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The Italian government will this week announce major changes to its film and TV tax credit system aimed at boosting local productions and producers and ensuring more Italian stories get told on screen. The changes come after a year of uncertainty that has left many productions in limbo.

Under the new rules, international co-productions will face an €18 million ($19.7 million) cap on tax credit payouts for projects where at least 30 percent of the production is made in Italy. Local productions will be capped at €9 million ($10 million). The overall fund for film and audiovisual investments in 2024 remains unchanged at approximately €700 million ($782 million).

The change is designed to boost Italian TV and movies and encourage visiting international productions to focus more on Italian stories, like Michael Mann’s Ferrari, about the life of the legendary car designer, starring Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz, which premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, or...

The collection “Let's make it weird: Laughing with Italian Comedies” is now showing exclusively on Mubi.Most of us have experienced the joys of watching Italian cinema—not least of which is the delight of laughing at Italian comedies. In the second season of Mubi Podcast: Voci Italiane Contemporanee, we explore how Italian comedy has changed since the days of classic postwar “Commedia all’Italiana,” tracking the evolution of the genre to explore what makes us laugh today and why. Our guide is comedian and cinephile Saverio Raimondo, who has conducted five conversations with contemporary filmmakers, critics, and stand-up comedians. This episode features Sydney Sibilia and Valerio Aprea:Comedy is one of the most temperamental and contingent genres, on stage or screen, so dependent on a sense of timing established by a deep connection between the director and the actor. The production of such levity can be a heavy burden: on set,...

Bringing one of Spain’s biggest potential box office hits onto the market at the AFM, Filmax has secured international sales to “A Moroccan Affair,” the third instalment in the most successful Spanish movie franchise in history.

“Moroccan Affair” is produced by Telecinco Cinema and Lazona, the duo behind the first two instalments of the saga, comedies “Spanish Affair” (2014) and “Spanish Affair 2” (2015), which still rank as the biggest, and third-biggest, respectively, Spanish-produced box office hits of all time at Spain’s box office, grossing a combined €90.9 million ($96.3 million).

Set to open in Spain Dec. 1, released by Universal Pictures Intl. Spain, “A Moroccan Affair” is directed by Alvaro Fernández Armero, who called the film “a comedy in which culture shocks are the driving comedic force.”

The film stars Julián López (“Undercover Wedding Crashers”), Michelle Jenner (“Our Lovers”), Elena Irureta (“Patria”) and María Ramos (“El Cid”).

Written by Daniel Castro (“Vote for Juan...

Barcelona-based indie studio Filmax has nabbed international sales rights to Joaquín Mazón’s “The Night My Dad Saved Christmas,” starring Spain’s king of comedy Santiago Segura (”Father There Is Only One”) and Ernesto Sevilla (“I Can Quit Whenever I Want”).

A Spain-Mexico co-production, the film teams Spain’s tax incentive structure La Navidad en Sus Manos Aie with three of Spain’s most successful film production companies: Nadie Es Perfecto, Esto También Pasará Producciones and Bowfinger International Pictures.

The family comedy, scripted by Francisco Arnal and Daniel Monedero, is set in the days leading up to Christmas, when Santa – played by Segura – has an accident on his sleigh, right in the middle of Madrid, and ends up in hospital, where he will have to stay until after Christmas.

Fortunately, Salva, the guy he’s sharing a room with at the hospital, is willing to step in and take on his all important Christmas work.

Barcelona-based production-distribution-sales outfit Filmax has taken on international sales on Spanish director Víctor García León’s new comedy “One Hell of a Holiday!”

Filmax is presenting the trailer to international buyers at this week’s Malaga Film Festival at Mafiz’s Spanish Screenings Content, a massive industry platform where Filmax is also talking up a raft of titles led by “Girl, Unknown” and “Co-Husbands.”

“One Hell of a Holiday!” is written by Manuel Burque and Josep Gatell (“Undercover Wedding Crashers”).This grandparents’ tale follows Manuela and José, two grandparents who love looking after their grandkids but have had enough of their children dumping their offspring on them every five minutes.

Indeed, Manuela and José can’t remember when they last had some free time. To top it all off, they’ve had to cancel their summer holiday, because their children have an important business trip and need them to look after the grandkids.

Linking two top players on the Spanish TV scene, Barcelona studio Filmax has acquired international sales rights to Spanish comedy “Co-Husbands,” whose backers include Telecinco Cinema, producer of Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” and J.A. Bayona’s The Impossible.”

Filmax will unveil a trailer to clients at this week’s Berlin European Film Market, before the film’s release in Spain on March 10.

The second feature from Lucia Alemany (“Innocence”), ”Co-Husbands” toplines “House of Flowers” star Paco León. In a gender flip set-up, it turns on Emilio and Tono who both receive phone calls that their wives are in comas after a ski-resort avalanche. At the hospital admissions desk, they make a startling discovery: their wives are, in fact, the same person … Laura. Forced to wait together until Laura regains consciousness, Emilio and Toni engage in a battle to prove who is her one and only true husband.

Ernesto Alterio...

Banijay has added Italian premium scripted producer Grøenlandia Group to its local holding Banijay Italy.

Led by film directors and producers Matteo Rovere and Sydney Sibilia, the label has credits including films Romulus & Remus: The First King by Rovere; Masterclass and Ad Honorem – the two sequels of the I Can Quit Whenever I Want saga by Sibilia, as well as films directed by Simone Godano: Husband & Wife, An Almost Ordinary Summer, and Marilyn Has Black Eyes.

The company is also behind the TV series Romulus, winner of the Nastro d’Argento 2021 award as best series and TV movie, and Carosone, the biopic of the musician Renato Carosone, directed by Lucio Pellegrini.

Banijay Italy, which is run by President and Country Manager Paolo Bassetti, has a portfolio of 10 production companies including Banijay Italia, Endemol Shine Italy, Banijay Studios Italy, 4 Friends Film, Aurora TV, Atlantis Film & Video, Funwood Media,...

Photo: 'Rose Island'/Netflix We open on an upbeat song, titles informing us that we are in 1968. A government official enters an almost dystopian-looking building to find a coughing, shivering, and desperate man. Upon asking what he wants, the man explains that he has come to petition the Council of Europe to save his island. “You bought an island?” an official asks. “No,” the shivering man replies. “I made it.” So begins ‘L'incredibile storia dell'Isola delle Rose’ (‘Rose Island’ is the English title), the incredible true story of one engineer’s quest to build his own country in the middle of the ocean. The film, directed by Sydney Sibilia (‘I Can Quit Whenever I Want’) and starring Elio Germano and Matilda De Angelis, captures the endeavors of Italian engineer Giorgio Rosa to gain true independence and freedom from the government and pursue a life unrestricted by the inconvenience of the law.

"To change the world, you've got to risk a little." Netflix has unveiled an official trailer for an indie Italian film titled Rose Island, from filmmaker Sydney Sibilia (of the I Can Quit Whenever I Want series). This reminds me of the UK film Pirate Radio about the ship broadcasting in international waters, or about the party-on-a-homemade-raft experiment examined in the doc The Raft. An idealistic engineer builds his own island off the Italian coast and declares it a nation, drawing the world's attention. Values are tested when the Italian government declares him an enemy, but to change the world risks must be taken. This has a more light-hearted, comedic tone to it in addition to its let's-take-on-the-Italian-government boldness. Starring Elio Germano as Giorgio Rosa, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Tom Wlaschiha, Luca Zingaretti, François Cluzet, Matilda De Angelis, & Ascanio Balbo. This looks like a good story and a fun film! Take a look.

If you build it they will come. That’s the simple, idealistic, and possibly comically naive idea behind, “Rose Island,” Italian writer/director Sydney Sibilia‘s whimsical new comedy with a big-sized heart coming to Netflix in December. Known for the celebrated 2014 Italian crime comedy “I Can Quit Whenever I Want” and its two subsequent sequels, who builds his own island off the Italian coast and declares it a nation, drawing the world’s attention.

Continue reading ‘Rose Island’ Trailer: If You Build It, They Will Come In Sydney Sibilia’s New Italian Netflix Comedy [Exclusive] at The Playlist.

Read about all the leading titles coming to cinemas.

France, opening Wednesday October 7

Mainstream French comedies and dramas topped the release schedule in France once again this week, in the absence of US studio titles.

The biggest release of the week was romantic comedy The ABCs Of Love for Ugc Distribution on some 480 prints. Rising star Vincent Dedienne plays a thirtysomething babysitter, who unwittingly gets entangled in the parent teacher association of the school that his nine-year-old charge attends but finds love along the way.

Other local features included long triangle drama Dreamchild, starring Jalil Lespert, Louise Bourgoin and Mélanie Doutey...

Sony Pictures International Productions and Amazon Prime Video have closed a multi-picture deal with celebrated Spanish cineaste Álex de la Iglesia to produce a new horror feature film anthology, “The Fear Collection.”

Put through Pokeepsie Films, De la Iglesia and Carolina Bang’s Madrid-based production company, the deal will see De la Iglesia direct and/or produce movies from The Fear Collection, which also take in suspense titles.

Produced in association with Amazon Prime Video, the films will be initially theatrically released by Sony Pictures Entertainment Iberia. They will then be made available on Amazon Prime in Spain. Spip will control all distribution rights for each picture outside of Spain.

Though always made under De la iglesia’s creative influence, movies may be directed by other notable filmmakers. Sony announced Thursday that several projects are currently in development for “The Fear Collection,” with established writers and directors such as the...

New roll of comedies includes Valerio Attansio’s directorial debut ‘The Handyman’.

A little over two years after launching, True Colours has grown into one of the most important Italian sales companies.

This year, the company headed by former Rai Com exec Catia Rossi brings a strong line-up to the Cannes market, headlined by Valeria Golino’s second directorial outing Euforia, which is playing in Un Certain Regard. The film stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Valerio Mastandrea as two brothers at odds who are forced to live together in Rome for a few months.

True Colours is also kickstarting sales on a pair of new comedies.

New roll of comedies includes Valerio Attansio’s directorial debut ‘The Handyman’.

A little over two years after launching, True Colours has grown into one of the most important Italian sales companies.

This year, the company headed by former Rai Com exec Catia Rossi brings a strong line-up to the Cannes market, headlined by Valeria Golino’s second directorial outing Euphoria, which is playing in Un Certain Regard. The film stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Valerio Mastandrea as two brothers at odds who are forced to live together in Rome for a few months.

True Colours is also kickstarting sales on a pair of new comedies.

I Can Quit Whenever I Want wins the Golden Puffin; Shawn Christensen’s Before I Disappear gets special jury mention.

Italian comedy I Can Quit Whenever I Want (Smetto quando voglio) has won the Golden Puffin at the Reykjavik International Film Festival (Sept 25 - Oct 5).

The film marks the directorial debut of Sydney Sibilia and topped the 12 titles in Riff’s New Visions competitive strand, which are all first or second features.

The story centres on a university researcher who is fired because of cutbacks and decides to produce drugs with his former colleagues

A special mention of the jury was given to drama Before I Disappear, written, directed and starring Shawn Christensen.

The jury comprised Icelanic actor Björn Thors, international distributor Pascale Ramonda, Film London CEO Adrian Wooton, Peter Debruge, and festival advisor Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, keeper of the national treasures and the manager of the Office of National Heritage.

The jury described...