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Legendary actress Jacqueline Bisset, actor/director Jack Huston and songwriter Diane Warren, who is heading into the Oscars on March 2 as an Oscar nominee for the 16th time, will be guests of honor at the opening ceremony of the 20th Los Angeles, Italia Film, Fashion and Art Festival on Sunday, Feb. 23, fest organizers announced on Saturday.

The ceremony, which will take place at the Tcl Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, will also celebrate Sergio Castellitto, to whom the fest will also be dedicating a retrospective; Pupi Avati and Antonio Avati; and Marco Belardi. It will be followed by a special screening of Roberto Rossellini’s 1954 film Journey to Italy, starring Ingrid Bergman, in honor of Rossellini and Bergman’s daughter Isabella Rossellini, who, for her supporting performance in Conclave, is nominated for an Oscar for the first time.

The rest of the fest will include more than 120 screenings — among them 30 U.

Italy’s Minerva Pictures has taken international sales on veteran director Pupi Avati’s Dante Alighieri biopic “Dante” starring Sergio Castellitto as the Florentine bard.

Minerva will be introducing “Dante” to buyers at the Venice Film Festival’s informal market and then at Rome’s Mia Market in October. Pic is set for release in Italy on Sept. 29 via Rai Cinema’s 01 Distribution.

Over the course of his long career, Avati has shot more than 40 films in a wide range of genres, including the cult horror pic “The House with Laughing Windows”; romancer “The Heart Is Elsewhere,” which went to Cannes; the biopic “Bix” about American trumpet player Bix Beiderbecke; psychological drama “Giovanna’s Father” with Alba Rohrwacher; and the 2019 thriller “Il Signor Diavolo,” to name a few.

Castellitto, an Italian A-lister who starred with Penelope Cruz in “Don’t Move,” which he also directed, plays the Renaissance poet during the...

While his father Mario probably cast a longer shadow than anyone else in Italian horror cinema, Lamberto Bava has managed to leave a prominent mark on the genre through popular works such as Demons (1985) and Demons 2 (‘86). Today we’re going to rewind the clock to his official directorial debut, Macabre (1980), a truly ludicrous and bizarre film “inspired” by true events. I bet they never happened like this.

Bava Jr. certainly spent his time in the trenches, working for Dario Argento and helping his dad finish Shock (1977); while he wrote the script with friends Roberto Gandus, and Pupi and Antonio Avati as a lark after reading a newspaper story from the U.S., he was given the reins to bring this lurid story to the screen as his official calling card. And bring it he does.

Released three years later Stateside as Frozen Terror, Macabre (aka Macabro) did little business...

Sharon Stone's experience filming The Golden Boy was anything but. The Avati Brothers (consisting of director Pupi Avati and his producer Antonio Avati) claim the 56-year-old Basic Instinct star had some diva-like demands while shooting in Italy! Per the Hollywood Reporter, it was the film's director's idea for Stone to "an actress from the '90s who becomes a book editor."He "knew there are American actresses more capable than her," said Pupi, "but I wanted a film icon. Everyday on the set I was telling her: 'But do you realize that you are Sharon Stone because of that day when you crossed your legs?'" According to Pupi, his brother Antonio "asked me if I...

The Avati brothers aren't enchanted by Sharon Stone's attitude. Pupi and Antonio Avati — who worked with the actress on the upcoming film Golden Boy — are claiming that Stone was a difficult diva on set. The Italian filmmakers went into detail about her alleged outrageous demands during a recent press conference in Rome. Director Pupi Avati wrote the role of Ludovica, an actress-turned publisher, specifically for 56-year-old Stone. The brothers were surprised when she took the part, but not as shocked as when they met her [...]...

Sharon Stone’s Italian cinema debut hit theaters on Thursday — and the brothers behind the film are painting the American actress as a diva who was difficult to work with. The film, Golden Boy, comes from celebrated director Pupi Avati and his producer-brother Antonio Avati. Casting Stone for the low-budget film was a big win for the duo. In Golden Boy, Riccardo Scamarcio plays Davide, a copywriter whose father Ettore was a B-movie screenwriter. After his father dies in a car accident, Davide leaves his job, city and girlfriend Silvia, played by Cristiana Capotondi. He moves to

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"The Best Man" (Il Testimone dello Sposa) is a sometimes charming fairy tale about love set in the tradition-laden end of the 19th century. The feature, showcased at the Berlin Film Festival, has a few magical moments, but its slow pace makes this pretty love story a risky bet when it comes to boxoffice returns.

Italian star Diego Abatantuono ("Mediterraneo") plays the closed-mouthed, macho Angelo, who returns to Italy after making his fortune in America to serve as best man at a friend's wedding on New Year's Eve 1899. The bride in this arranged marriage is the stunningly beautiful Francesca (Ines Sastre), but she is not attracted to her groom, Edgardo (Dario Cantarelli), and pines for true love.

When Francesca's eyes meet Angelo's at the altar, it's love at first sight, but she has already said "I do", and the evening that follows is a disaster.

Francesca is torn between admitting her newfound love and hiding it to protect her family, and her mother (Valeria D'Obici) is sent into a tailspin trying to control the damage. (To make matters worse, Francesca's father is in debt to Edgardo).

The most charming parts of the film are director-screenwriter Pupi Avati's observations of the family's and neighbors' quirky social interaction and of the sometimes superstitious Catholic-influenced wedding traditions of the time.

But those moments don't come as fast as they should, the dialogue is not witty enough, and the mishaps are not as funny as they should be. Worse, we are never sure whether Angelo shares Francesca's feelings, a serious flaw in the film.

THE BEST MAN (Il Testimone dello Sposa)

Luigi & Aurelio De Laurentiis and Antonio Avati present

a Filmauro/Duea Film production

Director-screenwriter: Pupi Avati

Producers: Aurelio De Laurentiis, Antonio Avati

Director of photography: Pasquale Rachini

Production designers: Alberto Cottignoli,

Steno Tonelli

Costume designer: Vittoria Guaita

Editor: Amedeo Salfa

Music: Riz Ortolani

Cast:

Angelo: Diego Abatantuono

Francesca: Ines Sastre

Edgardo: Dario Cantarelli

Peppina: Cinzia Mascoli

Olimpia: Valeria D'Obici

Manlio: Toni Santagata...

Pupi Avati's feature deals with the madness and turmoil surrounding a film festival, specifically Venice's, so it's altogether fitting that it should have its U.S. premiere at a film fest, in this case the 14th Miami Film Festival. This quietly absorbing movie is likely to be of more interest to those who attend such events than the general public, but it has several qualities that recommend it, particularly a subtle and powerful performance from Massimo Boldi.

Boldi plays Franco Melis, an Italian comedian who has fallen on hard times after a sex-and-drugs scandal obliterated his successful movie and television career. He has been reduced to playing in small clubs, where he's heckled by drunks. His personal life is equally a shambles; he left his wife and son and lost most of his friends. Only his loyal agent sticks by him.

Melis takes a starring role in a small independent film from a first- time director and finds himself on a career upswing. Suddenly, although his presence is overshadowed by the big American stars and the sexy starlets, he is a candidate for the best actor prize at Venice. Melis is convinced that he won't win because of an unspecified incident from his past involving one of the judges on the jury, but, despite his well-honed reservations, he allows his hopes to rise.

Avati takes a subtle approach to his satire, and the film documents the craziness of film festivals without lapsing into overly broad humor. It could be argued that he takes too quiet an approach; both in the direction and the performances, the film rarely strikes more than a single note, and at times it borders on the monotonous. Still, it has many quietly observed moments that ring true, and its delineation of the hollowness and self-absorption of its lead character is an apt portrait of show-business egomania turned inward. Boldi beautifully captures the essential sadness typical of so many comedians and admirably never softens his characterization to beg audience sympathy.

FESTIVAL

Filmauro

Director Pupi Avati

Story-screenplay Pupi Avati,

in collaboration with Antonio Avati,

Giorgio Gosetti, Doriano Fasoli, Nino Marino

Producers Antonio Avati, Aurelio De Laurentiis Cinematographer Chicca Ungaro

Editor Amadeo Salfa

Music Pino Donaggio

Color/stereo

Cast:

Franco Massimo Boldi

Alexandra Isabelle Pasco

Renzo Polpo Gianni Cavina

Carloa Margaret Mazzantini

Running time -- 97 minutes

No MPAA rating...

CANNES -- The soundtrack is the main glory and selling point of ''Bix,'' an English-language but Italian-made biopic by the Avati family based on the life of famed musician Leon ''Bix'' Beiderbecke. This Iowa boy made an indelible mark on jazz in the roaring '20s but, because of booze and an appetite for self-destruction, he died in 1931 at the age of 28.

If the ''Bix'' saga falls far short of any intended bull's-eye, and it does, there'll be no squawking about the music that zings, struts and vibrates in the foreground and background as the story unfolds. Recycling a wealth of old jazz tunes from the 1920s, many of them actually Beiderbecke's own, ''Bix'' is worth a visit if only to listen to what transpires when the talking stops.

If properly promoted, album sales of the soundtrack, with arrangements by Bob Wilber, could ring up some impressive totals. The movie itself may not be so lucky.

For such a downbeat tale, the film (labeled ''an interpretation of a legend'') is painted with surprisingly rosy strokes, in a glossy manner reminiscent of Hollywood musical biopics of the 1940s.

(Curiously, although made 41 years ago, Warner Bros.' ''Young Man With a Horn, '' loosely based on Beiderbecke's life and starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and Doris Day, looks like a more contemporary rendition than this postcard-pretty version.)

The sunshine aspect may seem too old-fashioned for today's hipper moviegoers, and Beiderbecke devotees may find it all too lightweight a telling.

It's not to say that the film isn't entertaining; it is, although it is nowhere near a definitive inspection of the great cornetist Bix nor is it a realistic recreation of the Jazz Age in which he soared to fame before the fall.

The script by Pupi Avati, Antonio Avati and Lino Patruno fairly breezes along, hop-skipping backwards and forwards in time, but never digs lower than a chipper surface level to investigate what made the title character tick, then stop ticking.

The film opens after the premature death of Bix in 1931, then backspaces to 1924 to set up his pre-success days as an unreliable student, constantly perplexing to his small-town parents. In school he forms an alliance with Hoagy Carmichael (Romano Luccio Orzari) and Don Murray (Matthew Buzzell) that leads to the formation of a jazz band. From then on, it's a zoom to the big time, hampered only by Bix's own demons which eventually lead to his early demise.

He drinks but we're never told why. He's also unreliable, although constantly professing his desire to please both kin and friends. He's super-talented but can't hold a job. Next to blowing a horn, the most important thing in his life, he says, is to settle down, yet that seems beyond his realm. And whatever the reasons, the script keeps them secret.

He drinks but we're never told why. He's also unreliable, although constantly professing his desire to please both kin and friends. He's super-talented but can't hold a job. Next to blowing a horn, the most important thing in his life, he says, is to settle down, yet that seems beyond his realm. And whatever the reasons, the script keeps them secret., a factor that hampers ''Bix'' from flying anywhere as high as its music does.

Too bad, too, because there's much to like here in spite of the unfilled holes. The cast is fresh-faced and new, led by Bryant Weeks in the title role. He may not be quite up to the John Garfield-ish demands of this particular character, but he possesses a scrubbed likability and demeanor that should put him in good stead for other future roles.

Emile Levisetti is especially impressive as jazz violinist Joe Venuti, Bix's longtime buddy and himself a celebrated musician. He frames the story in a brief prologue and epilogue with Sally Groth, and makes his moments some of the best in the film. Orzari is also winning as Carmichael (with Carmichael's ''Stardust'' also getting a brief reprise on the soundtrack), and rest of the players are attractive and able.

Each has been given Rolls-Royce support by the art direction of Carlo Simi, the costumes of Graziella Virgili and Carla Seinera Bertoni, the editing by Amedeo Salfa and, especially, the cinematography by Pasquale Rachini, who makes the film a consistent visual treat.

Much of the film was shot in and around Davenport, Iowa, and captures much of the attractiveness of the state. Iowa, in fact, is involved in the production of the film, listed here as being produced by Antonio Avati for Duea Film and Union P.N. with the collaboration of Raiuno, Artisti Associati International, the state of Iowa, the city of Davenport and the Iowa Film Office, with Sacis handling international distribution.

Wide acceptance in the United States, a logical target since the film's in English with an American background, is iffy, but certainly worth a try.

If distributors and theater owners are wise, they'll also have CDs and tapes available for sale in the lobby. That's where the hefty sales will be.

BIX

(Italian)

Director Pupi Avati

Producer Antonio Avati

Writers Pupi Avati, Antonio Avati, Lino Patruno

Cinematographer Pasquale Rachini

Production designer Carlo Simi

Costume designers Graziella Virgili, Carla Seinera Bertonik

Music arranger Bob Wilber

Editor Amedeo Salfa

In English

Color

Cast:

''Bix'' Beiderbecke Bryant Weeks

Venuti Emile Levisetti

Beiderbecke Julia Ewing

Burnie Beiderbecke Mark Collver

Hoagy Carmichael Romano Luccio Orzari

Don Murray Matthew Buzzel

Bismark Ray Edelstein

Frankie Trumbauer Mark James Sovel

Marie-Louise Barbara Wilder

Lisa Sally Groth

Pee Wee Michael T. Henderson

Running time -- 111 minutes

(c) The Hollywood Reporter...