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It's going to be a smashing time in Venice this year. The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 82nd edition and the annual event will serve as the launching pad for Dwayne Johnson's Oscar campaign. The WWE star-turned-leading man plans to be front and center on the Lido with the competition entry The Smashing Machine from director Benny Safdie. Based on the life of Mma fighter Mark Kerr, the film reunites Johnson with his Jungle Cruise costar, Emily Blunt, and hopes to succeed in the awards race where A24's last sports picture — 2023's The Iron Claw — fell short.

But Johnson is stepping into the ring with some heavy-hitters in the Best Actor race, including George Clooney and Oscar Isaac. Both stars will be in Venice for their respective Netflix productions, Jay Kelly and Frankenstein, which hail from directors with proven awards track records. Clooney...

Alberto Barbera presided over a lengthy press conference Tuesday morning, when he announced the stacked lineup for this year’s Venice Film Festival, which runs August 27-September 6.

The lineup is expansive, with big names and arthouse darlings sprinkled across the festival’s strands, even including the shorts program.

High-profile titles include Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny. Roberts leads the cast as a college professor who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come into the light. The film will screen Out of Competition on Guadagnino and Amazon MGM Studios’ request, Barbera explained during the presser.

Elsewhere, in Competition we have Jay Kelly, the latest film Noah Baumbach has made for Netflix. The...

Oscar season starts here.

With its 2025 line-up, announced Tuesday, the Venice Film Festival has (again) taken the award season pole position, with a program packed with a frankly absurd number of must-see movies.

Among the hot awards titles heading to the Lido are Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, from A24, featuring Dwayne Johnson as two‑time UFC heavyweight champion Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his wife Dawn; Luca Guadagnino’s #MeToo–inspired thriller After the Hunt, for Amazon MGM Studios, starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri, will premiere out of competition; and Guillermo del Toro’s dark reimagining of Frankenstein, featuring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth, a Netflix production.

This will mark the Venice festival debut for both Roberts and Johnson.

Netflix, which sat out Vence last year, is back in force for 2025. Alongside Frankenstein, the streamer has Noah Baumbach’s comedy‑drama Jay Kelly,...

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera has unveiled a rich mix of buzzy movies with big stars — as well as smaller titles with awards potential — that will be vying for the Golden Lion during the event’s upcoming 82nd edition.

Hotly anticipated new works from Kathryn Bigelow, Guillermo Del Toro, Noah Baumbach, Mona Fastvold, Luca Guadagnino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Olivier Assayas, Park Chan-wook, Benny Safdie and more are set for Lido launches, making for a cornucopia of cinematic offerings.

As anticipated by Variety, big-name films premiering at Venice include Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” from A24, featuring Dwayne Johnson as two-time UFC heavyweight champ Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his wife Dawn; Focus Features’ “Bugonia,” the latest collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, who were last at the fest in 2023 with the Oscar-winning “Poor Things”; and Luca Guadagnino’s psychological drama “After the Hunt” starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri.

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof and Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres are among the competition jurors for the 82nd Venice International Film Festival (August 27-September 6).

Also alongside previously announced jury chair Alexander Payne are filmmakers Stephane Brize from France, Maura Delpero from Italy and Cristian Mungiu from Romania, as well as Chinese actress Zhao Tao.

The seven-strong jury will award prizes including the Golden Lion for best film; the Silver Lion grand jury prize; and awards for best director, actress, actor and screenplay.

French filmmaker Julia Ducournau will chair the Horizons jury, alongside Italian filmmaker Yuri Ancarani, Australian director Shannon Murphy, US...

One of the first major dominoes of the autumn festival season has fallen, as the Venice International Film Festival has announced Paolo Sorrentino’s new film “La Grazia” as its opening night selection.

Plot details have been kept under wraps, but the film stars Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti and is written and directed by Sorrentino.

Sorrentino has been a Venice regular for years, debuting projects like the 2021 film “The Hand of God” and TV shows “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope” at the festival. He won the festival’s grand jury prize for “The Hand of God.”

“I am very happy that the 82nd Venice International Film Festival will open with the new and highly anticipated film by Paolo Sorrentino,” festival director Alberto Barbera said in a statement. “Paolo Sorrentino’s return in competition comes with a film destined to leave its mark for its great originality and...

First still released from Paolo Sorrentino's La Grazia, which will open Venice Film Festival and play in competition Photo: Andrea Pirrello/Mubi Paolo Sorrentino's La Grazia has been announced as the opening film of the 82nd Venice Film Festival.

Paulo Sorrentino, who has a long association with Venice, since his feature debut One Man Up played there in 2001 Photo: Michael Avedon The latest film from the Oscar-winning writer/director - the plot of which has not yet been released - sees Sorrentino reteam with The Great Beauty and The Hand Of God star Toni Servillo, who will appear alongside Anna Ferzetti (Diamonds).

Venice's artistic director Alberto Barbera said: "I am very happy that the 82nd Venice International Film Festival will open with the new and highly anticipated film by Paolo Sorrentino. I like to recall that one of the most important and internationally acclaimed Italian auteurs made his debut...

The world premiere of Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia starring Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti will open the 2025 edition of Venice Film Festival.

The filmwill screen in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema (Lido di Venezia) on Wednesday, August 27. The festival runs until September 6.

La Grazia is written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, and produced by Fremantle-owned The Apartment, Numero 10 and PiperFilm, which will distribute the film in Italy.

Mubi owns worldwide rights excluding Italy, with the Match Factory handling international sales.

Sorrentino was last in Venice four years ago withTheHand Of God,which won the Silver Lion grand jury prize.

La Grazia, the latest feature from Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, will open the Venice Film Festival.

The film stars Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti will have its world premiere screening on Wednesday, 27 August in the Sala Grande.

La Grazia, written and directed by Sorrentino. Very little about the film’s plot is known, but sources close to the film have told Deadline that the film follows the final days of a fictional Italian Presidency.

The feature is a Fremantle film produced by The Apartment, Numero 10, and PiperFilm, which will distribute in Italy. Mubi owns worldwide rights, excluding Italy. The Match Factory is handling international sales.

“I am very happy that the 82nd Venice International Film Festival will open with the new and highly anticipated film by Paolo Sorrentino,” Venice head Alberto Barbera said in a statement, adding that Sorrentino’s career began at Venice in 2001 with first feature One Man Up.

Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia,” a love story that re-teams the Oscar-winning director with “The Great Beauty” actor Toni Servillo, has been set as opening film of the upcoming Venice Film Festival.

“La Grazia” – the title can be translated in English as “Grace” – will be launching from the Lido in competition.

Servillo stars in “La Grazia” opposite Italian actor Anna Ferzetti, who recently appeared in Ferzan Ozpetek’s smash hit “Diamonds.” Plot details of Sorrentino’s new film are being kept under wraps besides the fact that it is a love story set somewhere in Italy.

“La Grazia” will mark Servillo’s seventh collaboration with Sorrentino who has shot 10 feature films to date. They first teamed up in Sorrentino’s dazzling 2001 debut, “One Man Up” in which Servillo played an ageing cocaine-addicted crooner. Servillo is best known to international audiences for his memorable turn as Roman writer and socialite Jep...

Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Emma Stone are among the rich roster of stars featured in hotly anticipated new movies expected to be launching from Venice Film Festival.

With one month to go until the Lido lineup is unveiled, Venice’s artistic director Alberto Barbera is racing against the clock to assemble the festival’s 82nd edition, slots for which are still in flux. But what’s clear is that there will be no shortage of the type of buzzy titles that make Venice a prime awards season driver.

Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine,” featuring Dwayne Johnson as two-time UFC heavyweight champ Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his wife Dawn; Luca Guadagnino’s #MeToo-themed thriller “After the Hunt” starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri; and “Bugonia,” the latest collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone — who were last...

We were disappointed when the Cannes lineup came out and Jim Jarmusch’s next film was not on it. But it seems like we just had to wait a little longer.

Efe Cakarel, the CEO of Mubi, which is distributing Jarmusch’s next movie, told a crowd at SXSW London that Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother” will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the main competition.

“That’s already confirmed,” he said during a keynote speech at the festival on Friday (via Variety). He also added one other movie joining the lineup that Mubi will be releasing, Paolo Sorrentino’s next movie “La Grazia” starring Toni Servillo.

Venice won’t announce its lineup for some time, but it’s an exciting get for the festival and could be the first of several high profile contenders on the Biennale. Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” from A24 has been rumored,...

“We have the new Jim Jarmusch film. We are a co-producer on that, and it’s already confirmed to be in competition at Venice,” Mubi CEO Efe Cakarel said this afternoon during a Q&a session at SXSW London.

The new film from Jarmusch is titled Father Mother Sister Brother and stars Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Indya Moore, and Luka Sabbat. We’d heard from many sources that the film was heading for the Lido, but this is the first time it has been confirmed publicly.

The official synopsis for Father Mother Sister Brother reads: Estranged siblings reunite after years apart, forced to confront unresolved tensions and reevaluate their strained relationships with their emotionally distant parents.

Elsewhere during this afternoon’s session, Cakarel told the SXSW crowd that Mubi has bought La grazia, the new film by Paolo Sorrentino, which he said...

Italian writer-director Paolo Sorrentino will be this year’s recipient of the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award and a retrospective of his films will be shown as part of the festival’s “Tribute To” program.

Sorrentino will also hold a Masterclass and share his thoughts on contemporary art in a conversation with the audience.

The award is in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to the art of cinema.”

Jovan Marjanović, director of the festival, said: “Paolo Sorrentino managed to do what every filmmaker dreams of – he left a global impact through local, personal stories. With visually luxurious, emotionally filled and intellectually insightful style, he won the hearts of audiences around the world, who saw his characters, no matter how eccentric or withdrawn, as a mirror of our world, often absurd, sometimes cruel, but always deeply human. The Honorary Heart of Sarajevo is a recognition of the...

Mubi has picked up La Grazia from writer and director Paolo Sorrentino ahead of a spring 2025 shoot in Italy for the love story.

The streamer nabbed the worldwide rights, excluding Italy, and will retain all rights in North America, Latin America, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Benelux, Spain, Turkey, India, Australia and New Zealand.

“Paolo Sorrentino has always been a master of cinematic poetry, but La Grazia is something truly special—profound, melancholic, and wickedly sharp in its contemplation of power, influence, and the weight of history—all told with Sorrentino’s singular elegance and wit. We at Mubi are honored to be the home for this film and cannot wait to share its brilliance with audiences worldwide,” Efe Cakarel, founder and CEO of Mubi, said in a statement on Thursday.

The streamer also plans a theatrical release for La Grazia, which stars Toni Servillo, Sorrentino’s go-to actor after earlier...

Last December we learned that Paolo Sorrentino was quickly moving back into the director’s chair for his eleventh feature film, and now Variety reports that Mubi are getting back into business with the filmmaker – landing La Grazia for several territories (including North America) for what will be a 2026 drop. With production set to begin in March in Italy, we can assume that this will be a likely competition film candidate for Cannes next year. For now, all we know is that Toni Servillo is onboard and that this is a love story set somewhere in Italy. The filmmaker saw his last feature compete for the Palme d’Or last year.…...

Mubi has acquired worldwide rights excluding Italy for Paolo Sorrentino’s upcoming La Grazia starring Toni Servillo, which will begin production this spring in Italy.

Mubi will retain all rights in North America, Latin America, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Benelux, Spain, Turkey, India, Australia and New Zealand, with theatrical releases planned. The Match Factory will sell the remaining territories.

Efe Cakarel, founder and CEO of Mubi, said the project is “wickedly sharp in its contemplation of power, influence, and the weight of history”.

Sorrentino’s previous films include Parthenope and The Great Beauty, and La Grazia is his seventh collaboration with Servillo.

“The Substance” distributor Mubi is pursuing its buying spree with another anticipated film from an internationally celebrated auteur, Paolo Sorrentino.

The global distributor, streaming service and production company has bought Sorrrentino’s next movie “La Grazia” for worldwide rights excluding Italy and will retain all rights in North America, Latin America, the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, Benelux, Spain, Turkey, India, Australia and New Zealand, with theatrical release plans to be announced in the coming months. The Match Factory will sell the remaining territories.

A love story, the exact plot of which remains under wraps, “La Grazia” marks Sorrentino’s follow up to “Parthenope” which launched from Cannes and scored record-breaking grosses at the Italian box office. “La Grazia,” which translates into English as “Grace,” reteams the Oscar-winning director with “The Great Beauty” actor Toni Servillo.

“La Grazia” was being courted by at least two other major distributors at the European Film Market,...

The role that Italy has played in film history is significant with Neorealist greats such as Roberto Rossellini or stylized auteurs like Federico Fellini shaping a view on the world that is both fantastical and honest. In modern Italian cinema, the most significant voice that has the same priority of both style and substance is the underrated, yet internationally recognized Italian director, Paolo Sorrentino. His filmography, as diverse and far reaching as it is, remains one of the best modern cinematic styles in both visual and thematic terms. Visual feasts and introspective looks into loss, aging, and beauty in his spiritually grounded world of cinema make him a modern day film auteur worth looking into. Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values...

The 97th Academy Awards ceremony is fast approaching, with Conclave nominated in a number of prestigious categories. Edward Berger's latest film focuses on the Vatican's efforts to elect a new Pope, a process that was similarly addressed in HBO's hit series The Young Pope. Its creator, Paolo Sorrentino, has kept busy ever since the Jude Law show hit the masses to widespread critical acclaim. The beloved Italian auteur's latest film, Parthenope, is now playing in North American theaters. MovieWeb recently caught up with Sorrentino, alongside interpreter Lilia Pino Blouin, while he was promoting the film, and the Oscar-winning filmmaker also weighed in on his funny little connection to Conclave:

I haven't had a chance to see [Conclave] yet. I do know that they used my own Sistine Chapel, the one that I had built, but I haven't watched the movie yet.

And since the director created the...

Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino has set his next feature and will re-team with his longtime collaborator Toni Servillo who has signed on to star.

The film will be titled La Grazia. Fremantle confirmed news of the project with us this morning. There are currently no details about the film’s plot, but we understand it will feature a love story. Sorrentino has penned the screenplay. Shooting will begin next spring with Annamaria Morelli producing for The Apartment alongside Sorrentino’s Numero 10 outfit in association with PiperFilm. Piper will release the film in Italy.

Servillo is perhaps best known internationally for his collaborations with Sorrentino. The pair have made seven films together. Their joint credits include Loro, Il Divo, The Hand Of God, and The Great Beauty, which won the Best International Feature Oscar.

Sorrentino’s latest film Parthenope is currently on release in Italy via PiperFilm. The film debuted at...

Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is reteaming with Neapolitan actor Toni Servillo, star of Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning The Great Beauty, for his next feature, titled La Grazia.

Details of the new film are being kept under wraps, but it is said to be a love story. Sorrentino, who also wrote the script, is set to begin shooting next Spring. Annamaria Morelli, head of Fremantle-owned The Apartment will proceed together with Sorrentino’s shingle Numero 10, in association with PiperFilm, which will release the movie in Italy.

PiperFilm has had huge local success with Sorrentino’s latest, Parthenope, a sumptuous love letter to his native Naples. The feature has grossed more than $8 million at the local box office, making it the most successful Italian film of the year and surpassing the Italian take for Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty. A24 picked up Parthenope for the U.S. ahead of its Cannes festival premiere...

Paolo Sorrentino – whose latest film “Parthenope” is scoring record-breaking grosses at the Italian box office – is set to return behind camera to shoot “La Grazia,” a drama that will re-team the Oscar-winning director with “The Great Beauty” actor Toni Servillo.

Plot details of Sorrentino’s next film are being kept under wraps besides the fact that it will be a love story set somewhere in Italy. The title, “La Grazia,” can be translated in English as “Grace.”

Servillo is best known to international audiences for his memorable turn as Roman writer and socialite Jep Gambardella who embarks on a Dantesque descent amid the Eternal City’s grotesque glitterati in “The Great Beauty,” which won the 2014 best international film Oscar.

The Neapolitan actor has appeared in seven of Sorrentino’s 10 feature films to date, starting with his dazzling debut, “One Man Up” in which Servillo played an ageing cocaine-addicted crooner. Besides “The Great Beauty,...

Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza are directors known for telling gritty crime stories set in their native Sicily. In films like Salvo and Sicilian Ghost Story, they’ve shined a light on the island’s shadowy world of organized crime. Their latest work, Iddu, continues in a similar vein, this time focusing on two complex characters embroiled in the mafia’s machinations.

Iddu centers around Catello and Matteo, a former politician and wanted crime boss. Having recently been released from prison, Catello is eager to regain what he’s lost. So when asked to correspond covertly with his gangster godson Matteo, now in hiding, he sees an opportunity. Through letters exchanged in a secretive “pizzini” system, the two men engage in an intricate dance of deceit.

Catello hopes to leverage Matteo’s vulnerability for his own gain, while Matteo navigates the challenges of leading from the shadows. Played masterfully by Toni Servillo and Elio Germano,...

Letters to Daddy: Grassadonia & Piazza Continue Their Cosa Nostra Sagas

Italian directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza reimagine the circumstances surrounding yet another mafioso tale with their third feature, Sicilian Letters. Freely inspired by events in Sicily from the 2000s, their introductory title cards reveal this tale is one where “reality is a point of departure, not a destination.” The Italian title, Iddu, is the nickname of a straggling mafia boss still being sought by law enforcement who have devised a circuitous plan to draw him out of his hideout. Starring two of Italian cinema’s most notable contemporary actors, Toni Servillo and Elio Germano, it is the directors’ most mainstream offering to date.…...

Though doubtless a crucial aspect of many of the most dramatic occurrences in human history, letter-writing is not the most cinematic of activities. And so it unfortunately proves once again in Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s “Sicilian Letters,” a heavily fictionalized riff on a real-life mafia tale, which sets up a battle of wits between a ruthless mob boss and the family friend working with the authorities to bring him down, but struggles to maintain any kind of momentum when the duel is merely a case of epistles-at-dawn.

Elio Germano plays Matteo, a character based on notorious Sicilian mafioso Matteo Messina Denaro who was the subject of a 30-year manhunt which only ended in 2023 when he was finally caught. Toni Servillo plays the more heavily fictionalized Catello Polumbo, whose 2004 correspondence with Matteo gets the authorities closer to his apprehension than ever before. As the film begins, Catello, a well-read,...

Zurich Film Festival has revealed a second wave of Gala titles, which includes films starring Tilda Swinton, Sebastian Stan, Nicole Kidman, Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson.

Among the 10 added titles are four world premieres, two international premieres and one European premiere.

Zurich will screen, among others, Ali Abbas’ “The Apprentice,” starring Stan, Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” starring Swinton, and Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl,” starring Kidman.

Richard Gray’s Western “The Unholy Trinity,” starring Brosnan and Jackson, has its world premiere.

The other world premieres are “Frieda’s Case” by Maria Brendle, “Aiming High – A Race Against the Limits” by Flavio Gerber and Alun Meyerhans, and German epic adventure “Hagen.”

“The fact that we have the opportunity to present so many world and European premieres goes to show that the Zff holds a strong position in the international calendar,” Christian Jungen, artistic director of the festival, said.

Directorial duo Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”) tell the true tale of Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro – who was dubbed “the last godfather” – in their new drama “Sicilian Letters,” launching on Thursday from the Venice Film Festival.

“Sicilian Letters” pairs two top Italian actors — Elio Germano, who plays Messina, and Toni Servillo as his antagonist Catello, a shady secret services operative who is trying to catch him — working in tandem for the first time. The title refers to a surreptitious correspondence between them using “pizzini,” small slips of paper that the Sicilian Mafia used for high-level communications.

The film looks at a time during Denaro’s three decades as a fugitive from Italian justice, when he was at the peak of his nefarious powers. After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January 2023 outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo, where...

Screen can unveil the first trailer for Mafia drama Sicilian Letters ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival.

It is the third film from directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (after Salvo in 2013 and Sicilian Ghost Story in 2017), and the duo’s first at Venice.

Titled Iddu at home (‘Him’ in Sicilian dialect), their latest feature is inspired by the story of fugitive Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

Elio Germano plays the godfather in hiding, with Toni Servillo as the smalltime local politician who became his pen pal.

The Italy-France co-production pairs Indigo Film and...

Screen can unveil the first trailer for Mafia drama Sicilian Letters ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival.

It is the third film from directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (after Salvo in 2013 and Sicilian Ghost Story in 2017), and the duo’s first at Venice.

Titled Iddu at home (‘God’ in Sicilian dialect), their latest feature is inspired by a cache of letters discovered after the 2023 arrest of fugitive Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

Elio Germano plays the godfather in hiding, with Toni Servillo as the smalltime local politician who became his pen pal.

The...

Pierfrancesco Favino as submarine Commander Salvatore Todaro in Edoardo De Angelis’s intense and humanistic Comandante

Edoardo De Angelis’s Comandante, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, was the Opening Night selection of the 23rd edition of Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s exceptional program, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema in New York. Other highlights included Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So; Giorgio Diritti’s Lubo (Franz Rogowski); Roberta Torre’s In the Mirror (Mi Fanno Male I Capelli with Alba Rohrwacher mirroring Monica Vitti); Piero Messina’s Another End; Stefano Sollima’s Adagio; Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer; Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow (Il Sol Dell’Avvenire with Nanni, Margherita Buy,...

Pierfrancesco Favino as submarine Commander Salvatore Todaro in Edoardo De Angelis’s intense and humanistic Comandante

Edoardo De Angelis’s Comandante, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, was the Opening Night selection of the 23rd edition of Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s exceptional program, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema in New York. Other highlights included Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So; Giorgio Diritti’s Lubo (Franz Rogowski); Roberta Torre’s In the Mirror (Mi Fanno Male I Capelli with Alba Rohrwacher mirroring Monica Vitti); Piero Messina’s Another End; Stefano Sollima’s Adagio; Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer; Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow (Il Sol Dell’Avvenire with Nanni, Margherita Buy,...

France’s Les Films du Losange is taking international sales outside Italy on “Sicilian Letters” (“Iddu”), the hotly anticipated drama about Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro – who was dubbed “the last godfather” – directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”).

“Sicilian Letters” pairs two top Italian actors — Elio Germano, who plays Messina (see first-look image above) and Toni Servillo (first-look image below) as his antagonist Catello, a shady secret services operative — working in tandem for the first time. The title refers to a surreptitious correspondence between them using “pizzini,” the small slips of paper that the Sicilian Mafia uses for high-level communications.

The film – which is expected to launch on the fall festival circuit – looks at a time during Denaro’s three decades as a fugitive from Italian justice, when he was at the peak of his nefarious powers. After being on the run for three decades,...

Edoardo De Angelis’s The War Machine (Comandante), starring the commanding Pierfrancesco Favino, opened the 23rd edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema in New York and the Venice Film Festival. Photo: courtesy of Cinecittà

Edoardo De Angelis’s The War Machine; Roberta Torre’s In the Mirror (Mi Fanno Male I Capelli with Alba Rohrwacher mirroring Monica Vitti); Piero Messina’s Another End; Stefano Sollima’s Adagio; Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer; Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow; Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow; Alain Parroni’s An Endless Sunday; Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So; Giorgio Diritti’s Lubo...

Italian state broadcaster Rai’s new world sales arm is gaining traction in Cannes — following its soft launch in Berlin — with four new titles on its slate, including veteran auteur Roberto Andò’s historical drama “The Blunder” starring Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”).

In “The Blunder,” which is currently shooting in Sicily, Servillo plays a Sicilian colonel at the head of a ragtag unit trying to outsmart the enemy during the 1860 battle led by Giuseppe Garibaldi that resulted in the unification of Italy.

“The Blunder,” which also stars popular Sicilian comic duo Salvatore Ficarra and Valentino Picone, is produced by Tramp Limited and Bibi Film with Rai Cinema and Medusa, in collaboration with Netflix.

Other titles added during Cannes on the Rai Cinema International Distribution slate include – as previously announced – “Of Dogs and Men,” the upcoming drama by Israeli director Dani Rosenberg (“The Death of Cinema and My Father Too...

While Luca Guadagnino is reigning supreme this summer with “Challengers” and Cannes-premiered “Queer” both opening, Film at Lincoln Center is celebrating all Italian auteurs for the 23rd edition of annual festival “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema.”

This year’s festival takes place from May 30 through June 6 and includes North American, U.S., and New York premieres, with appearances and discussions by several of the filmmakers. Co-presented by Cinecittà, “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema” serves as a showcase of the best in new Italian cinema.

“I think we have an especially strong lineup at this year’s ‘Open Roads,’ which is nothing if not an encouraging sign of things to come as we continue to move forward from the production pauses and shutdowns wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Dan Sullivan, Flc Programmer, said. “A satisfying mix of the familiar and the new, of low- and higher-budget movies, of fresh takes on...

Roll up, roll up for Part 2 of our Cannes Film Festival preview, this time with a focus on international, mainly non-English-language fare. If you didn’t catch Andreas’ English-language-focused Part 1, check it out.

As the fest basks in the warm glow of the Oscar wins for 2023 Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Grand Jury Prize winner The Zone of Interest, delegate general Thierry Frémaux and his team are furiously tying up the 2024 Official Selection.

With less than four weeks to go until the bulk of the 77th edition (running May 14-25) is revealed at the press conference in Paris on April 11, we’ve rounded up a host of the titles ready and in the running for a splash in either Official Selection or the main parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.

The registration deadline was March 15, with March 22 the official cut-off for submissions to arrive...

Over the past few years Italian cinema has been making strides in the global arena and 2024 looks likely to bolster its international standing. New works by top auteurs Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino will be launching from the festival circuit just as a fresh crop of directors comes to fore, starting with Margherita Vicario, whose first film “Gloria!” scored a Berlin competition slot.

Below is a compendium of new Italian movies set to hit this year’s fest circuit.

“Another End” – Gael García Bernal and Renate Reinsve (“The Worse Person in the World”) star as lovers caught in an unusual bind in Italian director Piero Messina’s sci-fi film “Another End” which is competing in Berlin. This second feature by Messina – whose first feature, “The Wait,” launched with a splash in the 2015 Venice competition – is set in a near-future when a new technology exists that can put the consciousness of...

The great Martin Scorsese returned to the Eternal City, accompanied by the star of the moment, Lily Gladstone, as the guests of honor of a gala dinner at the Hotel Hassler by the Spanish steps Wednesday night. The event, honoring Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and hosted by co-chief of Leone Film Group, Raffaella Leone, daughter of great Italian film director Sergio Leone, and Paolo Del Brocco, head of Rai Cinema, the Italian distributor of Killers. Hot off the film’s 10 Oscar nominations, including a record-setting 10th best director nod for Scorsese and the historic best actress nod for Gladstone as the first Native American nominated in the category, the event was a must-attend for the Italian film scene.

The Hollywood Reporter Roma was the only media outlet admitted to the event, and we were a fly on the wall for the parade of A-list industry guests, which...

Toni Servillo, who played Roman socialite Jep Gambardella in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty,” will star in a drama about Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro, dubbed “the last godfather” directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”).

Also starring in the hotly-anticipated drama titled “Iddu” – which means “Him” in Sicilian dialect – is Italian A-list actor Elio Germano, winner of a Cannes best actor prize for Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” in 2010 and more recently of Italy’s 2021 David di Donatello Award for Giorgio Diritti’s “Hidden Away.”

The roles respectively being played by Servillo and Elio Germano are being kept under wraps.

After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January 2023 outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo, where he had been undergoing cancer treatment for a year under false identity. The top mafioso, convicted of masterminding some of Italy...

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon and Michael Mann’s Ferrari are facing allegations — surprising for two films focused on straight white male protagonists — of cultural appropriation.

French and Italian critics have taken offense at the directors’ decisions to cast American actors to play national icons — Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte, the general who became French emperor, and Adam Driver as visionary Italian carmaker Enzo Ferrari — and, adding insult to injury, having them speak in English.

“It’s original sin,” wrote a Ferrari reviewer for Italy’s Movieplayer magazine on the casting of Driver, alongside Spanish actor Penélope Cruz as Ferrari’s wife, Laura, and American Shailene Woodley as his mistress. “Not just to have them speak English, but with a dodgy Italian accent.”

“Deeply clumsy, unnatural and unintentionally funny” was French GQ’s assessment of the very French characters of Napoleon and his lover Josephine (played by Brit Vanessa Kirby) speaking en anglais.

Updated with latest: The Venice Film Festival began August 30 with opening-night movie Comandante, an Italian World War II drama, kicking off a lineup for the venerable fest’s 80th edition that includes world premieres of Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, David Fincher’s The Killer, Ava DuVernay’s Origins, and new films from lightning-rod directors Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson.

Deadline is on the ground to watch all the key films. Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which last year awarded Laura Poitras’ documentary All The Beauty and the Bloodshed its Golden Lion for best film.

Click on the film titles below to read the reviews in full, and keep checking back as we add more movies throughout the fest, which runs through September 9.

Adagio

Section: Competition

Director: Stefano Sollima

Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino,...

Italian genre specialist Stefano Sollima – who is known in Hollywood for “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” “Without Remorse” and the TV series “Gomorrah” – is in the Venice competition for the first time with Rome-set crime drama “Adagio.”

This beautifully shot picture features an ensemble cast of Italian A-listers comprising Pierfrancesco Favino (“Nostalgia”), Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”), Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”) and Adriano Giannini (“The Ties”). It’s the tale of three old – and once mighty – mobsters searching for redemption in a cutthroat contemporary Rome that is literally burning. They find it in the form of a 16 year old named Manuel who is being blackmailed after venturing too deep in a rotting Roman underworld world that he doesn’t understand.

You often work from books such as “Gomorrah” but this is your original idea. How did it germinate?

“Adagio” – this is no secret – is a gift that I made to myself.

'Ferrari' producer Andrea Iervolino has hit back at criticism of the decision to cast Adam Driver in the lead role.The 35-year-old producer claimed that Italian cinema has not produced enough high-profile stars to play the part of Enzo Ferrari – the founder of the legendary car company - and rubbished suggestions of "cultural appropriation" by film star Pierfrancesco Favino.Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, Iervolino – who is Italian-Canadian – said: "Italian cinema needs to look beyond Italy and come up with synergies with the international film industry, which wants to invest in Italian icons. Films like 'Ferrari', which will be distributed in 150 countries, promote Italy and Italian genius."The producer called on Italy's film industry to "make films based on stories that speak to the whole world, with international stars who work side by side with our own talent".Favino had questioned why acclaimed actors such as Toni Servillo...

Rome, Smoking City: Sollima Languorous Thriller Tiresomely Tests Narrative Cliches

The most apropos element of Stefano Sollima’s Adagio is the title itself, as it’s two-hour-plus running time certainly glides slowly over its intersecting elements in Rome’s underbelly of crooked cops and aging gangsters, desperately converging as wildfires ravage the metropolis. While pacing in a crime thriller doesn’t necessitate high octane frequency, it can be a burden when the narrative is structured on nonsensical motivations and poor character development. Sollima, who is returning to Italy after the meaty sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) and the clunky Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse (2021), snags two of his country’s most prolific contemporary players for his latest, Pierfrancisco Favino and Toni Servillo, both of whom feel underutilized as plot devices in this toothless thriller.…...

Despite its soft-sounding title, Stefano Sollima’s crime drama is a gripping call-back to the heyday of poliziotteschi movies, a peculiarly Italian genre that dealt with inter-gang wars in a country where the police were often more venal than the bad guys. Adagio, though, takes a unique tack, borrowing from Martin Scorsese’s fatalistic masterpiece The Irishman to portray to tell a story in which a trio of gangsters — one blind, one suffering early-onset dementia, and another with terminal cancer — are forced to reunite against a team of bent cops involved in an elaborate blackmail plan.

There are shades of Elio Petri’s classic Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, too, although it takes a while for this to become obvious. Indeed, for some 45 minutes, Sollima keeps us guessing as to which side the villains are actually on, starting with a long sequence in which a young man named Manuel...

Adagio, as many musicians know, means “slowly” in Italian. That seems to be one of the guiding principles in this epic slow-burn crime thriller from director Stefano Sollima, who’s known for helming the lauded TV series Gomorrah and ZeroZeroZero, as well as taking on Hollywood jobs like the actioners Without Remorse and Sicario: Day of the Soldado.

He certainly has style to boot, and this very Heat-like story, which takes place in parts of Rome rarely seen in mainstream movies, is loaded with ambience, as well as brawny performances by a triumvirate of Italy’s best working actors: Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo and Valerio Mastandrea. What it lacks, however, is a gripping and original plot, as well as enough dazzling set pieces to make all the late exposition worthwhile.

Premiering in competition in Venice, Adagio will likely be a local hit, with Sollima delivering the kind of Michael Mann...

Gary Oldman has joined the cast of Paolo Sorrentino’s new film that is currently shooting in Naples.

Details about Oldman’s role in the still-untitled Italian-language drama are being kept under wraps.

Sorrentino’s 10th feature is about a woman named Partenope “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth,” as the auteur – who won an international Oscar in 2013 for “The Great Beauty” –put it in a statement to Variety in June, when the shoot started.

In Greek mythology, Parthenope, as she is known in English, is the name of a siren who having failed to entice Odysseus with her songs, cast herself into the sea and drowned. Her body washed up on a symbolic foundational rock where Naples lies. Neapolitans in Italy are also known as “Parthenopeans.”

“Her long life embodies the full repertoire of human existence: youth’s lightheartedness and its demise,...

Being an independent producer was never easy. But these days, it’s near impossible. Even before the dual writers and actors strikes, changes in the international film and TV market had made life tough for the indies. Old models of art house moviemaking have been ravaged by a combination of decline in the specialty box office, the collapse of ancillary revenue for home entertainment and TV licensing, and the more recent pullback by streaming companies, who have begun to back fewer, and more mainstream, movies.

But one indie production company has gone from making just a handful of movies a year to dozens, finding a way to turn the turbulent new reality into a business model for making cutting-edge art house cinema that, shockingly, can actually turn a profit. It’s the company behind five of the most hotly anticipated titles at the Venice Film Festival this year: Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things,...

The Hollywood Reporter has picked Fremantle as the winner of the inaugural International Producer of the Year award.

The award will be presented annually to an independent producer from outside the U.S. that THR judges to be the most exciting and innovative company of the year.

THR will present the 2023 Producer of the Year award to Andrea Scrosati, Group COO and CEO of Continental Europe, and Christian Vesper, CEO of Global Drama, at a gala event at the Venice Film Festival on September 3.

With a global network of nearly 50 companies — ranging from German giant UFA (Deutschland ’83) and Italian TV group Lux Vide (Netflix’s Medici) to Israel’s Abot Hameiri (Shtisel) and Richard Brown’s Passenger (True Detective) — and revenues of more than $2.5 billion (€2.3 billion) last year, Fremantle is clearly one of the biggest international indies out there.

But what put it over the top as International Producer of...