Sera, where essentially the Saint’s entire life unfolds.
Piazza Tommaseo and the Istituto delle Marcelline
In one of the opening scenes a young Carlo is just leaving the historic Istituto delle Marcelline and crosses a pink-hued Piazza Tommaseo brought to life by the iconic magnolia blossoms: a scene of a child leaving school in a Milanese spring, so commonplace that it makes Acutis’s canonical story seem even more extraordinary.
Piazza Vetra and the Columns of San Lorenzo
Some shots later we find the now-grown Carlo involved in giving blankets to the homeless in Piazza Vetra: walking between the Columns of San Lorenzo and the Park of the Basilicas, a locale that is heavily frequented by locals and visitors alike, and which, as today as in the past, has faced situations of hardship and precariousness.
The Church of Santa Maria Segreta
One of the main locations where My Name Is Carlo was shot is the parish regularly attended by the Acutis family: the Church of Santa Maria Segreta, so named because the neobaroque building that stands there today sits on the site where a pagan temple dedicated to the goddess Demeter once stood. In the parish’s oratory many scenes were filmed in which Carlo does catechism with peers, yielding results that outshine those of the priest.
The Leone XIII High School
Another location for the TV movie about the life of Saint Carlo Acutis is Leone XIII: the Jesuit high school that the boy actually attended appears on screen in numerous scenes, with real students appearing as extras in the background.
Other locations
Private residences, including the Acutis family home and the place where Carlo shares a party with his schoolmates during which he utters one of his most famous lines (“Tutti nascono originali, ma molti muoiono come fotocopie e io non voglio”), are not the original homes: they are apartments chosen in central Milan, among streets adjacent to the Scala and Parco Sempione.
Beyond this, Milan itself serves as a silent but dependable co-protagonist in Acutis’s sanctity and in Giacomo Campiotti’s film, which tells the story on Canale 5 a little more than a year after his canonization (which occurred on September 7, 2025, by Pope Leo XIV). The skyline and various city panoramas punctuate the shots: according to Corriere della Sera, to enable aerial filming of the city, the studio exceptionally opened the terraces of the Milan Cathedral for shooting.
Among the locations listed by the Lombardy Region, which helped finance the production, are also the Acquario Civico and the Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano.
The hospital where Carlo spends his final hours in the film is a clinic in Monza.
