Where was Jay Kelly filmed? Complete guide to all filming locations and other production details 

Noah Baumbach's coming-of-age drama film, Jay Kelly, featuring George Clooney and Adam Sandler in lead roles, is scheduled for a theatrical release on November 14, 2025.

The story revolves around Jay Kelly (Clooney), a world-famous, yet disillusioned, actor, who embarks on an unexpected and profound journey through Europe with his manager, Ron (Sandler). On their journey, the actor-manager duo reflect on the choices they made, strained ties and the legacies they would leave behind.

Following its theatrical run, the film will be released globally on Netflix on December 5, 2025. In the film, Laura Dern and Billy Crudup appear in supporting roles alongside other cast members. The movie's production, which began in March 2024, was held in locations across New York, England and Italy.

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Jay Kelly filming locations and production details

George Clooney as Jay Kelly (Image via Netflix)

The filming of Jay Kelly was primarily centered in Italy, which serves as the setting for the main characters' soul-searching journey across Europe. The production, which was held during a five-week shoot in May 2024, used both the outdoor landscapes of Tuscany and the architecture of northern regions.

The filming locations in Tuscany included the hilltop town of Pienza, the countryside of Val d’Orcia, and the cities of Arezzo and Montecatini Terme. Some of the production was also held in the Piacenza plain (Emilia-Romagna/Lombardy), which is close to the Piacenza-Cremona railway, the town of Caorso, and the Boschi neighborhood of Monticelli d'Ongina.

In addition to these European locations, the film’s production also moved to the United States and England. The filming in the UK was centralized at Farnborough International Studios in Hampshire, near London, in April 2024, which housed the unit base for 150 vehicles. Some of the filming also took place in nearby Hampshire backdrops, such as urban aviation sites and woodlands.

The interior scenes for Jay Kelly's Malibu mansion and the train scenes were filmed on purpose-built sets at Shepperton Studios in the UK. The mansion utilized traditional backdrops, while the train interiors incorporated modern LED walls to simulate motion and passing scenery.

For the flashback scenes, which show Jay Kelly entering his own memories, Production Designer Mark Tildesley constructed dual, side-by-side sets. The production crew used the nearby locations of Shepperton and London to stand in for various American settings depicted in the film.

Additionally, in Pienza, Tuscany, the crew built a dedicated railway station for specific scenes. Director Baumbach and the Oscar-winning cinematographer Linus Sandgren chose to shoot the film entirely on 35mm KODAK film (using KODAK VISION3 stocks) to achieve a textured, cinematic feel and a 1.66:1 aspect ratio, paying tribute to the European cinema.

They used an Aaton Penelope camera with Panavision Primo lenses for its efficiency and unique on-set mobility. During the premiere in the main competition of the 2025 Venice Film Festival, cinematographer Sandgren stated:

"So the main decision we had to make was whether to shoot Jay Kelly in classic Hollywood 2.40:1 Anamorphic, or whether it should be framed in the more traditional European widescreen filmmaking format of 1.66:1 of the '70s and '80s, and the latter is where we eventually landed.

He further added:

"We both felt that 1.66:1 would be the most honest to the humanity in the story, placing Jay in each environmental, while being a kind of nostalgic homage to European cinema."

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Stay tuned for more updates.

Edited by Suchita Patnaha