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“The Talent,” a glitzy party-set psychological thriller toplining Ester Expósito, one of the biggest breakouts of “Elite” stars, will be brought onto the market at Berlin by Spain’s Film Factory Entertainment.

Handling many of Spain’s biggest non-global streamer movies, Film Factory has acquired worldwide rights to “The Talent”outside Spain. It will present at next month’s European Film Market a first promo of the movie whose talent package is compounded by Fernando León de Aranoa, who co-writes and produces. Helmer of San Sebastian Film Festival Golden Shell winner “Mondays in the Sun,” one of the early big breakthroughs for Javier Bardem, León directed Bardem once more in the Oscar shortlisted “The Good Boss,” which also won six 2021 Goya Awards, Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars, including Best Film and Director, and the European Film Award for Best Comedy.

Produced by Leon’s Reposado PC and The Mediapro Studio,...

The early days of World War II were fraught with ideological fervor and unstable alliances, and Italy saw this as an opportunity to project its power in the global arena. The Italian Royal Navy, under Mussolini’s Fascist regime, was torn between grandiose propaganda and the hard realities of war.

Comandante is set in this tension, dramatizing the true story of Salvatore Todaro, a submarine captain who defied expectations by saving Belgian sailors after destroying their ship, the Kabalo, in 1940.

This act of wartime kindness is both captivating and loaded. Todaro’s decision to save enemy sailors while serving a Fascist government raises troubling questions: Was this a display of personal morality or an attempt to portray Italy as the “civilized” component of the Axis?

The film portrays him as a paradoxical figure—a humanitarian in uniform—but avoids the underlying problems of combining such heroism with a regime that thrived on persecution.

Gaetano Maiorino, the former managing director and head of acquisitions at Italian sales company True Colours, has joined leading Italian producer Tramp Limited with a brief to expand its international footprint.

Maiorino, who left True Colours earlier this year, has joined Tramp Limited in the newly created role of head of international co-productions & business affairs.

Until now Tramp Limited has mostly focused on the local Italian market, producing a slate of successful comedies and, more recently, arthouse dramas that have exceeded expectations.

Its 2022 period comedy drama Strangeness, starring Toni Servillo and directed by Roberto Andò, was the highest-grossing Italian film of the year,...

Three-time Oscar winner Oliver Stone has courted controversy with a series of technically ambitious, rabble rousing political dramas, chronicling the highs and lows of American history. But how many of his titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at all 20 of his narrative films, ranked worst to best (not including documentaries).

Born in 1946, Stone served in the Vietnam War before enrolling in NYU film school. He first came to prominence as a screenwriter, winning an Oscar for penning “Midnight Express” (Best Original Screenplay in 1978) before writing “Conan the Barbarian” (1982), “Scarface” (1983) and “Year of the Dragon” (1985). During this same period, he directed the low-budget horror films “Seizure” (1974) and “The Hand” (1981).

He emerged as a an A-list director when he was 40 years old with a pair of acclaimed war dramas released in 1986: “Salvador” and “Platoon.” Both earned him Best Original Screenplay nominations, while “Platoon,” which was based on his...

Laura Luchetti on Man Ray, Lee Miller, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jacques-Henri Lartigue: “The inspiration for me was photographs and photographs and photographs.” Photo: Anne Katrin Titze

The day after Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema opening night screening in New York of Edoardo De Angelis’s masterful The War Machine, Laura Luchetti joined me inside Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater for a conversation on her latest film, The Beautiful Summer (La Bella Estate) starring Deva Cassel (Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel’s daughter), Yile Yara Vianello, and Nicolas Maupas.

Based on the novel by Cesare Pavese, previously adapted by Michelangelo Antonioni in Le Amiche, Luchetti energetically and with flair takes us to 1938 Turin and the fashion atélier where 17-year-old Ginia (Yile Yara Vianello) works under the perceptive eye of Signora Gemma (Anna Bellato). She lives with her brother Severino (Nicolas Maupas...

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...

Brainy political lightning rod Oliver Stone isn’t making feature films anymore. Sure, he’d love to add a 21st to his 20 films to date; he just can’t find backers. His alternate route, like many other directors today, from fellow Cannes entrant Ron Howard (“Jim Henson: Idea Man”) to Martin Scorsese, is documentaries.

Stone has churned out a career total of ten, including recent 2021 Cannes entry “JFK Revisited” (Showtime) and 2022 eco-doc “Nuclear” (Abramorama). His latest, “Lula,” marks a move to the left from his much-criticized recent portraits of dictators such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro (HBO’s “Comandante”) and Russia’s Vladimir Putin (Showtime’s four-part “The Putin Interviews”).

Since his start as a filmmaker in the 1970s, the Yale-grad-turned-Vietnam-vet, now 77, has leaned into political fiction, from “Salvador,” “Wall Street,” and “W.,” to Best Director Oscar-winners “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July.” His last Oscar nomination came in 1996, for “Nixon,...

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...

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival competition jury, led by president Greta Gerwig, met the international press Tuesday — and it didn’t take long before the assembled stars were urged to address the various fraught political issues swirling around this year’s edition of the world’s most glamorous film fest.

On the eve of the 77th festival, Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux had set the tone by attempting to distance the event from hot-button topics, saying at his own press conference on Monday, “We are trying to have a festival without these polemics. In Cannes, the politics should be on the screen.”

The French festival head, who has served in his role since 2001, noted how coverage of Cannes has changed over his tenure, as the international media’s interest has shifted from the films on exhibition to an expectation that the festival be responsive to surrounding social issues. That was certainly the case Tuesday,...

Italian actress and screenwriter Paola Cortellesi’s directorial feature debut, There’s Still Tomorrow (C’è Ancora Domani), and Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano lead nominations at this year’s David Di Donatello Awards.

There’s Still Tomorrow nabbed 19 noms, including best film while Io Capitano landed 15, including best director for Garrone. Trailing the leading two is Alice Rohrwacher’s latest film, La Chimera, starring Josh O’Connor. Other leading films are Rapito (11), Comandante (10), Il Sol Dell’avvenire (7), and Adagio (5).

The 69th David di Donatello Awards take place May 3. The live show will be broadcast on Rai 1 in Italy. This year’s hosts include Carlo Conti and Alessia Marcuzzi. The ceremony will take place at the legendary Cinecittà studios.

Check out the full list of nominees below:

Best Film

C’È Ancora DOMANIprodotto da Mario Gianani e Lorenzo Gangarossa per Wildside società del gruppo Fremantle; Vision Distribution società del gruppo Sky; in collaborazione...

Zendaya is game, set, match for Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers.”

The tennis-centric drama follows Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan, a once-promising tennis prodigy whose knee injury puts her out of the game for good. However, Tashi isn’t one to shy away from a challenge: She steps in to coach husband Art (Mike Faist) and ex Patrick (Josh O’Connor), playing them off each other. Years later, though, she’s once again torn between the duo even after Patrick re-enters her and Art’s married life.

Guadagnino directs the film from a script penned by Justin Kuritzkes. Lead star Zendaya produces “Challengers,” along with Guadagnino, Amy Pascal, and Rachel O’Connor. Bernard Bellew, Lorenzo Mieli, and Kevin Ulrich executive produce.

Director Guadagnino revealed that the cast trained for three months with former professional tennis player Brad Gilbert, who served as a consultant on the film. The cast spent two to three hours playing tennis six days a week,...

Italian director Edoardo De Angelis’ anti-war epic “Comandante” – the opener of this year’s Venice Film Festival – has secured North American distribution via Uncork’d Entertainment, which will release the film theatrically in tandem with partner company Dark Star Pictures.

The movie stars Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino as Sicilian World War II naval captain Salvatore Todaro and depicts his act of wartime humanitarianism on Oct. 15, 1940. Todaro, as commander of the submarine Cappellini, sank a Belgian merchant ship called Kabalo that was carrying aircraft parts and operating under British rule. He then disobeyed orders from his own command to rescue the Kabalo’s 26 crew members, at great risk to his own life and the lives of his crew.

“We believe that the message of the movie is very powerful and contemporary,” said Uncork’d Entertinament’s president Keith Leopard in a statement, adding: “We are thrilled to launch it in North America...

Film starring Sami Bouajila and Julie Gayet started shooting this week in Northern France.

Snd, the film arm of French broadcaster M6, has teamed with prolific French production company Empreinte Cinema for Juan Carlos Medina’s upcoming race-against-the-clock cop thriller The Chase (Abime) starring Sami Bouajila and Julie Gayet.

Snd has international rights for the film and will kick off sales at AFM for the murder mystery meets action film. Snd and Empreinte produce with Paris-based Once Upon A Time on board as co-producer.

The Chase stars Bouajila as a police officer who failed to find the murderer of a young girl 11 years earlier.

Cast also includes Ellie Bamber, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham, Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema has boarded international sales on Nick Hamm’s English-language feature William Tell, based on the classic story of the crossbow warrior who shot an arrow through an apple on his son’s head and launched the struggle for Swiss independence.

Written and directed by Hamm, William Tell stars Claes Bang as Tell alongside Connor Swindells, Ellie Bamber, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham as well as Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema and production companies Free Turn Films and...

Cast also includes Connor Swindells, Ellie Bamber, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham, Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema has boarded international sales on Nick Hamm’s English-language feature William Tell, based on the classic story of the Swiss crossbow warrior.

Written and directed by Hamm, William Tell stars Claes Bang as Tell alongside Connor Swindells, Ellie Bamber, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham as well as Oscar nominee Jonathan Pryce and Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema and production companies Free Turn Films and Tempo Productions have also released a first look of...

Italian sales agent reports sales for summer festival slate.

Italy’s True Colours has unveiled sales on a string of its summer festival titles including Venice competition films Lubo and Comandante as well as Locarno world premiere The Beautiful Summer.

Edoardo de Angelis’s WWII drama Comandante, which opened Venice, has secured distribution in Japan with Aya Pro, in Spain with Alfa Pictures, in Portugal with Outsider Films, in former Yugoslavia with Stars Media, in Bulgaria with Beta Film and in Australia/New Zealand with Palace Films. Starring Pierfrancesco Favino, the co-production between Indigo Film, ‘O Groove and Trump Limited...

Culture minister talks cuts after state funding for film soared to €800m in 2022

Italy is to cut the €800m of funding it currently earmarks for film production per year, according to Italian minister of culture Italian Gennaro Sangiuliano.

The move comes at a time when Italy is producing a high number of Italian and international films. However, Italian films are continuing to underperform at the box office compared to the pre-pandemic era.

“It’s time to intervene,” Sangiuliano said, noting that state funding for film soared from €400m in 2019 to €800m in 2022 according to data from the Investments in Cinema and Audiovisual Development Fund.

Camera metadata doesn’t play a huge role on set, other than being collected. So why is it important? The answer to this question extends beyond set and lies deep within post-production editing, VFX, and color correction workflows.

To get a better understanding of the importance, function, and benefits of metadata, we sat down with Digital Cinematography expert and author of the book Digital Cinematography, David Stump.

In this interview, David shares his own experiences with Digital Cinematography regarding the transition from film to digital, how digital technology has impacted filmmaking, and the important role that metadata plays in post-production workflows.

But first, we asked David to give us some background on himself and his professional career in post-production roles!

Professional Career

David: I have filled a lot of different roles in film productions. I’m mainly a director of photography, but I’ve also held the roles of VFX supervisor,...

Ferrari, Michael Mann's latest biopic about the legendary automobile entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari, has been a much-awaited film for many racing and car fans around the world. The film had some difficulty making its way to screens, with challenges regarding its distribution. However, now, with the issues ironed out, Ferrari was expected to have a smooth sail to its exclusive theatrical release on Christmas Day 2023. Or, so we thought. The biopic and the team of creatives behind the film have seemingly run into yet another issue, although it isn't likely to affect the film's release.

After premiering at the Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2023, Ferrari has come under fire for its choice of actors, especially the actor cast to spearhead the biopic. Mann's film centers on the life of Enzo Ferrari. The focus of the plot is specifically on the tragic 1957 Millie Miglia, a race that spanned a thousand miles across the Italian countryside.

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,...

The 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival concludes today with the Closing Ceremony and presentation of the winners of the Lions. Director Yorgos Lanthimos took home the coveted Golden Lion for his film Poor Things, while Cailee Spaeny was honored as Best Actress for her performance in Priscilla, and Peter Sarsgaard received the Best Actor award for Memory.

The ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes cast uncertainty on the presence of celebrities gracing the iconic event over the course of the 10-day fest, with guild members participating in or promoting premieres doing so only under SAG-AFTRA interim agreements allowing them to make appearances and engage on the festival’s revered red carpet.

Related: Venice Film Festival: Yorgos Lanthimos Wins Golden Lion With ‘Poor Things’ — Full List

Edoardo De Angelis’s drama Comandante opened the festival with other highlight premieres from this year’s slate including Michael Mann’s Ferrari...

The 2023 Venice Film Festival persevered despite a dimmed Hollywood presence, with much of the onscreen talent sitting this year’s Lido event out due to the strikes. There in Italy, however, were directors like Michael Mann, David Fincher, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Wes Anderson, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Richard Linklater, Sofia Coppola, and even Woody Allen to present their latest films and do the talking on behalf of their sidelined actors.

Saturday at the Sala Grande, the jury headed up by president Damien Chazelle revealed the winners of the 2023 competition awards. Jurors including Martin McDonagh, Jane Campion, and Mia Hansen-Løve saw 23 movies over the last week and a half, including Lanthimos’ raved-about “Poor Things,” Coppola’s well-liked “Priscilla,” Bertrand Bonello’s daring “The Beast,” Fincher’s assassin thriller “The Killer,” Bradley Cooper’s Oscar hopeful “Maestro,” Mann’s gripping “Ferrari,” and more.

Word on the Lido was highest for eventual Golden Lion winner “Poor Things,...

Comandante.Beyond the Venice Film Festival's habitual paucity of female filmmakers, the most striking aspect of this year’s lineup was its astounding number of biopics. Granted, the genre has always been a staple of the fest, which under artistic director Alberto Barbera has effectively metastasized into a launchpad for Hollywood’s awards race. But the inclusion of so many in its eightieth edition was nonetheless remarkable. The official competition alone was home to six—among them big studio projects like Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Michael Mann’s Ferrari—to say nothing of all those slotted in the parallel sidebars, from Quentin Dupieux’s fittingly surrealist Daaaaaali! to Neo Sora’s Ryuichi Sakamoto—Opus. Beyond the industry’s flirtations with the genre for its bona fide commercial potential, what accounts for our ongoing fascination with biopics is perhaps their promises of identification and revelation: in charting the lives of extraordinary figures,...

'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...

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is adamant about his decision to place six Italian movies in this year’s 23-title festival lineup. “Nobody accused the French of chauvinism because they had seven French films in competition in Cannes this year,” Barbera quipped to a snarky Italian reporter when the Venice lineup was announced in July, though he did concede, “It’s true that in the past I have not done this.” Indeed, Barbera’s previous limit on Italian movies in competition for the Golden Lion was five titles last year, which some local critics considered a stretch.

More importantly, the Venice chief pointed out that he presently sees Cinema Italiano at a particularly favorable juncture largely thanks to the fact that Italians are making movies with bigger budgets, “which means greater quality and the ability to compete in international markets, and to travel beyond our borders,” he said.

Seven takes on the hits and misses of the 80th Venice International Film Festival, from the reviewers at THR Roma, The Hollywood Reporter‘s first European-language edition, on the hottest Venice titles so far.

Dogman, by Luc Besson Caleb Landry Jones in ‘Dogman’

“A bizarre and powerful work that has the stigmata of the best Besson, the one that allows us to glimpse the force, total and invincible, behind a helpless, placid and fragile appearance. Dogman is kitschy and moving as that Caleb Landry Jones who tears you apart when he wears, in his playful and necessary disguises, the most difficult mask: himself.

“Dogman is Besson’s cinema reclaiming its space after losing it for 20 years, it is the desire to excel and excel without the excuse and fear of showing itself in all its talent. Because measure and subtraction are sometimes just an alibi.”

— Boris Sollazzo

El Conde, by...

The Italian film and television industry could step into the gap left by the dual Hollywood strikes, leading industry executives said at a panel, organized in collaboration with the Audiovisivo Italiae, at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

“If supply decreases with Hollywood on strike, we need to be ready with our products for the international market as well,” said Francesco Rutelli, president of the Italian national audiovisual association Anica, speaking at a panel moderated by THR Roma editor-in-chief Concita De Gregorio.

“We need to interpret market changes in real-time. And we need the government to issue certain rules with respect to these changes. It’s not a matter of changing the system’s regulations, but of adjusting them quickly to the changed and rapid changes taking place.”

Maria Pia Ammirati director of Rai Fiction, a division of Italy’s national public broadcaster, noted that since the beginning of...

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...

Production in Italy has boomed in recent years, and so too have budgets and international investment.

Cast an eye over the titles vying for a Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival and one thing stands out – the number of Italian films in the main competition.

Six of the 23 films in the main competition are Italian, an increase from the usual three Italian titles that are programmed in the section. While the step change could be a result of the writers and actors’ strikes leading to fewer US productions making the trip to Venice, each of the selected...

We’re back, Insiders. Jesse Whittock here. After a week away, we’ve got you covered for all the big news as festival season gears up once again. We’ve been mob-handed in Venice while diligently covering all the major TV and film news around the world. Let’s begin…

Venice Vibes

“A difficult time”: After a summer of blistering heat across mainland Europe, the Venice Film Festival opened this week to heavy rainfall and strong winds. But that didn’t halt proceedings, which began early Wednesday with the official jury presser, where we saw our first mention of the Hollywood strikes. Jury head Damien Chazelle arrived at the press conference sporting a ‘Writers Guild on Strike’ t-shirt and badge. Jury members Martin McDonagh and Laura Poitras, sitting in the front row, also donned the same t-shirt. “Today is the 121st day the writers have been on strike, and...

by Elisa Giudici

Edoardo De Angelis & Pierfrancesco Favino on the set of "Comandante"

Opening the Venice Film Festival is a daunting enough challenge. Now imagine being called in as a last-minute replacement for Luca Guadagnino’s new film starring Zendaya. Yet, Edoardo De Angelis managed to uphold the honor of Italian cinema admirably. His new film Comandante stands as a notable piece of filmmaking, injecting an interesting angle into the war subgenre of submarine films. To put it in perspective, it holds its own against the likes of The Wolf's Call, a recent European film of similar ambition from 2019, which boated a budget twice the size of Comandante.

A budget of 14 million euros isn't trivial within the national cinematic landscape, where the majority of yearly productions hover around the 1 to 2 million euro mark. This significant financial backing primarily went into meticulously recreating the interior and exterior spaces of the Cappellini submarine.

Actress Zendaya has decided to skip Venice Film Festival due to the Hollywood strikes. The actress was initially slated to go to the film festival to promote Luca Guadagnino’s film ‘Challengers’, which was also the movie that was supposed to open the 80th annual Venice Film Festival.

Zendaya has been a supporter of the ongoing Hollywood strikes, and given her standing in Hollywood, it would have been nearly impossible for the ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ actress to make it.

So instead, Venice kicked off the festival with the Italian World War II drama film ‘Comandante’, directed by Italian director Edoardo De Angelis, reports Variety.

The movie is mostly set on a submarine, and ended up landing a brief 90-second standing ovation as actor Pierfrancesco Favino — who plays naval officer Salvatore Todaro — took a bow.

Indeed, due to the Hollywood strikes there was a severe lack of star power which...

The Venice Film Festival kicked off its 80th edition Wednesday night on a somewhat muted note, with the dual Hollywood strike casting a pall over the glitz and glamour that typically exemplify the world’s oldest cinema fest. Instead of Luca Guadagnino’s Zendaya starrer Challengers — which was scheduled to open Venice pre-strike, getting pulled amid the walkout — Venice was forced to go with a more locally focused feature, Edoardo De Angelis’ Italian World War II submarine drama, Comandante.

Italian actress Caterina Murino hosted the festival’s grand opening ceremony with a retrospective spanning eight decades of Venice cinema, featuring clips highlighting past Golden Lion winners. The audience burst into applause at the sight of the late William Friedkin, whose last film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, will premiere on the Lido this year.

Comandante tells the true story of Salvatore Todaro, a submarine captain under Italy’s fascist government who...

In an alternate universe, Zendaya would be breaking the Internet with her red carpet fashion as she promoted Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers,” the movie that was supposed to open the 80th annual Venice Film Festival.

But the SAG-AFTRA strike made it impossible for the tennis movie, starring one of the world’s buzziest movie stars, to come to the Lido.

So instead, Venice kicked off with World War II drama “Comandante” by young Italian auteur Edoardo De Angelis. The movie, mostly set on a submarine, landed a brief 90-second standing ovation as actor Pierfrancesco Favino — who plays naval officer Salvatore Todaro — took a bow.

Indeed, the lack of star power was strongly felt at Venice opening night. The size of the crowds that lined up outside the Sala Grande Theatre was modest, and the biggest cheers went to Damien Chazelle, who is presiding over the Venice jury. Jane Campion,...

Even without major stars or Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” to buoy it, the opening night of the Venice Film Festival’s 80th edition was high on nostalgia for cinema’s past and excitement for the eight days of movies ahead.

A black-tie crowd gathered in the Palazzo del Cinema’s Sala Grande on the Lido for the presentation of Edoardo De Angelis’ World War II Battle of the Atlantic epic “Comandante,” the opener that replaced Guadagnino’s “Challengers” after that film was moved by MGM/Amazon to April due to the strikes.

First, though, elegant minimalist and icon Charlotte Rampling presented the festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Liliana Cavani, the Italian director of psychosexual Holocaust drama “The Night Porter,” starring Rampling and from 1974. (Wong Kar Wai muse Tony Leung Chiu-wai will also receive a Lifetime Achievement anointment later in the fest.) Rampling played a concentration camp survivor who finds her ex,...

Inaugurating this year’s Venice Film Festival, Edoardo De Angelis’ Italian war drama “Comandante” certainly makes for an improbable fall-season kickoff – filling a prime, opening-night slot often reserved for glitzy global titles on the U.S. awards hunt in lieu of sturdy local productions with limited crossover appeal. But then we do find ourselves at an equally improbable moment, as the ongoing strikes promise a fall corridor rife with uncertainty, lit by lower star-wattage and met with another round of on-the-fly problem solving from harried festival organizers.

Given this once-again shaky terrain — goodbye original opener “Challengers,” from Luca Guadagnino — the fact that Venice lost just one major title might be the most surprising outcome of all, although this opening spotlight’s harsher and more intense glare does “Comandante” few favors. Welding the star-power of the country’s leading man Pierfrancesco Favino (“The Traitor”) to the familiar comforts of real-life WW2 heroism,...

And the Sea Will Tell: De Angelis Sells the Soft Side of Fascism

Napolitano director Edoardo De Angelis embarks on his most lavish offering to date with Comandante, a period piece reflecting a decisive week in the life of Italian Naval officer Salvatore Todaro during WWII in which he did the inexplicable – risked his own life and crew to save the survivors of a ‘neutral’ ship he sank. Playing partially like a propaganda film commissioned for Terrence Malick, a poetic screenplay (co-written by Sandro Veronesi) allows for narration serving as interiority in ways which are often enriching but sometimes schmaltzy.…...

Updated with more details: The 80th Venice Film Festival officially kicked off Wednesday evening with the world premiere screening of Edoardo De Angelis’ Italian World War II submarine drama Comandante. Running in competition, the film took over the slot vacated by Luca Guadagnino’s tennis drama Challengers, which backed out of the spot amid the actors strike.

Before the Pierfrancesco Favino-starring movie unspooled to a warm welcome and a brief post-credit standing ovation, Italian actress Caterina Murino launched the festival’s opening ceremony featuring a retrospective covering the 80 years of the event. That included glimpses of previous Golden Lion and awards winners, with the audience erupting when the late William Friedkin appeared in the montage.

Friedkin, who died August 7, has his final work, the Showtime film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, screening later this week out of competition.

Biennalle president Roberto Cicutto then came on the stage to introduce Charlotte Rampling,...

Venice film festival: Edoardo de Angelis’s war movie was made in collaboration with the Italian navy, which clarifies the pervasive sense that it’s attempting to launder Italy’s wartime reputation

Hollywood knows exactly how to play it when it comes to portraying a second world war German officer. Get an actor like Christoph Waltz, stick him in a Nazi uniform, and have him strangle a kitten for fun before the opening credits finish. But when it comes to Italian characters from the same period, you can sometimes sense some cultural confusion kicking in. Surely Italy is that nice place with the gnocchi and olive oil? Hard to imagine they were … fascists?

Comandante, the new film from Edoardo De Angelis, won’t do much to clarify that disconnect, even though it actually hails from Italy and might be expected to do a bit more soul-searching. Naval officer Salvatore Todaro...

The title character of “Comandante,” Salvatore Todaro (Pierfrancesco Favino), is a submarine commander in the Italian Royal Navy who has a different spirit from the military machos we tend to encounter in movies. He’s certainly tough enough — a bruiser with a dark edge. “Comandante” is set during the early days of World War II (September and October 1940), and as Salvatore leads the crew of the Cappellini, an iron hulk of an underwater vessel equipped with a dozen torpedoes and a pair of machine guns, he’s not shy about his dedication to blowing up his enemies.

But he’s also a saddened romantic warrior with the heart of a poet. As the men prepare to board the sub, Salvatore assembles them for a pep talk, and his look is striking: the double-breasted brown leather coat, the coiffed hair and thick goatee, the gleam of burning-eyed fatalism. Favino resembles a...

On Wednesday, the 80th Venice International Film Festival kicks off with “Comandante,” directed by Edoardo De Angelis. It will be followed in the coming days by Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” David Fincher’s “Killer” and many others. The slate of movies is chock full of A-list actors, but with the ongoing WGA and SAG strike, few will be in attendance.

TheWrap creative director Jeff Vespa counts the Venice festival as one of his favorites. “There’s something really romantic and cinematic about the way the whole place is photographed — people on docks and coming off of boats,” he said. “The other thing that’s cool is you get to actually hang out with people because it’s not like there’s an event every single second. There are only about two movies a night, so you can go to the screening of the first movie, walk...

A 73m x 7m submarine was always going to be a left-field substitute for A-lister Zendaya after Luca Guadagnino’s hotly anticipated tennis movie Challengers was pulled from the Venice Film Festival’s prestigious opening-night slot. And although the gargantuan Cappellini is a formidable presence in Edoardo De Angelis’s 1940-set war drama, Comandante seems woefully out of its depth as a curtain-raiser to a festival still reckoning with the effects of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Held together by a very strong performance by Pierfrancesco Favino as sub commander Salvatore Todaro, De Angelis’ film takes a long time to set sail, beginning with a strange prologue in which we see Todaro plunging into the sea. This is his first brush with death, and it leaves him severely disabled, being forced to wear a back brace and prescribed serious doses of morphine. “I like you disabled,” says his wife, Rina...

“Women writers and directors are working as hard as men. It’s not right if we don’t give them chance to be seen.”

Legendary Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani called for greater recognition of female filmmakers at the opening ceremony for the 80th Venice Film Festival this evening (August 30).

Ninety-year-old Cavani received the honorary Golden Lion award recognising her career, which spans seven decades.

“I’m the first female person to receive this award,” said Cavani. “There are women writers and directors who are working as well as men. It’s not quite right if we don’t give them a chance to be seen.

The Venice Film Festival kicks off its 80th edition on Wednesday with Italian director Edoardo De Angelis’s World War Two Italian submarine drama Comandante.

The Golden Lion contender was propelled into the prestigious opening slot in July when Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers was pulled, as it became clear that the film’s starry cast topped by Zendaya would not be able to attend due to the actors’ strike.

Italian and Belgian talent will be leading the red carpet instead at the opening gala.

Multi-award-winning Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino leads the cast as real-life, Italian World War Two Submarine commander Salvatore Todaro.

As commander of the then brand new Italian submarine Cappellini, he led missions in the Atlantic alongside German U-boats sinking merchant sea vessels carrying supplies for the Allies.

He earned himself a place in history, however, after he defied orders and rescued 26 Belgian merchant...

Venice Film Festival jury president Damien Chazelle showed up to the Palazzo del Casino Wednesday morning for the opening press conference wearing a Writers Guild on Strike T-shirt. So were his jurors Laura Poitras and Martin McDonagh. Fellow deliberators Jane Campion and Mia Hansen-Løve did not brandish their support through fashion, but the stance of solidarity with the ongoing double union strike from across the entire jury was felt.

Chazelle was joined on the dais by Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera, La Biennale president Roberto Cicutto, Orizzonti president Jonas Carpignano, and Luigi De Laurentiis president Alice Diop. The Oscar-winning filmmaker, whose “La La Land” and “First Man” have both opened the Biennale in years past, used the opening remarks to send a strong message about the strikes and how art should ultimately trump content — something, he argued, Hollywood seems to be forgetting.

“Today is the 121st day that...

Chazelle gave an impassioned response in support of the strikes.

Venice Competition jury head Damien Chazelle and his fellow competition jurors offered their support to the striking actors and writers in the US, at the opening press conference for the 80th Venice Film Festival.

Chazelle and competition jurors directors Martin McDonagh and Laura Poitras wore T-shirts with the words ‘Writers Guild on strike’, while Chazelle gave an impassioned response to the opening question about the strike.

“There’s a basic idea that each work of art has value unto itself. It’s not just a piece of content to be put into a pipeline,...

The 80th Venice Film Festival gets underway in earnest Wednesday and the landmark edition will be unlike any other, taking place as it does against the backdrop of two Hollywood strikes.

The build-up to the festival has been dominated by talk of which stars will make it to the event and which will stay at home. It hasn’t been as challenging for organizers as the Covid editions, but it’s surely up there in recent memory.

As we revealed Friday, the outlook for U.S. celebrity attendance is patchy, with a handful of big names set to appear and do the usual press obligations. Others have decided to stay away to avoid the accusation of strike breaking or simply “bad optics.” Expect media to be dominated by strike talk, especially on any American films.

Despite initial anxiety about...

The 80th Venice Film Festival kicks off Wednesday with a robust roster of awards season hopefuls making their bows, such as Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” and David Fincher’s “The Killer,” accompanied by a smattering of stars.

As previously reported by Variety, the festival has confirmed that Adam Driver will be in Venice to promote “Ferrari” while Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, who play Priscilla and Elvis Presley in “Priscilla,” as well as Priscilla Presley herself, are also expected to be on the Lido. Jessica Chastain is expected to jet in for Mexican auteur Michel Franco’s “Memory,” which is screening toward the end of the fest.

Although Cooper is not coming to Venice, his Netflix drama about Leonard Bernstein will be promoted by the maestro’s progeny, Jamie and Alexander Bernstein and Nina Bernstein Simmons.

All told, there will be enough actors,...

"Comandante" is a new 'submarine' thriller, set during 'World War II', directed by Edoardo De Angelis, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Johan Heldenbergh, Massimiliano Rossi, Johannes Wirix, Silvia D’Amico and Paolo Bonacelli, releasing in North America Spring 2024:

"...based on the real-life story of 'Salvatore Todaro', the naval officer and submariner who saved 26 Belgian merchant seamen during World War II, "Comandante', follows 'Salvatore Todaro', Captain of the 'Cappellini' who leads in his own way: the bow is reinforced with steel, in the off-chance an opportunity to ram a ship arises and his crew is armed with daggers, should an unlikely hand-to-hand battle occurs..."

Click the images to enlarge...

Exclusive: There has been mystery for weeks over which Hollywood talent will attend the Venice Film Festival amid the two strikes but the clouds are finally starting to lift.

We’ve confirmed with sources that Ferrari star Adam Driver will be on the Lido next week to promote Michael Mann’s anticipated new movie, thus becoming the biggest U.S. actor to date to commit to the festival. The Daily Mail first reported that news.

Ferrari secured an interim agreement from SAG a while back so this isn’t hugely surprising but there was still a question over whether SAG actors would feel uncomfortable over the ‘optics’. They may still. But SAG-AFTRA leadership were adamant yesterday that actors in movies with interim agreements should be at festivals to promote them. Their message: this is helpful to independent cinema and the cause. That affirmation from SAG helped a number of actors make up their minds.