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Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza are directors known for telling gritty crime stories set in their native Sicily. In films like Salvo and Sicilian Ghost Story, they’ve shined a light on the island’s shadowy world of organized crime. Their latest work, Iddu, continues in a similar vein, this time focusing on two complex characters embroiled in the mafia’s machinations.

Iddu centers around Catello and Matteo, a former politician and wanted crime boss. Having recently been released from prison, Catello is eager to regain what he’s lost. So when asked to correspond covertly with his gangster godson Matteo, now in hiding, he sees an opportunity. Through letters exchanged in a secretive “pizzini” system, the two men engage in an intricate dance of deceit.

Catello hopes to leverage Matteo’s vulnerability for his own gain, while Matteo navigates the challenges of leading from the shadows. Played masterfully by Toni Servillo and Elio Germano,...

Letters to Daddy: Grassadonia & Piazza Continue Their Cosa Nostra Sagas

Italian directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza reimagine the circumstances surrounding yet another mafioso tale with their third feature, Sicilian Letters. Freely inspired by events in Sicily from the 2000s, their introductory title cards reveal this tale is one where “reality is a point of departure, not a destination.” The Italian title, Iddu, is the nickname of a straggling mafia boss still being sought by law enforcement who have devised a circuitous plan to draw him out of his hideout. Starring two of Italian cinema’s most notable contemporary actors, Toni Servillo and Elio Germano, it is the directors’ most mainstream offering to date.…...

Though doubtless a crucial aspect of many of the most dramatic occurrences in human history, letter-writing is not the most cinematic of activities. And so it unfortunately proves once again in Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s “Sicilian Letters,” a heavily fictionalized riff on a real-life mafia tale, which sets up a battle of wits between a ruthless mob boss and the family friend working with the authorities to bring him down, but struggles to maintain any kind of momentum when the duel is merely a case of epistles-at-dawn.

Elio Germano plays Matteo, a character based on notorious Sicilian mafioso Matteo Messina Denaro who was the subject of a 30-year manhunt which only ended in 2023 when he was finally caught. Toni Servillo plays the more heavily fictionalized Catello Polumbo, whose 2004 correspondence with Matteo gets the authorities closer to his apprehension than ever before. As the film begins, Catello, a well-read,...

The Zurich Film Festival has lined up world premieres of Constantin Film’s fantasy drama Hagen and western The Unholy Trinity starring Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson as part of its Gala programme.

Two Swiss productions - Frieda’s Case by Maria Brendle and Aiming High - A Race Against The Limits by Flavio Gerber and Alun Meyerhans – will also world premiere in the ten strong Gala section.

Produced by Constantin, Hagen is a reimagining of the medieval Nibelungen folk saga directed by Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stenner. As well as a feature, it has been made as a six-part series.

Zurich Film Festival has revealed a second wave of Gala titles, which includes films starring Tilda Swinton, Sebastian Stan, Nicole Kidman, Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson.

Among the 10 added titles are four world premieres, two international premieres and one European premiere.

Zurich will screen, among others, Ali Abbas’ “The Apprentice,” starring Stan, Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” starring Swinton, and Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl,” starring Kidman.

Richard Gray’s Western “The Unholy Trinity,” starring Brosnan and Jackson, has its world premiere.

The other world premieres are “Frieda’s Case” by Maria Brendle, “Aiming High – A Race Against the Limits” by Flavio Gerber and Alun Meyerhans, and German epic adventure “Hagen.”

“The fact that we have the opportunity to present so many world and European premieres goes to show that the Zff holds a strong position in the international calendar,” Christian Jungen, artistic director of the festival, said.

Directorial duo Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”) tell the true tale of Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro – who was dubbed “the last godfather” – in their new drama “Sicilian Letters,” launching on Thursday from the Venice Film Festival.

“Sicilian Letters” pairs two top Italian actors — Elio Germano, who plays Messina, and Toni Servillo as his antagonist Catello, a shady secret services operative who is trying to catch him — working in tandem for the first time. The title refers to a surreptitious correspondence between them using “pizzini,” small slips of paper that the Sicilian Mafia used for high-level communications.

The film looks at a time during Denaro’s three decades as a fugitive from Italian justice, when he was at the peak of his nefarious powers. After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January 2023 outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo, where...

Screen can unveil the first trailer for Mafia drama Sicilian Letters ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival.

It is the third film from directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (after Salvo in 2013 and Sicilian Ghost Story in 2017), and the duo’s first at Venice.

Titled Iddu at home (‘Him’ in Sicilian dialect), their latest feature is inspired by the story of fugitive Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

Elio Germano plays the godfather in hiding, with Toni Servillo as the smalltime local politician who became his pen pal.

The Italy-France co-production pairs Indigo Film and...

Screen can unveil the first trailer for Mafia drama Sicilian Letters ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival.

It is the third film from directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (after Salvo in 2013 and Sicilian Ghost Story in 2017), and the duo’s first at Venice.

Titled Iddu at home (‘God’ in Sicilian dialect), their latest feature is inspired by a cache of letters discovered after the 2023 arrest of fugitive Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

Elio Germano plays the godfather in hiding, with Toni Servillo as the smalltime local politician who became his pen pal.

The...

We’re just about five weeks away from the opening of the 81st Venice International Film Festival, the oldest such celebration of international cinema and the official kickoff to awards season in earnest. A gondola loaded with news about this year’s titles washed up on our shores this morning, and this year’s competition slate is packed.

It’s no surprise that Todd Phillips will bring his “Joker” sequel, “Joker: Folie à Deux,” back to the late-summer Italian event. The first dark comic book film won the top prize there in 2019, slapping a huge international halo on it released to the public, eventually netting Joaquin Phoenix the Best Actor Oscar, as well as a Best Original Score trophy for Hildur Guðnadóttir and nine other nominations, including Best Picture. The sequel, which was not a foregone conclusion when the first movie was made, but a Mack truck of Warner Bros....

Just a day after New York Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival made major announcements, Venice Film Festival is here with their full lineup ahead of the festival taking place August 28 through September 7.

Highlights include Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements, Harmony Korine’s Baby Invasion, Pablo Larraín’s Maria, Takeshi Kitano’s Broken Rage, Errol Morris’ Separated, Lav Diaz’s Phantosmia, Thomas Vinterberg’s Families Like Ours, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April, and more.

Check out the lineup below with a hat tip to Cineuropa.

Competition

The Room Next Door – Pedro Almodóvar

Campo di battaglia – Gianni Amelio

Leurs enfants après eux – Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma

The Brutalist – Brady Corbet

Jouer avec le feu – Delphine & Muriel Coulin

Vermiglio – Maura Delpero

Iddu (Sicilian Letters) – Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza

Queer – Luca Guadagnino

Love – Dag Johan Haugerud...

The lineup for the 81st Venice International Film Festival is here. Artistic director Alberto Barbera and Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco revealed the complete list of titles across sections early on Tuesday, July 23. Watch the live stream here or on YouTube.

Competition highlights included, as expected, Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux,” Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” with Angelina Jolie, Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” with Daniel Craig, and Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, “The Room Next Door.” Other gems in the lineup include “April,” from Georgian “Beginning” director Dea Kulumbegashvili; Brady Corbet’s “Fountainhead”-inspired epic “The Brutalist,” which runs a whopping 215 minutes and will present in 70mm; Aussie auteur Justin Kurzel’s thriller “The Order”; “Chevalier” director Athina Rachel Tsangari’s “Harvest” with Caleb Landry Jones; and Halina Reijn’s psychosexual thriller for A24, “Babygirl,” starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson.

Out of competition across series and features, there’s new work from Harmony Korine,...

Buckle in, film buffs, we’re not done with festival season yet. The 2024 Venice Film Festival lineup was announced on Tuesday, and rest assured there will be plenty of glamorous movie stars waving from boats. The lineup includes expected entries like Joker: Folie à Deux, starring Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix...

Venice Film Festival has revealed the programme for its 81st edition, featuring a 21-strong Competition that includes new films from Todd Phillips, Pedro Almodovar, Luca Guadagino, Pablo Larrain, Brady Corbet and Justin Kurzel.

Scroll down for full line-up

The selection was unveiled by festival president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and artistic director Alberto Barbera. It marked Buttafuoco’s first time at the annual press conference, after replacing Roberto Cicutto in October 2023.

Further filmmakers in Competition include Wang Bing, Luis Ortega, Dea Kulumbegashvili, Dag Johan Haugerud, Athina Rachel Tsangari and Walter Salles.

The line-up also includes Jon Watt’s Wolfs, starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney,...

Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature film, “The Room Next Door” — starring Oscar winners Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton — will likely launch from the Venice Film Festival, which is putting the final touches on a stellar lineup ahead of its official announcement next week.

“Room Next Door” is Almodóvar’s follow-up to 2021’s “Parallel Mothers,” which bowed at Venice and scored the fest’s best actress Volpi Cup for Penelope Cruz’s performance. Almodóvar’s latest is also believed to be in competition at the festival, according to several sources.

Almodóvar’s New England-set film is “about a very imperfect mother and her resentful daughter, who live separate lives because of a profound misunderstanding,” as the director has put it.

“Room Next Door,” which is produced by Almodóvar’s El Deseo banner, is set to hit theaters this year via Sony Pictures Classics in the U.S., Middle East and India,...

France’s Les Films du Losange is taking international sales outside Italy on “Sicilian Letters” (“Iddu”), the hotly anticipated drama about Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro – who was dubbed “the last godfather” – directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”).

“Sicilian Letters” pairs two top Italian actors — Elio Germano, who plays Messina (see first-look image above) and Toni Servillo (first-look image below) as his antagonist Catello, a shady secret services operative — working in tandem for the first time. The title refers to a surreptitious correspondence between them using “pizzini,” the small slips of paper that the Sicilian Mafia uses for high-level communications.

The film – which is expected to launch on the fall festival circuit – looks at a time during Denaro’s three decades as a fugitive from Italian justice, when he was at the peak of his nefarious powers. After being on the run for three decades,...

Yesterday we tossed filmmaker names like Ala Eddine Slim, Alexandre Koberidze, Marco Dutra and the tandem of Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza into the prognostication Un Certain Regard mix. Today we present another ten options and make sure to tune in on Monday for 25 firm Palme d’Or competition guesses. The official line-up will be revealed on April 11th.

Maria –...

Roll up, roll up for Part 2 of our Cannes Film Festival preview, this time with a focus on international, mainly non-English-language fare. If you didn’t catch Andreas’ English-language-focused Part 1, check it out.

As the fest basks in the warm glow of the Oscar wins for 2023 Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Grand Jury Prize winner The Zone of Interest, delegate general Thierry Frémaux and his team are furiously tying up the 2024 Official Selection.

With less than four weeks to go until the bulk of the 77th edition (running May 14-25) is revealed at the press conference in Paris on April 11, we’ve rounded up a host of the titles ready and in the running for a splash in either Official Selection or the main parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.

The registration deadline was March 15, with March 22 the official cut-off for submissions to arrive...

Over the past few years Italian cinema has been making strides in the global arena and 2024 looks likely to bolster its international standing. New works by top auteurs Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino will be launching from the festival circuit just as a fresh crop of directors comes to fore, starting with Margherita Vicario, whose first film “Gloria!” scored a Berlin competition slot.

Below is a compendium of new Italian movies set to hit this year’s fest circuit.

“Another End” – Gael García Bernal and Renate Reinsve (“The Worse Person in the World”) star as lovers caught in an unusual bind in Italian director Piero Messina’s sci-fi film “Another End” which is competing in Berlin. This second feature by Messina – whose first feature, “The Wait,” launched with a splash in the 2015 Venice competition – is set in a near-future when a new technology exists that can put the consciousness of...

Toni Servillo, who played Roman socialite Jep Gambardella in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty,” will star in a drama about Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro, dubbed “the last godfather” directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”).

Also starring in the hotly-anticipated drama titled “Iddu” – which means “Him” in Sicilian dialect – is Italian A-list actor Elio Germano, winner of a Cannes best actor prize for Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” in 2010 and more recently of Italy’s 2021 David di Donatello Award for Giorgio Diritti’s “Hidden Away.”

The roles respectively being played by Servillo and Elio Germano are being kept under wraps.

After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January 2023 outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo, where he had been undergoing cancer treatment for a year under false identity. The top mafioso, convicted of masterminding some of Italy...

Italian producer Massimo Cristaldi, who as a production manager worked with masters such as Federico Fellini and Francesco Rosi before setting up his own company and shepherding films including prizewinning drama “Sicilian Ghost Story,” has died. He was 66.

Cristaldi’s death was announced over the weekend by his Rome-based company Cristaldi Pictures in a statement that did not specify the cause.

Born in 1956, Massimo Cristaldi was the only son of prominent producer Franco Cristaldi, the triple Oscar-winner who made Pietro Germi’s “Divorce Italian Style,” Federico Fellini’s “Amarcord” and Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Cinema Paradiso.”

In 1974 Massimo Cristaldi started cutting his teeth in the film business first as a production assistant and eventually, starting in the 1980s, becoming a line producer on many of his father’s productions, working with Fellini, Rosi, Tornatore, and many other Italian cinema greats.

After Franco Cristaldi’s death in 1992, he took over management of...

"For me if you dream something, it means it might exist..." Strand Releasing has debuted the full Us trailer for an Italian indie horror film titled Sicilian Ghost Story, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Critics' Week last year, and played at a number of other festivals last year. Set in a little Sicilian village at the edge of a forest, the film is about a girl named Luna who goes into the forest to search for a boy she's in love with from school, Giuseppe, who disappeared. What she finds is unlike anything she's seen before. The film stars Julia Jedlikowska as Luna, and Gaetano Fernandez as Giuseppe, with Corinne Musallari, Andrea Falzone, Federico Finocchiaro, Lorenzo Curcio, Vincenzo Amato, plus Filippo Luna. This does remind me a bit of del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, but with an Italian touch. Looks creepy but good. Full Us trailer (+ posters) for...

Musical sequel tops UK chart for third straight week.

Today’s Gbp to Usd conversion rate - 1.29

RankFilm / DistributorThree-day gross (Aug 3-5) Running gross Week 1 Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (Universal) £4.1m £39.3m 3 2 Ant-Man And The Wasp (Disney) £3.8m £5m 1 3 Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount) £2.5m £13.3m 2 4 Incredibles 2 (Disney) £2.4m £40m 4 5 Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation (Sony) £1.5m £7.8m 2 Universal

In its third week on release, musical sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again triumphed over the competition again, dropping 43% with £4.1m. The film now sits on a hugely impressive £39.3m, though still some way shy of Mamma Mia!

Marvel sequel to go up against Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

Expect another strong weekend at the UK box office, with Disney’s Ant-Man And The Wasp (released on Thursday August 2) taking on Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

The original Ant-Man opened with £4.8m in the UK, going on to make £19m – a somewhat below par score for a non-Avengers Marvel film. Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok ended up on £53m and £30m respectively.

The sequel, once again starring Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly will face competition from the resurgent Mission: Impossible – Fallout,...

Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s good-looking film is a tragi-romance, but it’s based on a revolting crime

You could alternatively call it Sicilian Love Story or Sicilian Bedtime Story or even Sicilian Shaggy-Dog Story. It’s an intriguing and good-looking film, an award winner in the critics’ week section at last year’s Cannes, inspired by a grisly true-crime horror of modern Sicily, a fact that is eventually revealed in a few lines flashed up on screen just before the closing credits. But it is a disconcerting revelation, as the preceding film’s recurrent mode of tragi-romantic fantasy, with a touch of Guillermo del Toro, isn’t adequate for the revulsion and outrage that this story must surely inspire.

It is well acted and well directed by Sicilian film-makers Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, whose debut feature Salvo – about a hitman’s psychological breakdown – had comparable style.

Continue reading.

Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s drama “Sicilian Ghost Story,” Variety has learned exclusively.

“Sicilian Ghost Story” opened the International Critics’ Week at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time an Italian film launched the Critics’ Week. Grassadonia and Piazza won the David di Donatello award for top adapted script.

Strand made the announcement on Wednesday, ahead of “Sicilian Ghost Story’s” North American debut as the opening night film at the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2018 event on May 31 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. Strand will release the film in the fall.

The film follows a young girl whose quest and search for her kidnapped friend leads her on a psychic journey to find him. Julia Jedlikowska and Gaetano Fernandez star.

Jay Weissberg wrote in his review for Variety: “‘Ghost Story...

In a ceremony dominated by gender inequality speeches most of the awards went to box office disappointments.

The Manetti brothers’ Love And Bullets won five prizes at the 62nd David di Donatello awards – Italy’s equivilent to the Oscars – after starting the evening with 15 nominations.

The musical crime comedy, which first premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival, was awarded for best film, best actress in a supporting role, best score, best original song and best costumes.

Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Nico, 1988, which also premiered in Venice winning the Orizzonti competition, got four awards; best original screenplay, best sound, best make-up and best hairdressing.

In a ceremony dominated by gender inequality speeches most of the awards went to box office disappointments.

The Manetti brothers’ Love And Bullets won five prizes at the 62nd David di Donatello awards – Italy’s equivilent to the Oscars – after starting the evening with 15 nominations.

The musical crime comedy, which first premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival, was awarded for best film, best actress in a supporting role, best score, best original song and best costumes.

Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Nico, 1988, which also premiered in Venice winning the Orizzonti competition, got four awards; best original screenplay, best sound, best make-up and best hairdressing.

We live in uncertain times. Hard-fought progress is being reversed. Appeals to love and compassion are losing out to easier options like hate and fear. With horror, anxiety, and jaw-dropped disbelief we watch the worst instincts of mankind play out in a world we thought we knew.

The jumpiness seems to be felt at the cinemas as well, considering the banner year it’s been for scary movies. Right out the gate Split provided quite a kick, reminding us the playful master of paranoia M. Night Shyamalan can be. Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo, for his part, uses comedy in a high-concept, low-budget kaiju flick and turns Colossal into an absurdist delight. It doesn’t get more low-budget than Chilean director Jorge Riquelme Serrano’s debut Chameleon, but the brutal elegance of his touch drives the depiction of random, depraved home invasion to bone-chilling heights.

Kevin Phillips’ Super Dark Times and...

Chicago – The 53rd Chicago International Film Festival has kicked off, and the first weekend has already unspooled. But what is coming up for the Week One as the Festival kicks into gear? HollywoodChicago.com’s Patrick McDonald and Jon Lennon Espino preview the films and events to put on your list.

Each review is designated by (Je) Jon Espino and (Pm) Patrick McDonald. For a Pdf connection to the complete schedule, click here.

Breathe (Britain)

’Breathe,’ Directed by Andy Serkis

Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival

Master of motion capture Andy Serkis makes his directorial debut in the form of a love story that turns into an inspirational tale. Necessity is the mother of all invention, and this story shows us how Robin (Andrew Garfield) and Diana Cavendish (Claire Foy) turned their love – with the aid of white privilege and wealth – into hope for people with debilitating polio. Garfield delivers a fantastic performance,...

Exclusive: Protagonist inks sales on Chloé Zhao’s Directors’ Fortnight winner.

Altitude Film Distribution has taken UK and Ireland rights for Chloé Zhao’s The Rider, which won the top prize in this year’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight sidebar.

The deal was struck between Altitude’s Will Clarke and Vanessa Saal from sales outfit Protagonist Pictures.

The Rider was previously picked up for by Sony Pictures Classics for North America, Latin America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Eastern Europe.

Protagonist has now also sold to film to: Les Films du Losange (France), Weltkino (Germany), Caramel Films (Spain), Cherry Pickers (Benelux), Cineworx (Switzerland), NonStop (Scandinavia and Iceland), Shani Films (Israel), Front Row Entertainment (Middle East), Fabula Films (Turkey) and Blue Lake (worldwide airlines).

Separately, Protagonist has also scored a series of further deals on fellow Directors’ Fortnight title The Florida Project, which Altitude took for the UK during Cannes.

Following its warmly-received Directors’ Fortnight berth, The Rider was presented...

Buoyed by the critical success of Salvo, their break-out debut about a mafia hitman which won the 2013 Grand Prix in Cannes’ Critics Week, co-directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza are back with the more resonant and multi-layered Sicilian Ghost Story. As in the previous film, elements of the supernatural (which may also be read as pure imagination) appear like soothing balm on the warped relationships of a typical family, school and community. Given the film’s morbidly fascinating subject based on a true crime story, it stands a very good chance of snagging audiences outside festivals, while its concessions to teen...

The lineup for the 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week (La Semaine de la Critique) has been announced.Opening FILMSicilian Ghost Story (Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza)COMPETITIONLa familia (Gustavo Rondón Córdova)Los perros (Marcela Said)Oh Lucy! (Atsuko Hirayagani)Gabriel e a montanha (Felipe Gamarano Barbosa)Ava (Léa Mysius)Tehran Taboo (Ali Soozandeh)Makala (Emmanuel Gras)Special Feature SCREENINGSBloody Milk (Hubert Charuel)Une vie violente (Thierry de Peretti)Special Short SCREENINGSAfter School Knife Fight (Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel)Coelho Mau (Carlos Conceição)Les îles (Yann Gonzales)Short & Medium-LENGTHSelva (Sofía Quirós Ubeda)Möbius (Sam Khun)Real Gods Require Blood (Moin Hussain)Jodilerks dela Cruz, Employee of the Month (Carlo Francisco Manatad)Los desheredados (Laura Ferrés)Ela - szkice na pożegnanie (Oliver Adam Kusio)Najpiękniejsze fajerwerki ever (Aleksandra Terpinska)Tesla: Lumière mondiale (Matthew Rankin)Les enfants partent à l'aube (Manon Coubia)Le visage (Salvatore Lista)Closing FILMBrigsby Bear (Dave McCary)...

The 56th edition of the Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar has announced its main program, including seven films screening in competition. The sidebar is dedicated to films coming from first- and second-time filmmakers, and always promises a fertile ground for discovering new and emerging talent. Last year’s breakout title was Julia Ducournau’s horror film “Raw,” which sold to Focus World.

Read More: Cannes 2017 Announces Directors Fortnight Lineup, Including Sean Baker’s ‘The Florida Project’ and ‘Patti Cake$’

The section will open with Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s latest feature, “Sicilian Ghost Story,” which combines the myths of Romeo and Juliet with the present day Sicilian mafia. Dave McCary’s debut “Brigsby Bear,” the Sundance comedy that sold to Sony Pictures Classics, will close out the section.

For the first time in its history, both a documentary and an animated film will screen in competition. Ali Soozandeh’s animated...

While most think of the main slate of the Cannes Film Festival as the be-all, end-all of the lineup, the importance of the various sidebars to the festival’s success cannot be overlooked. And today marked two big updates about the festival’s most popular siders, with the Cannes Critics’ Week setting its 2017 lineup and the Un Certain Regard jury naming a president. The Critics’ Week lineup looks to feature another strong year, with returning participants Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza and first-time filmmaker and “Saturday Night Live” alum Dave McCary bookending the series.

Continue reading Cannes Film Festival Announces Its Critics’ Week Selections, Un Certain Regard Jury President at The Playlist.

First animation in Critics’ Week: Teheran Taboo Photo: Critics’ Week

After all the other programme revelations for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the French film critics finally have revealed today (21 April) in Paris their selection for Critics’ Week (La Semaine de la Critique) which opens with a Mafia romance drama, Sicilian Ghost Story, from the directorial partnership of Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza.

Critics’ Week director Charles Tesson Photo: Aurélie Lamachère

The duo have a track record with Critics’ Week, having won the top prize for a hit-man thriller Salvo.

Artistic director Charles Tesson announced that the closing title is a Sundance hit, Brigsby Bear, a kidnap comedy directed by Kyle Mooney from Saturday Night Live with cast including Mark Hamill, Claire Danes, Greg Kinnear and Andy Samberg.

Seven features by first or second time directors will compete for the Nespresso Prize while ten shorts are in competition for the Leica Cine Discovery prize.

Mafia tale Sicilian Ghost Story to open sidebar, Sundance hit Brigsby Bear selected as closer.

Cannes Critics’ Week, devoted to first and second features as well as shorts, has unveiled the line-up of its 56th edition, running May 18-26.

Italian directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza will open the selection with their second feature Sicilian Ghost Story, a genre-mixing work following a teenage girl as she searches for the boy she loves after he is kidnapped by the Mafia.

It is inspired by the real-life tale of Giuseppe Di Matteo, the son of a former Mafia hitman-turned-informant, who was abducted in 1993.

Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson described it as a “staggering crossover between cinema genres, combining politics, fantasy and terrible teen love.”

The directorial duo premiered their debut feature Salvo in competition in Critics’ Week in 2013, winning the €15,000 Nespresso Grand Prize.

The screenplay for Sicilian Ghost Story was developed at the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and went...

After featuring such discoveries as Raw, Mimosas, It Follows, The Tribe, and more in recent years, the Cannes sidebar Critics’ Week have now unveiled their 2017 line-up. Now in their 56th year, the Jury President is Kleber Mendonça Filho, who came to Cannes last year with Aquarius, and he’ll be joined by Niels Schneider, Diana Bustamante Escobar, Hania Mroué and Eric Kohn.

After receiving 1,700 short films and 1,250 feature films, 11 features have been selected, with 6 being first films and 5 being second features, including the closing night film Brigsby Bear, which we reviewed at Sundance. Running from May 18-26, check out the line-up below with a hat tip to Mubi and see more about the films here.

Opening Film

Sicilian Ghost Story (Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza)

Competition

La familia (Gustavo Rondon)

Los perros (Marcela Said)

Oh Lucy! (Atsuko Hirayagani)

Gabriel e a montanha (Felipe Gamarano Barbosa)

Ava (Lea Mysius)

Tehran Taboo (Ali Soozandeh...

Directing duo Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza will open the Critics' Week program in Cannes with their genre-busting mythical mafia romance drama Sicilian Ghost Story, which will screen out of competition, organizers said Friday.

The pair won the top prize in 2013 for their hit-man thriller Salvo and will bring their Romeo and Juliette-meets-The Godfather drama back to the sidebar.

The out-of-competition closing film will be Dave McCary’s star-studded Sundance hit Brigsby Bear. The kidnap comedy from Saturday Night Live's Kyle Mooney stars Mark Hamill, Claire Danes, Greg Kinnear and Andy Samberg.

The Critics’ Week sidebar aims to promote young filmmakers with first...

Every year since 2009, the San Francisco Film Society (Sffs) selects multiple film projects to receive the biannual Sffs/Krf Filmmaking Grant that helps fund some of the best up-and-coming narrative features that support the Bay Area filmmaking industry.

The grant is presented in tangent with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the U.S. The winners of the grant will be announced in November, with one or more of the fifteen projects eligible to receive upwards of $250,000 for assistance in post-production, screenwriting, or packing.

The fall 2016 finalists are as follows:

Read More: San Francisco Film Society Announces Winners of 2016 Documentary Film Fund

“Buoyancy” – Rodd Rathjen, writer/director:

Chakra, a Cambodian teenager, leaves his family to seek a better life in Thailand, but is soon sold onto a Thai fishing trawler and enslaved at sea indefinitely, working 22 hours a day with little food.

Nate Parker’s directorial debut claimed the Us Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and corresponding audience award at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, capping off a barnstorming week for the slave revolt drama.

Last week The Birth Of A Nation sparked a bidding frenzy that resulted in the biggest on-site deal in the festival’s history as Fox Searchlight paid $17.5m for worldwide rights.

Sonita, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s film about a rapping Afghan teenager opposed to arranged marriage, earned similar double honours as it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary and audience awards.

The Us Grand Jury Prize: Documentary award went to Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg’s Weiner, while the audience voted for Brian Oakes’ Jim: The James Foley Story.

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic went to Elite Zexer’s Sand Story and the audience choice was Carlos del Castillo’s Between Land And Sea.

In other winners:...

The Sundance Institute is including a touch of Cannes this week as the likes of Pippa Bianco (her short Share was the 2015 winner of Cannes Cinefondation), Alistair Banks Griffin (Two Gates of Sleep premiered in Directors’ Fortnight in 2010), and the Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza tandem (from Critics’ Week Grand Prize in 2013 for Salvo) are among the dozen selected projects for the 2016 January Screenwriters Lab. The immersive, five-day writers’ workshop takes place just prior to the festival at the Sundance Resort in Utah, January 15-20. Look for several of these projects to one day break into not only Sundance, but other major film fests. Here are the selected people & projects:

The projects and fellows selected for the 2016 January Screenwriters Lab are:

Bull (U.S.A.) / Annie Silverstein (Co-writer/Director) and Johnny McAllister (Co-writer)

In a near-abandoned subdivision west of Houston, a wayward teen runs headlong into her equally willful and unforgiving neighbor,...

Sicilian Ghost Story

Directors: Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza

Writers: Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza

Directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza won the Grand Prize at 2013 Critics Week for their debut, Salvo. The duo received funding for their sophomore feature, Sicilian Ghost Story in April, 2015, and have remained mostly tight-lipped about the actual narrative, confirming it’s based on a Sicilian fairy tale and will have minimalist supernatural aspects concerning two young people in love. Details surrounding production have been minimal, although casting was supposedly underway in October, 2015.

Cast: Na

Production Co./Producers: Massimo Cristaldi, Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima , Jean-Pierre Guérin, Cristaldi Pictures, Indigo Film, Jpg Films

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd (domestic/international).

Release Date: Based on the lack of production news, it’s safe to assume Grassadonia and Piazza aren’t near completion on their latest project. Should they complete the feature in early 2016, we’d expect...

Sara Serraiocco's star shines in Lamberto Sanfelice's Chlorine and Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza's Salvo Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Attending the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema lunch at Barbetta were filmmakers Francesca Archibugi - An Italian Name (Il Nome Del figlio); Duccio Chiarini - Short Skin; Eleonora Danco - N-Capace / N-Able; Cristina Comencini - Latin Lover; Ivano de Matteo - The Dinner (I Nostri Ragazzi); Masbedo (Nicolò Massazza and Iacopo Bedogni) - The Lack and actors Claudio Santamaria in Ermanno Olmi's Greenery Will Bloom Again (Torneranno I Prati); Adriano Giannini in Claudio Noce's The Ice Forest (La Foresta Di Ghiaccio) and Lamberto Sanfelice's Chlorine (Cloro) star, Sara Serraiocco.

Jenny with Flavia (Chiara Romano): "I spent a lot of time with the girls who do synchronized swimming."

The Italian cinema delegation in town was joined by Antonio Monda, the newly appointed Artistic Director of...

Receiving a Us release in August 2014, Salvo arrives with an equally subdued DVD release this month. An experimentally inclined gangster piece, any brooding tension established by an immersive theatrical experience tends to be compromised in a smaller format. Traction due to the film’s generous critical reception doesn’t explain the underwhelming DVD presentation, but perhaps it will reach the audience that neglected it during a limited theatrical run.

Though its initial setup holds considerable promise, due mostly to subdued visual cues that take on greater meaning as the plot unfolds, Fabio Grassianda and Antonio Piazza’s directorial debut, ends up casting a rather empty spell. Its brooding ambience traipsing into a shallow narrative coma, there’s much to be desired as concerns this mafia tinged love story of unexplained events and feelings. Obscurity is certainly not a cause for automatic dismissal, but there’s a failure to maintain any...

At first glance, Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza's Salvo looks like just another entry into the Sensitive Hit-man genre: During a sticky Palermo summer heat wave, Mafia hit-man Salvo (Saleh Bakri) has a change of heart and decides not to kill Rita (Sara Serraiocco), the blind sister of his prey.

Salvo instead kidnaps and imprisons her in an abandoned warehouse, unaware that at the moment he spared Rita's life, her vision began to return. The opening scenes suggest the possibility that this may be a John Woo homage, complete with symbolic white birds and anonymous bad guys wearing black motorcycle helmets; indeed, a hit man with a heart of gold finding his life is changed by a blind girl is reminiscent of Woo's masterpiece The Killer.

But Salvo has mo...

Fund is dedicated to supporting audience development strategies; Meanwhile, Beta Cinema has acquired Toronto title Labyrinth of Lies.

The TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) is launching a distribution fund dedicated to supporting audience development strategies to accompany the releases of four EU or non-eu co-productions in at least three territories

Speaking exclusively to Screen at this week’s Locarno Film Festival, Tfl’s Olga Lamontanara explained: “This initiative really completes the circle and the successful projects will be able to make use of the experiences of the alumni from our audience design course which have been working on the implementation of audience engagement strategies.”

A total of four grants, worth a maximum of €43,000 each, will be awarded in 2014/15 to feature film projects which have been previously selected and developed at one of the Tfl programmes since 2008.

“Those applying must be a producer or sales agent from a country participating in the Media sub-programme,” outlined Lamontanara...

Brit filmmaker Andrea Arnold ("Wuthering Heights," "Fish Tank") will preside over the jury of the 53rd Semaine de la Critique, otherwise known as the Cannes Critics Week. This means she and her jury will award one film of the seven in-competition features with the Nespresso Grand Prize. Arnold has a personal history with the Semaine, as her short film "Milk" screened as part of its lineup in 1998, essentially launching her career. Meanwhile, her first two features, "Red Road" and "Fish Tank," both nabbed the Jury Prize at Cannes several years later. She is still one of the few women filmmakers to be awarded at the prestigious French festival. Last year's winning Critics Week film was Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza's "Salvo." Cannes runs May 14 through 25.

HeyUGuys recently had the opportunity to catch up with first time writer-directors Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia, to get under the skin of their silent and haunting debut feature Salvo.

Antonio and Fabio spoke with us about confronting the expectations of Sicilian narratives, the current challenges facing Italian filmmakers, contending with one blind and one silent protagonist, slowly constructing empathy, before taking a moment to look ahead to following up a Sicilian mafia character drama with a Sicilian ghost story.

Why a career in filmmaking? Was there that one inspirational moment?

Antonio Piazza: Fabio and I worked together for a number of years as writers and script consultants for other people, as well as a couple of Italian production companies. A few years ago we decided we wanted to write and direct own story, and so the first thing we did was to go back to Sicily where we come from.

Jury includes four international journalists who will award the Nespresso Grand Prize to one of seven feature films in competition.

British film-maker Andrea Arnold [pictured] will preside over the jury at this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week.

Arnold heads up the jury made up of four international journalists who will award the Nespresso Grand Prize to one of the seven feature films in competition. Last year, the Grand Prize was awarded to Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza’s Salvo.

“I was so excited when Milk screened in La Semaine de la Critique that I kept crashing into things. When I got home I counted 19 bruises,” commented Arnold.

“I am just as excited about being asked to be President of the Jury of the Nespresso Grand Prize for La Semaine de la Critique and I think it might be a good idea to put away the china.”

Arnold’s Red Road and Fish Tank both won the Jury Prize at Cannes...

British filmmaker Andrea Arnold will head this year's Nespresso Grand Prize jury for the 53rd edition of the Semaine de la Critique section during Cannes 2014. The jury, made up of four international journalists, will pick a winner from one of the seven feature films in competition. The winning entry will follow Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza's Salvo, winner of 2013's Nespresso Grand Prize. Story: Jane Campion to Lead Jury at Cannes Film Festival Arnold's short film Milk unspooled in Critics' Week in 1998 and she has been back to the Festival de Cannes several times over the last few

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