News

Venice appoints additional jury presidents; Sam Mendes already on board as competition jury president.

Director Robert Guédiguian (Marius and Jeannette) has been set as president of Venice’s Orizzoniti Jury and actor-director Kim Rossi Stuart (Romanzo Criminale) will serve as president of the jury for the Luigi De Laurentiis Venice Award for a Debut Film - Lion of the Future.

French director Guédiguian, known for his focus on Marseille and working class life, presented La Ville Est Tranquille at the festival in 2000.

Kim Rossi Stuart’s films has often featured at Venice, including Le Chiavi Di Casa (2004) by Gianni Amelio and Vallanzasca (2010) by Michele Placido.

The Orizzonti section awards the Orizzonti Award for Best Film; Orizzonti Award for Best Director; Special Orizzonti Jury Prize; Orizzonti Award for Best Actor or Actress; Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay; Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film.

The international Jury of the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film awards...

'Son of Saul': Géza Röhrig in the Los Angeles Film Critics Awards' Best Foreign Language Film winner. Charlotte Rampling, Michael Fassbender: Los Angeles Film Critics Awards 2015 The Los Angeles Film Critics Association's 2015 winners were announced on Sunday, Dec. 6. Lafca is one of the two most influential critics groups – i.e., those whose decisions get at least some mainstream media mileage – in the United States. The other one is the much older New York Film Critics Circle, followed by the National Society of Film Critics. Five-decade movie veteran Charlotte Rampling,[1] who'll turn 70 next Feb. 5, was one of the day's big winners. Besides being selected Best Actress by the Los Angeles Film Critics for her performance in 45 Years, Rampling was also the 2015 Boston Society of Film Critics' pick. Earlier this year, Andrew Haigh's marital drama costarring Tom Courtenay (Doctor Zhivago, The Dresser) earned her the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival.

International co-production and co-production markets around the globe will not be the same now following the news that the internationally respected German producer-distributor Karl Baumgartner has died at the age of 65.

Known affectionately by friends and colleagues alike as ¨Baumi¨, Baumgartner hailed from the South Tyrol, but was ¨ at home¨ in different countries and cultures, working with film-makers on projects located in some of the seemingly most inaccessible or logistically nightmarish parts of the planet.

Hearing him recount the making of Bakhtiar Khudojnazarov’s Luna Papa at one of the countless co-production panels with his tales of the shooting being stopped by floods washing the set away, the outbreak of civil war and being evacuated by the Red Cross floods, one often wondered whether he purposely looked for such challenges.

Not to speak of the challenge of putting such delicate and time-consuming co-production structures together involving tried-and-tested production partners, public funders and broadcasters from across Europe and beyond...

Charlotte Rampling and David Thewlis have joined the cast of Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction for Intermedia Films and C2 Pictures. MGM/Sony is releasing the film domestically, with C2 handling international. They join Sharon Stone and David Morrissey in the sequel that starts shooting this week at London's Pinewood Studios and on location in the U.K. Written by Leora Barish and Henry Bean, the London-set sequel finds Catherine Tramell (Stone) on the wrong side of the law. She meets a man who might finally be her match: The criminal psychologist (Morrissey) assigned to evaluate her by Scotland Yard. Rampling plays a psychiatrist friend of Morrissey's character, with Thewlis playing a police officer. Former British soccer player Stan Collymore also has a small role. Thewlis will next be seen in Kingdom of Heaven. His credits include , Gangster No. 1 and Timeline. Thewlis is repped by WMA. Rampling's credits include Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool, Spy Game, The Statement and The Keys to the House. Rampling is repped by Artmedia.

CANNES -- Giovanni Veronesi and Ferzan Ozpetek led the way with 12 David di Donatello nominations each for their respective films Manuale D'Amore (Manual of Love) and Cuore Sacro (Sacred Heart), Italy's equivalent to the Oscars. Both films were nominated in the best film category. Paolo Sorrentino's Le Consequenze dell'amore (The Consequences of Love) and Gianni Amelio's Le Chiavi di Casa (The House Keys) received 10 and seven award nominations respectively including best film and director nominations. Rounding out the best film category was Certi Bambini (Certain Kids), which was directed by Andrea and Antonio Frazzi. Both Ozpetek and the Frazzi brothers were nominated for best director as was Davide Ferrario for Dopo Mezzanotte (After Midnight), which received ten nominations.

ROME -- Gianni Amelio's Le chiavi di casa (The Keys to the House) was awarded Italy's Nastro D'Argento for best film, and Sergio Castellitto's Non Ti Muovere (Don't Move) garnered three awards, including best screenplay. Sophomore director Paolo Sorrentino and his film Le conseguenze dell'amore (The Consequences of Love) also fared well, with the film's protagonist Toni Servillo winning best actor, Raffaele Pisu winning best supporting actor and Sorrentino himself winning the Nastro D'Argento for best subject. Aurelio De Laurentiis was awarded the best producer award for his work on Che ne sara di noi (What Will Happen to Us) and Tutto in quella notte (All in a Night).

The list of foreign-language Oscar contenders grew a bit longer Thursday as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday received entries from Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Mexico. An Italian jury of 711 cinema and cultural professionals selected Gianni Amelio's Rai Cinema production Le Chiavi di Casa (The Keys to the House). It stars Kim Rossi Stuart as an estranged father who sets out to make amends with his 14-year-old handicapped son, played by Andrea Rossi. The Dutch picked Eddy Terstall's tragicomedy Simon, about the unlikely friendship between a heterosexual drug dealer and a homosexual dentistry student. The feature debuted at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht. Erik Poppe's sophomore effort, Hawaii, Oslo, is Norway's entry for Oscar consideration. The film follows a series of interconnected stories set in Oslo during the hottest day of the year.

The list of foreign-language Oscar contenders grew a bit longer Thursday as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday received entries from Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Mexico. An Italian jury of 711 cinema and cultural professionals selected Gianni Amelio's Rai Cinema production Le Chiavi di Casa (The Keys to the House). It stars Kim Rossi Stuart as an estranged father who sets out to make amends with his 14-year-old handicapped son, played by Andrea Rossi. The Dutch picked Eddy Terstall's tragicomedy Simon, about the unlikely friendship between a heterosexual drug dealer and a homosexual dentistry student. The feature debuted at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht. Erik Poppe's sophomore effort, Hawaii, Oslo, is Norway's entry for Oscar consideration. The film follows a series of interconnected stories set in Oslo during the hottest day of the year.

Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival

Recalling the affecting parent-child dynamic of his award-winning 1992 film, Stolen Children, Gianni Amelio's House Keys (Le Chiavi di casa), is an equally outstanding, entirely unique father-son portrait.

Inspired by the book Born Twice, by the late Giuseppe Pontiggia, the Italian-language film examines the highly moving bond formed by a long absent father who is reunited with his special needs son.

Those in the market for a generous dose of pathos or a life-affirming message bathed in a swelling orchestral arrangement are advised to look elsewhere.

Fifteen years earlier, Gianni Kim Rossi Stuart) had walked away from his infant son, who, following a traumatic birth (his mother died on the delivery table), had entered into the world suffering physical and mental damage.

Raised by his mother's family, Paolo Andrea Rossi in a remarkable debut) meets up for the first time with his estranged father, who will travel with him to a special hospital in Berlin for tests and rehabilitation.

Needless to say, the trip gets a little rocky at times, as the guilt-ridden Gianni must learn how to be a true father to the child he never knew.

Working in the neo-realist tradition, Amelio keeps the artifice to a minimum, instead letting the purity of the performances set the bracing tone.

Rossi's Paolo is such a sharp, socially-attuned kid with a very wry sense of humor that there are times when his disabilities seem to all but evaporate--at least in between the sudden mood swings and bouts of emotional shutdown.

As if some of those wrenching scenes between Rossi and Stuart (who proves to have his own handicaps to overcome), aren't pungent enough, enter ever-reliable Charlotte Rampling as a French mother devoted to the care of her severely challenged daughter, who stoically helps Gianni come to terms with a not necessarily bright and rosy future.