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Now entering its eighth edition, Filming Italy Sardegna is gearing up for what looks set to be its buzziest event to date. Founded by Tiziana Rocca, the film and television event kicks off June 19, 2025, at Forte Village in Cagliari, Sardinia.

The festival will present more than 70 films, many of which are Italian or world premieres. Notable titles in the line-up this year include Steven Soderbergh’s Presence, starring Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan; Reflection in a Dead Diamond, the critically acclaimed spy thriller from Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani; and Karate Kid: Legends, directed by Jonathan Entwistle. The festival will open with the film Poveri Noi by Fabrizio Maria Cortese, starring Paolo Ruffini on Thursday.

“The lineup is incredibly rich and diverse, spanning multiple genres, regions and perspectives,” says Rocca, who also returned this year as artistic director of the Taormina Film Festival, which wrapped June 14. She says that Sardegna...

The Filming Italy Sardegna Festival, founded and directed by Tiziana Rocca, has laid out some of its plans for the upcoming 8th edition. The Sardinia-set fest, which combines cinema and television, runs from June 19-22 in Cagliari and at Forte Village.

The short film competition will be presided over by actress and director Micaela Ramazzotti. She will be joined by Heather Graham, Alec Baldwin, Rocío Muñoz Morales, Riccardo Milani, Aurora Giovinazzo and Giacomo Giorgio. Italian actress Martina Stella will act as the fest’s godmother.

Notable guests will include Simon Baker, who is due to receive the Filming Italy Excellence Award, and Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr., who will be honored with the Filming Italy Creativity Award. French actress Anouchka Delon will also attend, receiving an award in memory of her father Alain.

Steven Soderbergh’s horror film Presence, which debuted at Sundance in 2024, is among the films confirmed to screen.

Ambi Pictures acquires English-language remake rights to Princess.

Ambi Pictures Group has acquired the English-language remake rights to Arto Halonen’s Finnish feature Princess, based on the true story of cabaret dancer Anna Lappalainen.

Ambi’s Andrea Iervolino and Lady Monika Bacardi are financing and producing the remake with an eye toward aligning with A-list female talent for the picture.

Sales arm Ambi Distribution is handling worldwide sales.

Ambi’s president of worldwide sales and acquisitions, Julie Sultan, brought the project to Ambi and will develop and produce with Iervolino and Bacardi.

Produced by Art Films, Princess starred many of Finland’s leading actors including Katja Kuttner, Samuli Edelmann, Krista Kosonen and Peter Franzen, and was the fiction debut of documentary filmmaker Halonen, director of Shadow of the Holy Book, Pavlov’s Dogs and The Magnetic Man.

Princess tells the true story of former cabaret dancer Anna Lappalainen’s redemptive struggle with insanity, who checked...

Ambi Distribution, the international sales arm of Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Ambi Group, has hired Jj Nugent to work in acquisitions and international sales.

Based in the Beverly Hills office, the new hire will report to Ambi Distribution president Julie Sultan.

The Ambi Pictures slate includes action-thriller 2047 – Sights Of Death starring Danny Glover, thriller Hope Lost starring Danny Trejo, animated feature East End and Italian dramedy Tre Tocchi.

Most recently, Ambi optioned Martina Stella’s debut screenplay O.O.B.I, a psychological thriller that the company will next produce.

Nugent previsouly worked at Voltage Pictures, where he served as Nicolas Chartier’s executive assistant.

Martina Stella’s debut screenplay is set to enter principal photography in early 2015.

Ambi Group, owned and run by Andrea Iervolino and Lady Monika Bacardi, has optioned the rights to psychological thriller O.O.B.I.

Actress Martina Stella’s debut screenplay revolves around a powerful drug that allows those who take it the ability to travel through time, transforming a scientific researcher’s life into a nightmare.

Iervolino and Lady Bacardi are targeting a first quarter 2015 start date for principal photography and will shoot in Canada and Italy.

“Monika and I are excited to be working with young Italian talent Martina Stella on her first screenplay, which we were instantly drawn to. Martina has crafted a unique and electrifying thriller that we cannot wait to bring life to on the big screen for moviegoers,” commented Iervolino.

Lady Bacardi added: “We are continuously searching for projects that are commercially appealing on a global level and viable from a...

The Weinstein Company (Twc) is pleased to announce that principal photography has commenced on the film version of

the Tony Award winning musical, "Nine," directed by Academy Award nominated director Rob Marshall ("Memoirs of a Geisha," "Chicago"). 

{sidebar id=1}Heading the stellar cast are Academy Award winners Daniel Day-Lewis ("There Will Be Blood," "My Left Foot"), Nicole Kidman ("The Hours"), Marion Cotillard ("La Vie en Rose"), Judi Dench ("Shakespeare in Love"), and Sophia Loren ("Two Women"); Academy Award nominees Penelope Cruz ("Volver") and Kate Hudson ("Almost Famous"); and Grammy Award winner Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson. The international cast also includes Ricky Tognazzi, Giuseppe Cederna, Valerio Mastandrea, and Martina Stella.

"Nine" tells the story of world famous film director Guido Contini, who faces a personal and professional crisis as he struggles to prepare his latest picture, while balancing the numerous women in his life -- his wife, his mistress, his movie star muse,...