News

South Korean psychological thriller “Doubt,” written by Han Ah-Young, won the top international drama series prize at the inaugural edition of the Italian Global Series Festival on Saturday at the Arena Ceccarini in Riccione, Italy.

Han Suk-Kyu won the best actor in a drama series prize for the show, which is about a renowned profiler torn between love and suspicion as he investigates a murder linked to his psychopathic daughter.

Lisa Mulcahy won best director of a drama series for the U.K. show “The Assassin,” while the best actress in a drama series prize went to Phyllis Logan for “The Puzzle Lady.”

The drama jury was led by director Cristina Comencini.

Spain’s “Celeste,” written by Diego San José, took the best international comedy series award while best actress in a comedy series was handed to the show’s Carmen Marchi.

Other prizes in the comedy category included best director,...

Italian director Francesca Archibugi will direct sex-trafficking drama “Illusion” toplining Jasmine Trinca as an intrepid magistrate investigating a prostitution ring with links to the European parliament and Michele Riondino (“Young Montalbano”) as a psychologist.

Shooting is set to start next month in central Italy on the roughly $8 million film that will reunite Archibugi with Trinca who played the lead in the director’s feminist fascist-era saga “La Storia” that was Italy’s biggest TV event of 2023. Italy’s Fandango is co-producing “Illusion” with Rai Cinema and Belgium’s Tarantula.

Fandango sales is launching pre-sales on “Illusion” at the European Film Market.

Trinca (pictured) is an A-list Italian actor who was on the Cannes jury in 2023. In “Illusion” she will play judge Cristina Camponeschi who pursues a prostitution ring with ties to Eastern Europe and to the European Parliament. The investigation kicks off after a 16-year-old named Rosa Lazar “dressed like a Dior supermodel,...

The acclaimed Italian television drama series “La Storia” has signed agreements to expand its international distribution significantly. Based on Elsa Morante’s landmark 1974 novel, the World War II series is streamlining in North America through U.S. and Canadian distribution with MHz Choice. Dual deals in Israel with Yes and Hot networks were also reached. Earlier partnerships were made with several Nordic broadcasters. Beta Film handles global distribution for the series.

The series tells the story of Ida Ramundo, a Jewish widow living in Rome during and after World War II with her two sons. Actress Jasmine Trinca stars as Ida. An ensemble cast of renowned Italian performers bring the production to life, including Asia Argento, Elio Germano, and Valerio Mastandrea.

Director Francesca Archibugi adapted the screenplay from the novel along with writers Francesco Piccolo, Giulia Calenda, and Ilaria Macchia. Picomedia and Thalie Images produce the series in partnership with broadcasters Rai Fiction and Beta.

Exclusive: Italian drama ‘La Storia’ has been picked up for the U.S. and Israel. The series, adapted from the iconic Elsa Morante bestseller, is set in Rome during and soon after World War II. It stars Jasmine Trinca (The Gunman) in the lead role.

MHz Choice, the SVOD service that majors in bringing prestige international television to North American viewers, has acquired it for the U.S. and Canada. Elsewhere, Yes and Hot have picked it up for Israel. Beta Film is handling distribution and cut the deals. It has already sold it to Nrk in Norway, Yle in Finland, Svt in Sweden, Dr in Denmark and Ruv in Iceland.

The series is set during World War II and its immediate aftermath. It turns on the story of a Jewish woman, Ida Ramundo, a widowed mother living in Rome, and her two sons. The book was first published in...

Italy’s Leone Film Group is taking the legacy of its founder, spaghetti Western master Sergio Leone, to the next level.

As the Rome-based company run by the maestro’s children, Raffaella and Andrea, celebrates its 35th anniversary, it continues to consolidate its standing as the preeminent supplier of U.S. indie product to Italy. The Leone’s film and TV production side has been recently growing with a robust slate of high-end content for the international market.

Having become the top distribution partner in Italy for U.S. indies such as Lionsgate, STX Entertainment, Voltage and Black Bear, the Leone Film Group is now focused on what Raffaella Leone calls the “more difficult task” of “laying the groundwork for our production side in the international arena.”

The group’s Lotus Production label, which is now run directly by Raffaella, has a slew of projects in various stages, with new films by James Gray,...

HBO has released the official trailer and key art for the fourth and final season of the critically acclaimed original drama series My Brilliant Friend, which will debut on Monday, September 9 (9:00-10:00 p.m. Et/Pt). The 10-episode season will be available on HBO and Max. New episodes debut weekly.

Based on Elena Ferrante’s bestselling novels, My Brilliant Friend follows Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo. After meeting as children in 1950s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila – Elena’s brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy.

The fourth installment of the saga, “Story of the Lost Child,” delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila. They find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest.

HBO has announced that the fourth and final season of its original drama series My Brilliant Friend will debut on Monday, September 9 (9:00-10:00 p.m. Et/Pt). The 10-episode season will be available on HBO and Max. New episodes debut weekly.

Based on the bestselling novels by Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend follows Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo. After meeting as children in 1950s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila – Elena’s brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy.

The fourth installment of the saga, titled “Story of the Lost Child,” delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila. They find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest.

Amid motherhood and career demands,...

German director Volker Schlöndorff, who won the Cannes’ Palme d’Or and an Oscar for his 1979 drama “The Tin Drum,” is set to direct a film about how Antonio Vivaldi — the 18th-century Italian composer of “The Four Seasons” — formed what is touted as the world’s first all-female orchestra.

Schlöndorff’s still-untitled depiction of this lesser-known aspect of Vivaldi’s career is based on a book by German writer Peter Schneider, which has been adapted for the big screen by Italian scribe Francesco Piccolo (“My Brilliant Friend”) along with the director.

The plan is for cameras to start rolling later this year on the film, which will mark the first foray into Italian-language cinema by Schlöndorff, who is a fluent speaker. It will be shot entirely in Italy. Casting is still being decided, and sales are likely to be launched at the Cannes market in May.

Schlöndorff’s new project...

Memoirs of Hadrian, a seminal novel about the life and death of a Roman emperor, is becoming a TV series.

The 1951 novel, which explores the life of Hadrian from his childhood through his ascent to leading the Roman Empire. It will be written and scripted for TV by Strega Prize winner Francesco Piccolo, who has penned screenplays for Nanni Moretti, Matteo Rovere and Marco Bellocchio among others.

Attached to produce is Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment (Ilbe), Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s film and TV production company that is currently producing Prime Video’s upcoming Cruel Intentions with Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios. No broadcaster or streamer has announced.

Synopsis reads: “From childhood, the life of a profound and sensitive man, aware of his imperial role and the burden he carries, is told. A wise and far-sighted diplomat and a human being marked by splendors and fears,...

Beta Film has announced a half-dozen sales to European public broadcasters on high-end period drama “La Storia,” which is Italian pubcaster Rai’s biggest event show of the year and is world premiering at the Rome Film Fest.

The sweeping eight-episode saga, set in Italy during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath, is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante, whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference.

Set mostly in Rome between 1940 and 1948, “La Storia” looks at fascism and Italy’s early postwar period through a female prism. Ida, a half Jewish widow with a teenage son named Nino, is raped by a drunken German soldier and gets pregnant with Useppe. The tale is centered on how she survives her predicament.

Ahead of the Rome Film Fest premiere of its first two episodes on Friday,...

The Giornate Degli Autori — the independently run event that takes place alongside the Venice Film Festival and is often referred to simply as Venice Days — has unveiled the lineup for its 2023 edition (also it’s 20th).

Among the 10 titles world premiering in competition is Elise Girard’s drama Sidonie in Japan, starring Isabelle Huppert as a French writer mourning her husband’s death while on a book tour. Out of competition, Coup! — a satire set during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic and starring Peter Sarsgaard and Billy Magnussen — will bow, while special events include the world premiere of This Is How a Child Becomes a Poet, a short from Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma (who was previously president of the Venice Days jury). There will also be a special daylong event in honor of late Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée, including a screening of his 2005 drama C.R.A.Z.Y.

Venice...

Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori (GdA) has unveiled the selection for its 20th edition running from August 30 to September 9, featuring a surprise short by Céline Sciamma, a new feature by Teona Strugar Mitevska as well as a tribute to late Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée.

The line-up spans 10 films in competition, seven special events, eight titles in Venetian Nights as well as a special day-long event devoted Vallée and the cinema of Québec, featuring a screening of his 2005 coming of age drama C.R.A.Z.Y.

Highlights of the competition include Canadian filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize’s quirky vampire tale Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person; Atlas Mountains-set ensemble theatre group road movie Backstage by directorial debut Afef Ben Mahmoud and Khalil Benkirane; Through The Night, in which Belgian director Delphine Girard expands her Oscar-nominated short A Sister, and Sidonie In Paris, starring Isabelle Huppert as a writer mourning the...

Francesca Archibugi on Paolo Virzì: “We actually were students together. We studied with Furio Scarpelli, who was a great screenwriter. I think we both loved him very much.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

As a screenwriter, Francesca Archibugi has worked with director/screenwriter Paolo Virzì on his films Magical Nights (Notti Magiche) and The Leisure Seeker (starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland) with Francesco Piccolo. Dry (Siccità) starring Monica Bellucci, Silvio Orlando, Valerio Mastandrea, Vinicio Marchioni, Claudia Pandolfi, Sara Serraiocco, and Tommaso Ragno is Archibugi’s third collaboration with Paolo Virzì, this time also with screenwriters Paolo Giordano and Francesco Piccolo.

Dry star Tommaso Ragno inside the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Piccolo is also the co-writer with Laura Paolucci on Archibugi’s The Hummingbird which was the opening night selection of Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s...

The Hummingbird (Il Colibrì) director Francesca Archibugi with Anne-Katrin Titze on Dancing Barefoot: “That Patti Smith song is very important to me.” And The Clash’s London Calling: “It does belong to Marco’s (Pierfrancesco Favino) story as a boy …”

Francesca Archibugi’s The Hummingbird with songs from Patti Smith, Billie Holiday, and The Clash, stars Pierfrancesco Favino (in Andrea Di Stefano's The Last Night With Amore at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival), Nanni Moretti, Bérénice Bejo, Laura Morante, Kasia Smutniak, Benedetta Porcaroli, Fotinì Peluso, Azzurra Di Marco, Francesco Centorame, and Sergio Albelli Is the opening night selection of Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà’s 22nd edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema.

Luisa Lattes (Bérénice Bejo) with Marco Carrera (Pierfrancesco Favino)

Other highlights include Roberto Andò’s Strangeness with Toni Sevillo (Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning The Great Beauty), as Nobel Prize-winning playwright Luigi Pirandello, Salvo Ficarra,...

Belgian directors Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s Italian-language drama The Eight Mountains and veteran Marco Bellocchio’s Exterior Night topped the 68th edition of Italy’s David di Donatello Awards on Wednesday evening.

The Eight Mountains won best film as well as best non-original screenplay, photography and sound.

Based on the novel of the same name by Paolo Cognetti, it stars Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi as two men from different backgrounds who form a life-long bond during summers spent together as children in a remote mountain village.

The film world premiered in Competition at Cannes last year where it co-won the Jury Prize. Read the Deadline review here.

It is the second time in the history of the awards that a film by non-Italian directors has clinched the best film prize.

The last time was in 1971 when the Dino de Laurentiis-produced epic Waterloo by Russian director Sergei Bonderchuk,...

Exclusive: Italian director Mario Martone, who has been on the festival and awards circuit over the past year with Oscar submission and Cannes title Nostalgia, is at the Berlinale with his passion project Somebody Down There Likes Me.

The documentary pays tribute to late Italian actor and fellow Neapolitan Massimo Troisi who died tragically young at the age of 41 in 1994, just hours after filming wrapped on Michael Radford’s Il Postino (The Postman).

Selected for the Berlinale Specials sidebar, the documentary plays at a sold-out screening on Saturday, on the eve of what would have been the actor’s 70th birthday on February 19. Deadline can reveal a trailer.

Martone says he wants to shed light on the popular actor who he believes has never been properly celebrated.

“Massimo has always remained alive in the collective consciousness because he was a great actor and a great artist,” says the director.

Il Postino,...

Shooting is underway in Naples on the fourth and final season of HBO/Rai series “My Brilliant Friend” which sees some key casting changes in the lead roles of the two best friends, Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo, no longer played by Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace.

For the fourth season of the Elena Ferrante quadrilogy, titled “The Story of the Lost Child,” as previously announced, Alba Rohrwacher (on the left of the first look image) is playing Elena Greco, aka Lenù. Irene Maiorino (“Gomorrah”) has now been announced as Lila. And additionally, Fabrizio Gifuni (“Exterior Night”) will play Nino Sarratore, the writer who has long been the object of Lenù’s affection. Sarratore was previously played by Francesco Serpico.

The fourth season of “Brilliant Friend” is being directed by Laura Bispuri, known for the transgender-themed drama “Sworn Virgin” and for “Daughter of Mine.” Both films starred Rohrwacher and played in Berlin.

In “The Lying Life of Adults,” the lies are elusive things. For those unfamiliar with the Elena Ferrante novel the new Netflix series is adapted from, hearing a premise about a teenage girl looking for answers about her estranged aunt might conjure ideas of generations-long cover-ups and long-held secrets.

What makes this TV version of the story — directed by Edoardo De Angelis and boasting Ferrante among its team of screenwriters — so entrancing is that it downplays the sordid. When Giovanna (Giordana Marengo) begins her search for physical evidence of her aunt Vittoria (Valeria Golino) and the origins of a family split, what she finds doesn’t necessarily contradict much of the story she’s told as she approaches her 16th birthday. “The Lying Life of Adults” is more about assumptions and misunderstandings and willful ignorance of a shared past, leaving the viewer to fill in those gaps, too. The process...

The novel ‘The Lying Life of Adults’ by Elena Ferrante has been adapted into a six-episode series. The trailer of the streaming show was unveiled on Tuesday by Netflix, which has set its premiere date as January 4, 2023.

‘Lying Life’, which is directed by Neapolitan helmer Edoardo De Angelis, stars Valeria Golino in the role of the crass and enigmatic Neapolitan aunt of the story’s young protagonist, named Giovanna, played by newcomer Giordana Marengo, reported Variety.

The Ferrante’s book depicts Giovanna’s transition from childhood to adolescence during the 1990s in a Naples that is actually two kindred cities that fear and loathe one another: the upper-crust Naples of the high quarters, hiding behind the the mask of refinement, and the Naples of its more vulgar and exciting low quarters, where her intriguing aunt Vittoria lives.

According to Variety, Giovanna vacillates between these two sides of the city, neither one offering answers or escaping.

Date

Netflix has revealed the launch date of its Elena Ferrante adaptation “The Lying Life of Adults” and released a provocative poster and teaser art for the show based on the “My Brilliant Friend” author’s latest novel.

“Lying Life,” which will drop debut on Netflix globally on Jan. 4, 2023, is directed by Neapolitan helmer Edoardo De Angelis (“Indivisible”) and stars Valeria Golino in the role of Neapolitan aunt of the story’s young protagonist named Giovanna, played by newcomer Giordana Marengo.

Alessandro Preziosi (“Medici”) plays Giovanna’s father, Andrea, while Pina Turco plays her mother, Nella.

The Ferrante book depicts Giovanna’s transition from childhood to adolescence during the 1990s in a Naples that is actually two kindred cities that fear and loathe one another: the upper crust Naples of the high-quarters, where a mask of refinement is worn, and the Naples of its more vulgar and exciting low quarters...

Netflix Unveils ‘The Lying Life Of Adults’ Launch; Teaser Art

Netflix’s upcoming six-part Italian drama The Lying Life of Adults will launch on January 4, 2023. Teaser art for the Fandango-produced series has also been unveiled this morning. The drama, based on My Brilliant Friendcreator Elena Ferrante’s book of the same name, follows the life of Giovanna, as she transitions from childhood to adolescence in 1990s Naples and jumps between the city’s high and lower classes without finding answers in either world. Edoardo De Angelis is directing with Giordana Marengo playing Giovanna. Valeria Golino, Alessandro Preziosi, Pina Turco, Azzurra Mennella and Rossella Gamba also star. Ferrante writes alongside Laura Paolucci, Francesco Piccolo and De Angelis.

Studio 100 Media Lines Up Latest ‘Heidi’ Feature

Munich-based Studio 100 Media is set to produce a new animated version of classic children’s story Heidi. Studio 100 is the rights holder of the...

On a cobblestone-paved square in the ancient town of Tivoli, north-east of Rome, in late September, a large crew is prepping to shoot a key scene in Italian period drama “La Storia,” which will be pubcaster Rai’s biggest event show next year.

Based on a bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante – whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference – “La Storia” is set during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath in Italy.

The eight-episode series, being unveiled by Beta Film to buyers at Rome’s Mia content market, stars Italian A-list actor Jasmine Trinca – who earlier this year was a member of the Cannes jury – as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution.

The Tivoli square, where costumed extras are taking their positions, is a...

The Hummingbird TIFF Gala Presentations Section Reviewed for Shockya.com by Abe Friedtanzer Director: Francesca Archibugi Writer: Laura Paolucci, Francesca Archibugi, Francesco Piccolo Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino, Kasia Smutniak, Bérénice Bejo, Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante, Sergio Albelli, Massimo Ceccherini, Alessandro Tedeschi, Benedetta Porcaroli Screened at: Scotiabank Theatre, Ontario, 9/18/22 Opens: September 16th, 2022 (Toronto International Film Festival) […]

The post TIFF 2022: The Hummingbird Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Beta Film has come on board to co-produce eight-part Italian period drama series “La Storia,” based on Elsa Morante’s bestselling novel, continuing its successful partnership with Picomedia. Shooting for the production has started in Rome under the helm of director Francesca Archibugi (“Romanzo famigliare”), before moving to Naples and Lazio later in the year. Beta handles world sales.

The cast is led by Jasmine Trinca (“The Gunman”), starring as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution during the end of World War II and post-war Rome. Also starring are Asia Argento (“xXx – Triple X”), Elio Germano (“Leopardi”) and Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”).

The series adapts one of the most critically acclaimed novels of the 20th century, published in two dozen languages. Morante is a landmark figure of feminist literature and the literary role model of Italian star author Elena Ferrante,...

My Brilliant Friend is coming to an end at HBO. But not quite yet.

The WarnerMedia-owned cable network and Italian public broadcaster Rai have renewed the series, which is based on Elena Ferrante’s book series, for a fourth and final season.

It comes as the third season, My Brilliant Friend: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, launched in the U.S. last month.

The fourth season will be based on Ferrante’s The Story of the Lost Child, the fourth book in her quadrilogy.

Cancellations/Renewals Scorecard: TV Shows Ended Or Continuing In 2021-22 Season

Created by Saverio Costanzo, My Brilliant Friend is produced by The Apartment, Fremantle Italy, Wildside and Fandango.

The third season, which stars Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace, follows Elena Greco and Lila, otherwise known as Raffaella Cerullo, both now grown women, during the great open sea of the 1970s. Lila took her...

“My Brilliant Friend” is set to close the book on Elena and Lila’s journey. The Italian- and Neapolitan-language television series has been renewed for a fourth and final season by co-producers HBO and Rai.

Based on the acclaimed “Neapolitan Novels” four-book series by Italian writer Elena Ferrante, “My Brilliant Friend” follows the coming-of-age of two best friends, Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo, who grow up in a poor Naples neighborhood in the 1950s. As the smart-but-shy Elena continues her education and eventually ascends into the wealthy elite, the outspoken Lila is denied schooling by her family and struggles through an abusive marriage. The show, which is named after the first novel in Ferrante’s series, has adapted each book into an eight-episode season, with the fourth season set to adapt the final installment, “The Story of the Lost Child.”

The first three seasons of “My Brilliant Friend” have starred...

The third season of the Rai and HBO series “My Brilliant Friend” is ready to air in Italy and in the U.S., where the high-end show based the third book in Elena Ferrante’s quadrilogy has been set for a Feb. 28 debut on HBO and HBO Max.

The eight-episode adaptation of Ferrante’s 1970s-set novel, “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” was unveiled Wednesday during an online presser held in Rome by Rai, ahead of its premiere on Feb. 6 on the pubcaster’s flagship Rai 1 station.

“My Brilliant Friend: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay” follows Lila (Gaia Gerace), who married at 16, has a young son, left her husband and comfortable life and is now working in a factory under tough conditions. Elena, aka Lenù, (Margherita Mazzucco) meanwhile has left the Naples neighborhood, earned her college degree and published a successful novel, all of which has...

Netflix Reveals Italian Series Slate

Netflix has revealed a handful of new series out of Italy and confirmed the imminent start of shoot on Elena Ferrante adaptation The Lying Life Of Adults, which will star Valeria Golino. Scroll down for the series (synopses translated from Italian). Netflix’s VP of Italian Originals Tinny Andreatta, the former Rai exec, said: “Being able to show the world Italy as it really is, in its authenticity, in its culture, in its beauty and contradictions, in its roots and infinite reserves of imagination, through the voice of the best authors and directors, and taking it to 190 countries, is our great challenge: it’s a challenge that we want to face together with our production partners and Italian talent.” Previously announced Italian series include Luna Park, out on September 30th; Guida Astrologica per Cuori Infranti (Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts); and Strappare Lungo I Bordi...

Netflix is moving forward with its Elena Ferrante series adaptation, “The Lying Life of Adults,” which will start shooting in Naples in October with Neapolitan helmer Edoardo De Angelis (“Indivisible”) directing and Valeria Golino playing a prominent role.

“Lying Life of Adults” leads a slate of Netflix Italian original series projects — several of which are literary adaptations — that were announced in Rome on Thursday by Eleonora “Tinny” Andreatta in her first meeting with the press since joining the streaming giant last year as VP of Italian Original series after a long stint as head of drama at Italian public broadcaster Rai.

Golino, who kickstarted her acting career in Hollywood co-starring with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in Barry Levinson’s “Rain Man,” will soon be seen again by U.S. audiences in season 2 of Apple Original “The Morning Show.”

In “Lying Life,” Golino will play Vittoria whom Andreatta described as...

Drama is adapted from Sandro Veronesi’s 2019 bestseller Il Colibrì (The Hummingbird).

France’s Orange Studio has boarded Francesca Archibugi’s new feature Il Colibrì which is currently shooting in Tuscany with Pierfrancesco Favino, Bérénice Bejo, Nanni Moretti and Laura Morante in the cast.

The company, which is the film and TV arm of French telecoms group Orange, has joined the production in association with Anne-Dominique Toussaint at Paris-based Les Films des Tournelles. It has taken all rights for France.

The film is lead-produced by Domenico Procacci at Fandango, with Rai Cinema. Fandango Sales is handling international sales.

The feature has been adapted by Archibugi,...

Aldo (Luigi Lo Cascio) with Vanda (Alba Rohrwacher) in Daniele Luchetti’s tightly wound The Ties (Lacci)

Daniele Luchetti’s The Ties (Lacci), adapted from the novel by Domenico Starnone, with co-screenwriter Francesco Piccolo, which stars Alba Rohrwacher and Luigi Lo Cascio with Laura Morante, Silvio Orlando, Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Adriano Giannini was a highlight of the 2021 virtual edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, presented by Film at Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà in New York.

Daniele Luchetti with Anne-Katrin Titze on costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini: “He has great taste, not to mention the fact that he really knows the craft well, he really knows his fabrics.”

The film begins with a closeup of shoes. Dancing feet - lacci also means laces - hop in a carnivalesque conga line. Children are having fun in their costumes, while Vanda (Alba Rohrwacher) and Aldo (Luigi Lo Cascio) cannot...

Oscar-nominated French actor Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”) has joined Pierfrancesco Favino (“The Traitor”), Nanni Moretti, and the Italian cast of romantic drama “Il Colibrì,” which has started shooting in Rome.

Fandango Sales is launching sales at the virtual Cannes market on this high-profile drama directed by Francesca Archibugi (“A Question of the Heart”) based on the eponymous novel by Sandro Veronesi, winner of Italy’s top literary prize, the Premio Strega 2020. The book is now set for translation in 25 countries, including the U.S.

Domenico Procacci’s Fandango, which is producing the €7.85 million ($9.3 million) film with Rai Cinema, has set it up as an Italian-French co-production by teaming up with Anne-Dominique Toussaint Paris-based Les Films des Tournelles. The two companies previously collaborated two decades ago on Emanuele Crialese’s Sicily-set “Respiro,” which in the early aughts made an international splash.

“Colibrì,” which translates literally as “Hummingbird,” is set over several decades.

Two of the highlights of the 2021 virtual edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema presented by Film at Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà are Salvatore Mereu’s adaptation of Giulio Angioni’s Assandira, starring Gavino Ledda with Anna König, Marco Zucca, and Corrado Giannetti, and Daniele Luchetti’s The Ties (Lacci), adapted from the novel by Domenico Starnone, with co-screenwriter Francesco Piccolo, which stars Alba Rohrwacher and Luigi Lo Cascio with Laura Morante, Silvio Orlando, Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Adriano Giannini.

Starnone’s novel begins with Vanda’s letters to her husband Aldo. She writes about how she feels and how she sees what he is doing to their family, which includes two small children, Sandro and Anna. “You want to isolate me, cut me out completely. And what matters most, you want to...

Marco Zucca as Mario and Gavino Ledda as Costantino in Salvatore Mereu’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema highlight Assandira

Two of the highlights of the 2021 virtual edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema are Daniele Luchetti’s The Ties (Lacci), adapted from the novel by co-screenwriter Domenico Starnone, and Francesco Piccolo, which stars Alba Rohrwacher and Luigi Lo Cascio, and Salvatore Mereu’s adaptation of Giulio Angioni’s Assandira, starring Gavino Ledda with Anna König, Marco Zucca, and Corrado Giannetti. Film at Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà’s festival opens with Damiano D'Innocenzo and Fabio D'Innocenzo’s Bad Tales (Favolacce) this Friday.

Salvatore Mereu in Sardinia with his son Francesco Mereu (our translator) in Bologna and Anne-Katrin Titze in New York

In 2013, before the New York Open Roads Italian Cinema luncheon for the Rome delegation of filmmakers, which included Marco Bellocchio for Dormant Beauty and Daniele Cipri for It Was The Son,...

Veteran Italian auteur Daniele Luchetti, whose most recent film “The Ties” opened the 2020 Venice Film Festival, is now shooting season 3 of HBO-rai series “My Brilliant Friend,” taking the reins from helmer-showrunner Saverio Costanzo, who is taking a break.

The show’s hotly anticipated third season is based on the bestselling novel “My Brilliant Friend – Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” the third book of the quadrilogy by Elena Ferrante published in the U.S. by Europa Editions. It’s produced by The Apartment and Wildside, both Fremantle companies, along with FremantleMedia Italia and Fandango Production, in collaboration with Rai Fiction and HBO Entertainment. The story and screenplays are by Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo.

Luchetti spoke exclusively to Variety about the upcoming season’s cinematic references, the two protagonists’ journeys, and his personal connection to the material.

Saverio had told me that after referencing Neorealism in...

Italian director Paolo Virzì has begun shooting in Rome on apocalyptic drama “Siccità,” set amid a protracted drought in the Italian capital and featuring an A-list local cast comprising Monica Bellucci, Sara Serraiocco (“Counterpart”) and Silvio Orlando (“The Young Pope”).

Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa are producing for Wildside, the Fremantle-owned company behind “The Young Pope,” “My Brilliant Friend” and “We Are Who We Are.” Vision Distribution, which is jointly operated by Comcast’s Sky Italia and five prominent Italian production companies, will distribute in Italy with plans for a theatrical release.

The film follows a group of characters from all walks of life who are tied by a single tragic, mocking thread as each one seeks their redemption.

The story treatment was penned by Paolo Giordano (“We Are Who We Are”) in tandem with Virzì, whose English-language “The Leisure Seeker,” with Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren, was released in the U.

The Italian director is now filming this Wildside and Vision Distribution production in Rome, imagining the Italian capital stricken by a water shortage, wreaking havoc on rules and customs. Monica Bellucci and Valerio Mastandrea play two of the lead characters in Paolo Virzì’s Siccità, which just began shooting in Rome. The new film by the Livorno-born director imagines a version of Rome where it hasn’t rained for three years, resulting in a water shortage which upends rules and habits. Circulating within this city overcome by thirst yet drowning in prohibitions is a group of characters who are both young and old, marginalised and successful, victims and profiteers. Their lives are interlinked in one tragic and mocking design as each of them searches for personal redemption. Siccità’s film treatment was written by Paolo Giordano and Paolo Virzì, while the script was penned by Francesca Archibugi, Francesco Piccolo, Paolo Giordano and Paolo.

The film stars Alba Rohrwacher and will play out of competition.

Daniele Luchetti’s Lacci will open this year’s Venice Film Festival (September 2-12). It is the first Italian film in 11 years to open Venice.

Playing out of competition, the film stars Alba Rohrwacher, Luigi Lo Cascio, Laura Morante, Silvio Orlando, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Adriano Giannini and Linda Caridi, and is based on Domenico Starnone’s novel about an unhappy marriage set in 1980s Naples.

Lacci is produced by Ibc Movie with Rai Cinema, and was written by Domenico Starnone, Francesco Piccolo and Daniele Luchetti. mk2 Films is handling sales.

In a first for an Italian movie in over a decade, Daniele Luchetti’s Lacci has been set to open the Venice Film Festival’s 77th edition on September 2. The drama is based on the novel by Domenico Starnone and stars Alba Rohrwacher, Luigi Lo Cascio, Laura Morante, Silvio Orlando, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Adriano Giannini and Linda Cadri. It will screen out of competition.

Venice runs from September 2-12 on the Lido with the full lineup due to be announced next week. This is the first major international film event since the coronavirus pandemic began. Although it’s been a while, it’s not terribly surprising that an Italian movie has been designated to open the proceedings as a tribute to the country’s rich cinema history and recent strength — it may also be indicative of a lack of major available Hollywood titles, particularly given that travel restrictions could still be in place in early September.

The Venice Film Festival is set to open with “La Nostra Vita” director Daniele Luchetti’s latest film, “Lacci” (The Ties).

The Naples-set feature, which will play out of competition, stars Alba Rohrwacher, Luigi Lo Cascio, Laura Morante, Silvio Orlando, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Adriano Giannini and Linda Caridi. Set in the early 1980s, the film is based on Domenico Starnone’s eponymous 2017 novel and centers on a marriage that is threatened by a potential affair.

“Recently, we have all feared that cinema might become extinct,” said Luchetti. “Yet during the quarantine it gave us comfort, like a light gleaming in a cavern. Today we have understood something else: that films, television series, novels, are indispensable in our lives.

“Long live festivals, then, which allow us to come together to celebrate the true meaning of our work. If anyone thought it served no purpose, they now know it is important to everyone.

The Traitor Sony Pictures Classics Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Marco Bellocchio Screenwriters: Marco Bellochio, Ludovica Rampoldi, Valia Santela, Francesco Piccolo Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fausto Russo Alesi, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Fabrizio Ferracane, Nicola Calì Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/8/20 Opens: May 12, 2020 […]

The post The Traitor Movie Review: The true story of the Cosa Nostra appeared first on Shockya.com.

The ceremony was run from an empty studio with winners acknowledging awards via video-link.

Marco Bellocchio’s mafia drama The Traitor swept Italy’s top David di Donatello awards on Friday evening (May 8), winning six prizes including best film, director and lead actor.

The biopic, which premiered in Competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, captures the life of Tommaso Buscetta, the late infamous mafia turncoat who began his organised crime career in Sicily and died in Florida incognito under the Us witness protection programme in 2000.

It marked the first time Bellocchio has won best film at the awards although he...

Marco Bellocchio’s elegant mob drama “The Traitor,” about the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia’s oath of silence, was the big winner at Italy’s 65th David di Donatello Awards, the country’s equivalent of the Oscars.

“The Traitor” scored six statuettes including best picture, director, and actor honors.

The prizes were announced – but not physically given out – during a no-frills ceremony conducted in primetime on pubcaster Rai by star host Carlo Conti in an empty studio with talents appearing in live web platform link-ups. The event served as a collective rebirth rite just when local coronavirus lockdown restrictions slowly begin to lift.

“My wish is for the Italian film community to start working again,” Bellocchio, who is a revered veteran auteur, said speaking from his home, before adding: “I’m 80, and I also hope to make a few more movies.”

“The Traitor,...

HBO has picked up another season of Italian drama adaptation My Brilliant Friend.

The series, which is co-produced with Italian public broadcaster Rai and Fremantle, is based on Elena Ferrante’s novels. The eight-part second season, My Brilliant Friend: The Story Of A New Name, debuted in the U.S. on March 16.

The third season will be based on Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Ferrante’s third book in the series.

It is produced by The Apartment, Wildside and Fandango with Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani producing for Fremantle’s The Apartment and Wildside and Domenico Procacci producing for Fandango. It was created for television by Saverio Costanz.

Starring Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace, the story and screenplays are by Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo. Paolo Sorrentino and Jennifer Schuur are the executive producers. Fremantle is the international distributor in association with Rai Com.

Three of China’s leading platforms have acquired the second season of HBO and Rai drama “My Brilliant Friend.”

iQIYI, Alibaba’s Youku and Tencent Video have all bought the second season of the show, entitled “My Brilliant Friend: The Story of a New Name,” from distributor Fremantle, as well as re-licensing the first.

This marks the first time a non-English language European drama has sold to all three platforms simultaneously. The first season sold to iQIYI in China originally.

Based on the second book of Elena Ferrante’s bestselling series, “My Brilliant Friend: The Story of a New Name” recently launched on Italy’s Rai 1 — becoming the nation’s highest rated drama in almost a year — as well as launching on HBO in the U.S.

“The fact that the series has sold to the biggest platforms in the region at the same time non-exclusively is testament to its...

The second season of Italian-language drama My Brilliant Friend: The Story Of A New Name is heading to China after Fremantle signed a deal with three of the country’s leading platforms.

iQIYI, Youku (Alibaba) and Tencent Video have all bought the second season of the drama, as well as re-licensing the first. The deal marks the first time that a non-English language European drama has sold to all three platforms simultaneously.

Based on the second book of Elena Ferrante’s bestselling novel series, the show recently launched on Italy’s Rai 1 as the nation’s highest-rated drama in almost a year and aired on HBO in the U.

Marco Bellocchio with Pierfrancesco Favino on The Traitor (Il Traditore): “The whole world is really tied together by the moon.”

Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor (Il Traditore), co-written with Valia Santella, Ludovica Rampoldi, Francesco Piccolo, and Francesco La Licata, shot by Vladan Radovic is a film of breathtaking beauty with costumes by Daria Calvelli. Pierfrancesco Favino gives a career-defining performance in his portrayal of real-life Mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta.

Judge Falcone (Fausto Russo Alesi) with Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino)

There is nothing alluring about the lifestyle of his family, when Marco Bellocchio takes it on, because the director never lets us forget the threat of violence, lurking around every corner, in every scene. A count-up warns of assassinations to come and music soothes and heightens, in a way only Bellocchio knows how to combine.

Buscetta, after his extradition from exile in Brazil in the Eighties, and the murderous rampage by rivalling factions of.

The Traitor director Marco Bellocchio on Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese: “Unlike the great tradition of American Mafia movies and their use of imagery, here all characters are true characters and events that actually happened that we then manipulated or re-elaborated.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor (Il Traditore), co-written with Valia Santella, Ludovica Rampoldi, Francesco Piccolo, and Francesco La Licata, produced by Simone Gattoni and Giuseppe Caschetto, and starring Pierfrancesco Favino as Tommaso Buscetta, received four European Film Award nominations. Best Film, Best Director (won by Yorgos Lanthimos), Best Screenwriter (won by Céline Sciamma for Portrait Of A Lady On Fire), and Best Actor (won by Antonio Banderas in Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain And Glory).

Alba Rohrwacher (in Dormant Beauty) on Marco Bellocchio: “I can say he is one of my masters. He taught me a lot.”

Before The Wonders: Alice and Alba Rohrwacher retrospective...

Now in their 32nd year, the European Film Awards unfold Saturday in Berlin, and here’s where you can live-stream the ceremony. With some titles controversial (Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy”) and others at least a year old for those of us stateside (“The Favourite”), this year’s ceremony is sure to be a fun romp.

Leading the pack is director “An Officer and a Spy,” the Dreyfus affair drama that picked up a top prize at Venice back in September, tied for four nominations alongside Pedro Almodóvar’s self-reflective “Pain and Glory,” Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Favourite.” While released in the fall of 2018 in the United States, the latter film’s international release window made it eligible for the European Film Awards this year. “The Favourite” won star Olivia Colman, who plays a gout-stricken Queen Anne, a Best Actress Academy Award earlier...

Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” and Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” lead the race for the 32nd European Film Awards with four nominations apiece in the major categories. The awards, voted on by more than 3,600 members of the European Film Academy, will be presented at the awards ceremony on Dec. 7 in Berlin.

Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” followed with three nominations in the top categories each, while Ladj Ly’s “Les Misérables” and Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” were both short-listed in two major categories.

“The Favourite” picked up an additional nomination in the comedy category, while “Les Misérables” received a further nomination in the Discovery section for newcomers.

A single nomination each went to “A White, White Day,” “And Then We Danced,” “Beanpole,” “Gundermann” and “Queen of Hearts.”

Competing for best documentary are “For Sama,...