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Exclusive: Wolfe Releasing has acquired North American rights to the Italian Lgbtqia+ dramedy Blessed Boys (La Santa Piccola) from Minerva Pictures, ahead of its June 11 North American premiere at the Tribeca Festival, with plans to release it in theaters and on digital in the fall.

Writer-director Silvia Brunelli’s first feature centers on Mario (Vincenzo Antonucci) and Lino (Francesco Pellegrino), who two 18-year-old friends born and raised in the Sanitá quarter in Naples who never have stepped out of their small town. They lead a simple life, until Lino’s little sister, Annaluce (Sofia Guastaferro), convinces the locals that she has performed a miracle and they begin worshipping her as a living saint. The fate of her family abruptly changes: Mario realizes that he is in love with Lino, who does not notice it, and tries to find a way out from his routine life.

Blessed Boys made its world...

Sky have released first look images for a new Sky Original drama, “Unwanted.”

Inspired by the book “Bilal,” an investigative book from journalist Fabrizio Gatti, the eight-part series tells the story of an undercover human rights defender who is helping migrants journey from Africa to Europe as they battle human traffickers and government officials.

Stefano Bises (“Gomorrah”) created and wrote the series in collaboration with with the collaboration of Alessandro Valenti, Bernardo Pellegrini and Michela Straniero. It has just gone into production in Milan, Italy. Marco Bocci (“Fino all’ultimo battito”), pictured above, Jessica Schwarz (“Romy”) and Dada Fungula Bozela (“Snabba Cash”) star alongside Sylvester Groth (“Inglourious Basterds”) and Scot Williams (“Memory”).

They are joined by Hassan Najib, Jonathan Berlin, Jason Derek Prempeh, Cecilia Dazzi, Francesco Acquaroli, Barbara Auer, Marco Palvetti, Denise Capezza, Nuala Peberdy, Samuel Kalambay, Amadou Mbow, Edward Apeagyei, Reshny N’Kouka, Onyinye Odokoro and Massimo De Lorenzo.

The Filming Italy — Los Angeles fest, which runs March 18-21, is a bridgehead between Italy and Hollywood. Here are some of the event’s highlights:

‘The Life Ahead’ panel

“The Life Ahead” director Edoardo Ponti, which is an Italian Netflix Original, will hold an online conversation with Diane Warren, who wrote the film’s theme song “Io Si (Seen).” “The Life Ahead” will be the fest’s opener.

‘It Was Spring Outside’

This life-in-lockdown doc by Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores will have its U.S. premiere at Filming in Italy after launching at the Rome Film Festival. Using material from social media and cellphone videos sent to Salvatores and other sources, this collective project assembled by the prolific helmer, who won an Academy Award for “Mediterraneo,” provides a tapestry of fresh first-hand accounts of how Italians experienced the coronavirus crisis — from empty piazzas to the heroes on the front lines...

Filming has kicked off on this “Italian genre film of international ambition”, an Italian-Brazilian co-production steered by Minerva Pictures and starring Marco Bocci and Fortunato Cerlino. Shooting kicked off yesterday in Fiumicino - to be continued in Rome and other Lazio-based locations - on A Bunch of Bastards, a thriller directed by 41-year-old director Gabriele Albanesi and produced by Minerva Pictures and Rai Cinema. Already the author of two horror films, Il bosco fuori and Ubaldo Terzani Horror Show, both of which co-produced by Manetti Bros., Albanesi is drawing inspiration from the works of Tarantino for this his third feature film, which sees a criminal barely released from prison make his way to a mountain chalet to pick up some high-value stolen goods, before holding the owners hostage so as to take the booty for himself. Leading the cast of A Bunch of Bastards, written by Albanesi himself in league.

Italy’s Minerva Pictures is ramping up its sales side, having acquired international distribution rights to veteran auteur Gianni Amelio’s anticipated “Hammamet,” a biopic of disgraced late Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi. It’s also taken rights to period drama “Aspromonte,” starring Marcello Fonte, winner of last year’s Cannes best actor award for “Dogman.”

“Hammamet,” which portrays Craxi’s final years in the Tunisian seaside villa where he fled from Italian justice, stars Pierfrancesco Favino, who will be in Cannes as the lead actor of Marco Bellocchio’s competition title, “The Traitor.” Now shooting, “Hammamet” is produced by Pepito Prods. and Rai Cinema. Amelio’s previous features include “Lamerica”; “Stolen Children,” which took the Cannes Grand Prix; and “The Way We Laughed,” which won Venice’s Golden Lion.

“Aspromonte” is helmed by Mimmo Calopresti, whose first feature, “The Second Time,” competed in Cannes. Fonte stars as a poet...