Noticias

“Hey Joe,” an Italian drama in which James Franco plays a U.S. Navy sailor stationed in post-World War II Naples, has been picked up by Glass House Distribution which is planning a North American release via both theatrical and digital platforms.

The gritty film, directed by Claudio Giovannesi, was sold to Glass House by Italy’s Vision Distribution during the Marché du Film in Cannes.

Franco, who has been struggling to fully reenter Hollywood after facing sexual misconduct allegations that he discussed with Variety when “Hey Joe” premiered in Italy, recently attended the amfAR Cannes gala and donated a painting to the auction.

In “Hey Joe,” Franco plays Dean Barry, an American sailor who in 1944, at age 23, disembarks in war-torn Naples. He falls in love with a young, very poor, local woman named Lucia. A couple of years later, Dean is forced to leave Lucia, alone and pregnant, to go back to New Jersey.

“Amelie” director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has assembled a high-profile international cast for his next film, “Violette,” based on Valérie Perrin’s literary sensation “Fresh Water for Flowers” (“Changer l’eau des fleurs”), which sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

Matthias Schoenaerts (“Rust and Bone”), Melvil Poupaud (“Jeanne du Barry”), Anouk Grinberg (“The Innocent”), Sergio Castellitto (“Conclave”) and Alban Lenoir (“Lost Bullet”) have joined the cast and will star opposite Cesar-winning French actor Leila Bekhti, who was previously announced.

“Violette” is produced by Carlo Degli Esposti and Nicola Serra at Palomar, and Thibault Gast and Matthias Weber at 24 25 Films. Both companies are owned by Mediawan. The production kicked off on May 5 for a 13-week shoot across Burgundy, the Paris region, and the South of France.

Co-written by Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant, “Violette” sees Bekhti play Violette Toussaint, a beloved cemetery caretaker whose peaceful life – filled by conversations with quirky workers and the...

James Franco said he saw parallels with his own life in the plot of new film Hey Joe, which is world premiering in competition at the Rome Film Festival.

The 1970s-set drama sees Franco play an alcoholic former American sailor who returns to Naples to reconnect with the son he left behind at the end of the Second World War.

The Italian production is directed by Claudio Giovannesi, with Vision Distribution International handling international sales.

Franco had a high-profile fall from grace following a lawsuit that accused him of having sex with students from his acting school, which was settled...

James Franco said he saw parallels with his own life in the plot of new film Hey Joe, which is world premiering in competition at the Rome Film Festival.

The 1970s-set drama sees Franco play an alcoholic former American sailor who returns to Naples to reconnect with the son he left behind at the end of the Second World War.

The Italian production is directed by Claudio Giovannesi, with Vision Distribution International handling international sales.

Franco had a high-profile fall from grace following a lawsuit that accused him of having sex with students from his acting school, which was settled...

“Hey Joe,” a drama in which James Franco plays a U.S. Navy sailor stationed in post-World War II Naples, will world premiere at the Rome Film Festival next month.

The gritty film, directed by Claudio Giovannesi, is produced by Italy’s Palomar in tandem with Rai Cinema and Vision Distribution, which will release the film in Italy. Vision Distribution International is handling international sales.

In “Hey Joe,” Franco plays Dean Barry, an American sailor who in 1944, at age 23, disembarks in war-torn Naples. He falls in love with a young, very poor, local woman named Lucia. A couple of years later, Dean is forced to leave Lucia, alone and pregnant, to go back to New Jersey. He eventually returns to Naples to find the woman and her son, Enzo — but the city has changed a lot and Dean must navigate these challenges leading up to a surprise finale. Franco speaks both...

Continuing its push into the genre space, Italy’s Indiana Production has announced it is set to produce action chiller “Piranhas in Rome – The Great Horror Beauty,” from a screenplay by ace Rome-based writing duo Nicola Guaglianone and Menotti, who penned hit superhero movie “They Call Me Jeeg.”

While its director is still being decided, the “Piranhas in Rome” scribes are promoting the project that is set in an “apocalyptic and aquatic” Eternal City “as it has never seen before,” according to a synopsis.

Menotti (which is the pen name of comic book artist and screenwriter Roberto Marchionni) provided Variety with exclusive concept art – see image above – for the live-action project in which predatory freshwater fish invade Rome by entering the city’s water supply system through the Tiber river.

The film’s heroic protagonists are Ilenia, a policewoman hellbent on doing anything to save the Italian capital, even if...

James Franco will play a U.S. Navy sailor stationed in post-World War II Naples, where he fathers a child, in gritty Italian drama “Hey Joe.” Directed by Claudio Giovannesi, the film is now shooting in the southern port city.

Franco, who has recently been taking roles outside the U.S. following a now-settled 2019 lawsuit alleging that he sexually exploited young women who took his acting class, will be speaking both English and Italian to play the lead in “Hey Joe,” said producer Carlo Degli Esposti, head of Italy’s prominent Palomar shingle. Degli Esposti added that Palomar got a waiver from SAG-AFTRA for Franco to work on the film “since we are an indie production.”

In “Hey Joe,” Franco plays Dean Barry, an American sailor who in 1944, at age 23, disembarks in Naples which has been destroyed by bombing. He falls in love with a young, very poor, local woman named Lucia.

Mediawan, one of Europe’s most thriving independent production-distribution groups, is looking to expand its leadership further into Europe with the acquisition of Lagardere Studios and a minority stake in Madrid-based banner Weekend Studio.

Following last month’s clearance by the anti-trust board, Mediawan has finalized its takeover of Lagardere Studios, an expansive French TV producer-distributor comprised of 27 companies, including the Spanish banner Boomerang, whose hit series include “The Time in Between” and “Mum detective;” Atlantique Productions, whose credits include Damien Chazelle’s Netflix series “The Eddy”; and Imagissime, the documentary producers behind hit Netflix documentary series “Who Killed Little Gregory?”

Pierre-Antoine Capton, chairman of Mediawan, said the company is now getting ready to integrate Lagardere Studios’ talent and labels into the org and is preparing to reorganize in order to create more synergies.

“With these new acquisitions we are going to strengthen our footprint in Spain, the Netherlands and Finland,...

Piranhas is set amongst the teenage street gangs of Naples. The young men and boys who make up these piranha gangs career around on mopeds committing acts of violence and petty crimes whilst indulging in low level drug dealing. The film charts a young gang leader's rise towards power as he cosies up to members of the Camorra. This is no epic like Scarface - it's about a kid who's a bit smarter than the others climbing the first rung of the ladder and becoming involved in organised crime.

The script for Piranhas was adapted by Claudio Giovannesi, Roberto Saviano and Maurizio Braucci from Saviano's novel La Paranza Dei Bambini. It should be the starting point for a strong film. Opening with the surprising theft of a huge Christmas tree from a shopping mall and the predictable bonfire is a good enough hook for the audience. With the right direction it.

Exclusive: Amazon is close to completing its line-up of European content execs after hiring Davide Nardini as its Italian scripted chief.

Nardini joins from Italian production company Palomar, the company behind John Turturro and Rupert Everett’s The Name of the Rose.

Nardini, who grew up between Italy, Spain and France, has been responsible for international activities at Palomar, working on an adaptation of Robert Saviano’s La Paranza Dei Bambini, as well as its television series Gadaffi, which is produced in partnership with eOne.

Prior to that he set up a cinema in Rome and the first video-on-demand service for independent European films for Telecom Italia.

Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Todd Phillips' Joker, Peter Farrelly's Green Book, Bong Joon Ho's Parasite and Roman Polanski's J'accuse are the nominees in the best foreign film category of Italy's David di Donatello Awards.

The nominees in the best Italian film category are Matteo Garrone for Pinocchio, Pietro Marcello for Martin Eden, Claudio Giovannesi for La Paranza dei Bambini, Marco Bellocchio for Il Traditore and Matteo Rovere for Il Primo Re. Those five will also compete in the best director category.

The 2019 David di Donatello awards marked the first time that two women were nominated in the ...

Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Todd Phillips' Joker, Peter Farrelly's Green Book, Bong Joon Ho's Parasite and Roman Polanski's J'accuse are the nominees in the best foreign film category of Italy's David di Donatello Awards.

The nominees in the best Italian film category are Matteo Garrone for Pinocchio, Pietro Marcello for Martin Eden, Claudio Giovannesi for La Paranza dei Bambini, Marco Bellocchio for Il Traditore and Matteo Rovere for Il Primo Re. Those five will also compete in the best director category. 

The 2019 David di Donatello awards marked the first time that two women were nominated in the ...

The news that two hitherto heterosexual patriarchs are getting married — to each other — roils both of their families in amiable “An Almost Ordinary Summer.” This slickly produced . Released last February on its home turf, the Italian comedy was selected to open this year’s Palm Springs Film Festival following several other prominent American fest screenings. Wolfe will give it a limited U.S. theatrical release on Jan. 10, with a home-formats launch on Jan. 21.

A spectacularly situated cliffside villa in coastal Gaeta is the getaway home for wealthy art dealer Toni (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), who has gathered his Earth Mother sister (Lunetta Savino) and his daughters there for his birthday. Somewhat to their surprise, he’s supposedly rented out the guest house to a clan of working-class strangers led by Roman fishmonger Carlo (Alessandro Gassmann).

But this turns out to be a ruse. In fact, Toni and Carlo have been seeing each other for over a year,...

Pietro Marcello in front of an Andrei Tarkovsky Stalker and Satyajit Ray Apu Trilogy posters: “For me Martin Eden is a very contemporary character. So my objective was to span over the entire 20th century …” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden star Luca Marinelli (Andrea in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning The Great Beauty) in the title role won the Best Actor Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival where the film had its world première. Based on the 1909 novel by Jack London, with a screenplay co-written with Maurizio Braucci, Martin Eden, shot by Alessandro Abate and Francesco Di Giacomo, represents the 20th Century unlike any other film. Jessica Cressy, Vincenzo Nemolato, Marco Leonardi, Carlo Cecchi, Denise Sardisco and Carmen Pommella feature in the excellent ensemble surrounding our troubled hero.

Pietro Marcello on Luca Marinelli in Martin Eden: “We do love Martin Eden in the first part of the film because he's authentic,...

Other winners at the 40th edition of the second-oldest festival dedicated to cinematographers included The Wild Goose Lake, Piranhas and Ayka. The 40th edition of the Manaki Brothers International Cinematographers' Film Festival (14-21 September) in Bitola, North Macedonia, saw French DoP Hélène Louvart scoop the main award of the event, the Golden Camera 300, for her work on Karim Aïnouz's Cannes Un Certain Regard winner The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmāo. The Silver Camera 300 went to Jinsong Dong, the DoP on Diao Yinan's Cannes competition entry The Wild Goose Lake, while Daniele Cipri received the Bronze Camera 300 for his work on Claudio Giovannesi's Berlinale competition title Piranhas. In addition, Poland's Jolanta Dylewska received a Special Mention for Sergey Dvortsevoy's Ayka. The short-film competition was also dominated by Cannes pictures, with Argentina's Constanza Sandoval picking up the Small Camera 300 for her work on Augustina San Martin's Monster God...

The weekend has had a sizable crowd of specialty newcomers, though as summer begins its sunset, it appears some audiences are going beyond the big studio brouhaha. Sundance psycho-thriller Luce lead the pack with a $132,916 start in five locations, grabbing a $26,583 per theater average for the Neon release in the three-day estimate, while not far behind was IFC Films’ The Nightingale for $40,082 in two theaters and a $20,041 PTA. A24’s The Farewell, meanwhile, landed comfortably in the top 10 this weekend, while being in far fewer theaters than the studio titles. The Sundance title by Lulu Wang grossed over $2.4M in 409 theaters, averaging a robust $5,939 for the Mandarin and English-language feature. It has cumed over $6.84M.

Neon reported Sunday that writer-director Julius Onah’s Luce’s exits showed “broad appeal,” with a 28% African-American audience and about a 50/50 split between crowds over and under 40 years-old. Moviegoers were about 59% female and 41% male.

“Julius...

"There are only three guys running the hood. We could take over." Music Box Films has unveiled an official Us trailer for an Italian mob drama titled Piranhas, originally titled La paranza dei bambini in Italian. This first premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, where it won a Silver Bear award for Best Screenplay; it also played at the Seattle, Shanghai, Sydney, & Chicago Critics Film Festivals this year. As the older mobsters in Naples get locked away, the gangsters become younger and younger. Piranhas is about a gang of teenage boys who stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and Ak-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding. Adapted from Gomorrah writer Roberto Saviano's novel "The Piranhas: The Boy Bosses of Naples". Starring Francesco Di Napoli, Viviana Aprea, Mattia Piano Del Balzo, Ciro Vecchione, Ciro Pellecchia, and Ar Tem. This is being called both...

Claudio Giovannesi with Anne-Katrin Titze on Francesco Di Napoli's Nicola in Piranhas (La Paranza Dei Bambini): "After this movie I met Giorgio Armani because Giorgio Armani watched the movie and fell in love with the main character." Photo: Lilia Blouin

Claudio Giovannesi's Piranhas (La Paranza Dei Bambini), co-written with Roberto Saviano (author of The Piranhas: The Boy Bosses Of Naples) and Maurizio Braucchi, stars Francesco Di Napoli with Luca Nacarlo, Viviana Aprea, Ar Tem, Ciro Vecchione, Alfredo Turitto, Pasquale Marotta, Ciro Pellechia, Carmine Pizzo, and Mattia Piano Del Balzo. As the director states, it "is a movie on adolescents who make a choice of a life of crime, but it starts out as a game. And then this game ends up evolving into a war."

Claudio Giovannesi on Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli) with Letizia (Viviana Aprea) in Piranhas: "It is a film in which the age of the protagonists is a protagonist itself.

With Netflix (hopefully) releasing “The Irishman” at the end of this year, it’s natural for moviegoers to have gangsters on the mind. But if you can’t wait five months for a “Goodfellas”-inspired movie, “Piranhas” has you covered. Claudio Giovannesi’s latest, a crime story set in the mean streets of Naples, seeks to chart new territory without hiding its debt to classic mob cinema.

The official synopsis from Music Box Films says the film “follows fifteen year-old Nicola (newcomer Francesco Di Napoli) who lives with his mother and younger brother in the Sanità neighborhood of Naples, a place that has been controlled by the Camorra mafia for centuries. Dreaming of a life lush with designer clothing and elite nightclub bottle service, Nicola and his group of friends begin selling drugs, an entryway into the violent, power-hungry world of crime that begins to threaten their innocence, relationships, and safety of their families.

Everyone might be talking about “Toy Story 4,” but one of life’s few certainties is that the influx of indie reviews never stops. This week’s films ran the entire spectrum of quality, from a great Martin Scorsese documentary to the big-budget franchise disaster that everybody saw coming. Plus we have a gangster film from Cannes, and on the TV side a Boston show from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and HBO’s first original Spanish-language series. Keep reading for all those reviews, and everything in between:

Film

‘Rolling Thunder Revue’ Review: Martin Scorsese Directs a Feverish Netflix Doc About Bob Dylan

Scorsese’s revisionist “No Direction Home” followup is as delightfully weird as the tour that inspired it, says David Ehrlich.

‘The Dead Don’t Die’ Review: Jim Jarmusch’s Sluggish Zombie Comedy Targets Trump

Jarmusch’s latest is heavy-handed, and lethargic even by his standards, according to David Ehrlich.

Nicola is a decent kid in a dirty world. A 15-year-old boy who’s mired in the usual mess of pubescent crises — raging hormones, idiot friends, hostile bullies — Nicola stands out for the attention that he still manages to afford his single mom and younger brother; whether motivated by love or by the unfulfilled masculinity that his absent father left behind, there’s no denying that he’s motivated. Alas, that’s kind of the problem. In most places, it might be a good thing for a teenager to be a real go-getter with ambition to burn and a savvy head for business. In the corrupt heart of Naples, which 2008’s “Gomorrah” effectively minted as the new epicenter of mafia cinema, those same traits are more like a death sentence.

A familiar but arrestingly visceral crime story with a coming-of-age twist, Claudio Giovannesi’s “Piranhas” has an unusual relationship with its own predictability.

Film at Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà present the 19th edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, which will unfold from June 6-12. These new crop of films reflects diverse issues facing the country, embroiled in social and political upheaval - prevalence of the comorra (modern mafia), African immigration, satirical look at Bellusconi years and others. Some of more notable film titles presenting this year are Loro starring Toni Servillo by Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty), Piranhas, the opening night selection, about the rise and fall of Naples' youth gangs, actress Valeria Gollino takes another great directing effort with Euforia and the great Alba Rohrwacher stars in a religious dramedy, Lucia's Grace. The...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Sky is building its slate of originals in Italy with “Romulus,” a 10-part series about the origin of Rome from Cattleya, the Italian producer that makes “Gomorrah.” Non-English-language drama is in vogue, but “Romulus” takes that a step further by having the characters speak in archaic Latin.

Matteo Rovere, known for his movie work, is attached to direct his first TV series. His shingle, Groenlandia, will co-produce. “‘Romulus’ is a story about feelings, war, brotherhood, courage and fear,” he said. “It is a great, epic fresco, a highly realistic reconstruction of the events that led to the foundation of Rome. But above all it is an investigation into the origins and the profound meaning of power in the West: a journey into an archaic and frightening world, where everything is sacred and people feel the mysterious and hostile presence of the gods everywhere.”

Rovere is familiar with the subject matter,...

The Chicago Critics Film Festival Runs May 17th – 23rd. Stephen Tronicek is covering the event for We Are Movie Geeeks

After a week and (checks schedule) 23 programs, all of this had to come to an end. Tonight, it did and while there is a bit of sadness in watching the Chicago Critics Film Festival go, there is also adulation at the movies that screened tonight.

Piranhas, directed by Claudio Giovannesi, is a marvelous little gangster film that captures the misadventures of an Italian gang of fifteen-year-olds, out to face the world. What’s surprising is how restrained the ride actually is. The filmmaking is mostly handheld but the storytelling isn’t explosive and that’s perfect. We observe, through the workman lens, the lives of these young men and women. We observe them as they struggle, succeed, die, and party and it goes by in a rush of 105 minutes. Definitely...

A comic book about a chameleon-like master thief done as a live-action movie, a reinvention of the Spaghetti Western and a manhunt thriller with a Hollywood A-list cast are among buzz titles by Italian directors in various stages expected to soon be hitting the international festival circuit and, more important, entering the global movie market. Besides a shift toward genre moviemaking, they reflect a more international mindset while remaining firmly rooted in the Italian cinema canon.

“Born To Be Murdered”

Luca Guadagnino is producing this English-language manhunt thriller directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino (“Antonia”), toplining John David Washington and Alicia Vikander as a couple vacationing in Greece who become enmeshed in a tragically violent conspiracy. Pic also boasts “Call Me by Your Name” lenser Sayombhu Mukdeeprom and editor Walter Fasano, as well as Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. In production.

“Bad Days”

Twins Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, who made a...

With most top Italian production companies — Cattleya, Wildside and Palomar — now owned by non-Italian players, and Italian pubcaster Rai also increasingly thinking internationally, cinema Italiano is striving to break out of national confines more than ever.

This means bigger budgets and auteurs turning toward genre — in particular, crime movies and biopics.

Marco Bellocchio’s Cannes competition entry “The Traitor,” which follows Tommaso Buscetta, the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia’s oath of silence, is case in point, with an auteur taking on a genre pic.

Buscetta is played by local A-lister Pierfrancesco Favino, who will next be seen as disgraced late Italian socialist prime Bettino Craxi in upcoming biopic “Hammamet,” directed by veteran auteur Gianni Amelio. The title refers to the Tunisian seaside city where Craxi fled from Italian justice in the 1990s after being indicted for massive corruption.

Italian cinema no longer stems “from self-contemplation,...

Mediawan, the listed company launched in late 2015 by three media industry veterans, saw its annual revenues increase by 13% to 276.1 million euros ($331.10) at constant perimeter and doubled its profits to $32.5 million in 2018. The company also saw its Ebitda margin reach 19% to $55.3 million, a near 100% year-on increase.

An integrated media group specializing in production and distribution for both film and TV, Mediawan was launched by Xavier Niel, the founder of Lliad, the company that operates France’s third-biggest telco group, Free; Mathieu Pigasse, the CEO of Lazard Banque and the founder of Les Nouvelles Editions Independantes, which owns Le Monde, Les Inrocks and Nova Radio; and Pierre-Antoine Capton, the owner of Troisieme Oeil Productions, France’s No. 1 independent TV producer.

Within the last year, Mediawan scored a flurry of major acquisitions to feed its pipeline of premium fiction, animation and documentaries. After acquiring the documentary production company Clarke Costelle & Co. (“Apocalypse: The Second World War...

South Korea’s second biggest film festival, the Jeonju International Film Festival, will open its 20th edition with Italian director Claudio Giovannesi’s crime drama “Piranhas.” It will close with “Skin,” an American biographical drama written and directed by Guy Nattiv.

Festival organizers announced their film selection at a live-streamed press conference in Jeonju on Wednesday and dispensed with the traditional second presentation in Seoul. Under the slogan, “Cinema, Liberated and Expressed,” they unveiled a selection comprising 202 feature films and 60 shorts from 56 countries.

The international competition includes “Breathless Animals”by Chinese-American Lei Lei, and Nore Fingshceidt’s “System Crasher,” both of which premiered in Berlin. (“Piranhas”won a silver bear in Berlin for its screenplay.) The competition prizes will be adjudged by a jury headed by Hungary’s Gyorgy Palfi.

The festival will also dedicate a section to the centenary of Korean cinema, another called “Star Wars Archive: Never-Ending Chronology,...

Jeonju International Film Festival (May 2-11) is set to celebrate its 20th anniversary this year.

This year’s Jeonju International Film Festival, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, will open with Claudio Giovannesi’s Italian film Piranhas in its Asian premiere.

The winner of this year’s Berlinale Silver Bear for best screenplay is about a group of wild teens working in the criminal underworld of Naples.

With a slogan of “Cinema, Liberated and Expressed”, the 20th Jiff will screen a total of 262 films with 68 world premieres, five international premieres and 69 Asian. The festival’s awards ceremony will be held...

‘The Final Quarter’. (Photo: Wayne Taylor/Fairfax)

Ian Darling documentary The Final Quarter, which looks at Afl footballer and Indigenous leader Adam Goodes’ public call out of racism and Australia’s heated response, will premiere at the Sydney Film Festival in June.

The festival today unveiled the first 25 films on this year’s line-up, with the full program to launch on May 8.

Made using only archival footage aired at the time, Darling’s doco chronicles the final years of the Sydney Swans player’s career. Other Aussie films announced today include Sophie Hyde’s Animals, which made its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year, and Erica Glynn’s portrait of her mother and Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (Caama) co-founder Freda Glynn, She Who Must Be Loved, which also screened at the Adelaide Film Festival and Berlinale.

Leading the preview announcement is Amazing Grace, which captures never-before-seen footage, shot by Sydney Pollack,...

In today’s film news roundup, the Library of Congress honors Ken Burns, Anthony Anderson is hosting the NAACP Image Awards, Berlin winner “Piranhas” gets distribution and “The Biggest Little Farm” gets school screenings.

Burns Award

The Library of Congress, the Better Angels Society and the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation will present an annual documentary award named after Ken Burns.

The award, which will be presented each fall at a gala at the Library of Congress, will recognize a filmmaker whose documentary uses original research and compelling narrative to tell stories that touch on some aspect of American history. The winner will receive a $200,000 finishing grant to help with the final production of the film.

“I’ve been very fortunate to spend my career focused on our country’s history,” said Burns. “While each film is different, they all ask the same question about who we are as a people.

It’s one of those coincidences with which film history is littered, that Claudio Giovannesi’s Naples-set young-Camorra saga “Piranhas” played in the Berlinale competition — going on to win the best screenplay award — while Agostino Ferrente’s documentary, “Selfie,” set in the very same milieu, debuted to much less fanfare in the Panorama sidebar. The films are, almost perfectly, opposite sides of the same coin — one fiction, the other non-fiction; one broodingly glossy, the other delivered in helter-skelter iPhone images recorded by the subjects themselves. Still, while ostensibly “constrained” by reality, “Selfie” ultimately has the more original and involving take on sunny Neapolitan childhoods threatened by the shadow of organized crime. And not just because Ferrente’s two fantastic teenage protagonists are doing their plucky, bumbling, endearing best to skirt that darkness, where their fictional counterparts succumb all too easily to its lure.

Ale and Pietro are 16-year-old boys living in Rione Traiano,...

The kids roaming around the streets of Naples in Claudio Giovannesi’s Piranhas snort cocaine, hang out with hookers, and fire assault weapons. They are the barely teenage mobsters the city’s Camorra clans have recruited with promises of quick cash and opulent mansions, their interiors caught somewhere between the belittling sumptuousness of Xanadu and the revolting kitsch of a Trump Tower. Stunted adolescents propelled into adulthood at the speed of light, they inhabit a liminal world where ultra-violence teems with childlike wonder, the loss of innocence immortalized one gun-wielding selfie at a time.

Based on Naples-born Roberto Saviano’s best-selling novel La Paranza Dei Bambini Giovannesi’s Piranhas offers a far tamer ethnography of the Neapolitan underworld than the disturbing sociological study Matteo Garrone’s 2008 Gomorrah had pierced out of Saviano’s breakthrough literary debut of the same name. Anyone approaching Giovannesi’s fourth feature hoping to find the same fast-paced,...

By The Grace Of God wins the Silver Bear, while Yong Mei and Wang Jingchun take the acting Bears for Wang Xiaoshuai’s So Long, My Son.

Nadiv Lapid’s Synonymes won the Golden Bear for best film at Dieter Kosslick’s 18th and final outing as Berlin’s festival director at the Berlinale Palast tonight (Feb 16).

It’s the first time in the Berlinale’s history that an Israeli director has won the Golden Bear. The film is a French-Israeli-German co-production.

Lapid dedicated the award to his late mother, the editor Ara Lapid, who he described as his “most...

This year’s edition of the Berlin Film Festival has come to an end, and Nadav Lapid’s “Synonyms” is taking home one of the film world’s most prestigious awards: the Golden Bear for Best Film. “I Was at Home, But” helmer Angela Schanelec was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Director by the jury, which was led by Juliette Binoche and gave both acting prizes to the stars of Wang Xiaoshuai’s “Di jui tian chang”.

The full list of winners:

Read More: ‘Synonyms’ Review: An Astonishing, Maddening Drama About National Identity — Berlin

Golden Bear for Best Film: “Synonyms,” directed by Nadav Lapid

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: “Grâce à Dieu” (“By the Grace of God”), directed by François Ozon

Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize: “Systemsprenger” (“System Crasher”), directed by Nora Fingscheidt

Silver Bear for Best Director: Angela Schanelec, “Ich war zuhause, aber” “(I Was at Home, But...

Israeli director Nadav Lapid’s “Synonyms,” about a young Israeli man in Paris who has turned his back on his native country, won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale on Saturday.

The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to François Ozon’s French drama “By the Grace of God,” a fact-based account of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal behind the ongoing trial of Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon.

Accepting the award, Lapid said “Synonyms,” which stars Tom Mercier, would likely be considered “scandalous” in Israel and France – the pic skewers stereotypes from both nations – but added that it was ultimately a celebration.

In his review in Variety, Jay Weissberg wrote that the film takes “a Kalashnikov to the nation’s military culture and its carefully nurtured persecution complex.”

Thanking the Berlinale for selecting his film, Ozon said he did not know whether addressing child sexual abuse...

Emin Alper’s film scored well with critics.

Three new titles have landed on Screen’s Berlin Competition jury grid, with Emin Alper’s A Tale Of Three Sisters moving into first position.

The film has an average of 3.0, although it is missing two scores – Nicholas Wennö is still to award while Paolo Bertolin is not reviewing this title due to being credited with ‘Thanks’ on it.

So far it has received four threes (good), bracketed by a two (average) from Film Art’s Anton Dolin and a four (excellent) from Katja Nicodemus of Die Zeit.

A Tale Of Three Sisters...

At the kingpin table on the mezzanine level of a Neapolitan nightclub, Nicola (Francesco di Napoli) snorts a line of coke and slings his arm around Letizia (Viviana Aprea) while Tyson (Ar Tem) pops a bottle of champagne. Over the pulsing music, the whole jostling crew laughs down at the 500€-a-table territory below, noting from their Godlike perch which neighborhood gangs are looking up at them with animosity, which with envy. Claudio Giovannesi’s “Piranhas” begins a few short weeks before this scene, when Nicola’s penniless gang gets turned away from places like this, but look, now he’s made it! He is 15 years old.

Based on the book “La Paranza dei Bambini” (“The Children’s Parade”) by “Gomorrah” writer Roberto Saviano who co-wrote the screenplay, “Piranhas” is both helped and hamstrung by its central, chilling observation: The children of central Naples are inducted into the mob lifestyle, its tribalism,...

In Naples, the plague of “baby gangs” is old news. Violent kids from the slums as young as ten go cruising for fights and taunt the police, knowing they’re too young to be arrested. They presumably graduate to become teenage “paranza,” mob slang for an armed group in the service of the Camorra.

Piranhas (La paranza dei bambini), directed by Claudio Giovannesi, charts the descent into organized crime of a naïve group of 15-year-old pals led by the inexperienced but cocksure Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli). Behind his clean-cut face, neat haircut and designer clothes lies ...

Claudio Giovannesi’s third feature “Piranhas,” which screens in Berlin’s competition, depicts Neapolitan teen gangsters drawing from a novel by star author Roberto Saviano whose mob exposé “Gomorrah” spawned a pluriprized movie and a game-changing TV series. Giovannesi spoke to Variety about the challenge of adapting Saviano given what came before and how he trained his non-professional cast.

How did you go about striking a different tone in adapting Saviano?

Garrone’s “Gomorrah” movie is genial and groundbreaking. And I shot two episodes of the “Gomorrah” TV series. I did not want to replicate either of those works. My approach was to distance myself from the TV series and say: ‘I don’t want to make a genre film.’ The starting point with the producer and the screenwriter [Maurizio Braucci] was: we are not doing “Gomorrah” with kids. We are going to work on the emotional aspect; on the characters’ feelings and their fragility.

Has world premiere in Berlin Competition on February 12.

Elle Driver has sealed a slew of deals on Italian teenage crime boss drama Piranhas ahead of its world premiere in competition in Berlin this evening (Feb 12).

The feature is adapted from Italian writer Roberto Saviano’s bestseller La Paranza Dei Bambini, about the ferocious world of adolescent mobsters jockeying for power in the backstreets of Naples.

Saviano, whose 2006 breakthrough work Gomorrah was made into a hit feature and TV series, co-adapted the work with the film’s director Claudio Giovannesi, whose previous work includes jail-set romance Fiore.

On the eve of its world premiere,...

Six titles still to take their places.

Denis Coté’s Ghost Town Anthology has landed on Screen’s Berlin Competition jury grid, taking third place with an average of 2.7 with two scores to come.

The film achieved a top score four (excellent) from The Morning Star’s Rita Di Santo, as well as threes (good) from Frankfurter Allgemeine’s Verena Lueken and Segnocinema’s Paolo Bertolin.

The film follows a grieving family who encounter a series of strangers in an isolated town in the wake of a fatal car crash. Robert Naylor, Josée Deschénes and Jean-Michel Anctil lead the cast.

Irish director Brian O’Malley, who is known for gothic chillers “Let Us Pray” and “The Lodgers,” is attached to co-direct the English-language steampunk spaghetti Western series “That Dirty Black Bag”with Italy’s Mauro Aragoni. It’s set to start shooting in August.

“That Dirty Black Bag” is being produced by Palomar, the Italian shingle behind upcoming “The Name of the Rose” series that will air on Sundance TV in the U.S., and teen gangs drama “Piranhas,” which is screening in the Berlinale competition. O’Malley recently served as a second-unit director on “Name of the Rose.”

Italian streamer TIMVision, operated by Telecom Italia, is on board as the eight-episode show’s Italian broadcaster.

Palomar was recently acquired by France’s Mediawan, which will handle international sales on “Black Bag.”

Aragoni created “Black Bag” and previously shot it in his native Sardinia as a low-budget feature.

The “Black Bag” series,...

2019 is looking buoyant for Italy’s film and longform narrative TV industries, which are becoming increasingly interconnected as a new generation of directors emerges. They are crossing over between the two media while recent legislation pumps millions of Euros into the country’s production and distribution sectors.

Just as high-end TV dramas directed by Italian film auteurs such as Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Young Pope” and Saverio Costanzo’s “My Brilliant Friend” conquer global small-screen audiences, theatrical box-office returns have been plunging, prompting many of Italy’s top film industry players to regroup. Most are making both movies and TV.

Case in point: Palomar, the company behind “Piranhas,” Italy’s Berlin competition entry depicting Neapolitan teen gangsters. The gritty drama is directed by up-and-coming helmer Claudio Giovannesi and based on a novel by star author Roberto Saviano, whose mob exposé “Gomorrah” spawned both a prize-winning movie and a game-changing TV series.

Five new titles, including the latest films from Zhang Yimou and Andre Techine, have joined the official selection of this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Adam McKay’s “Vice” has also been added, but will screen out of competition.

“Vice” has already won a Golden Globe for star Christian Bale’s portrayal of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and picked up six BAFTA nominations last week, including for Bale, supporting actor Sam Rockwell and supporting actress Amy Adams. The festival screening will mark its German premiere.

The new additions to the main competition lineup include the world premieres of Zhang’s “One Second” and Nadav Lapid’s “Synonyms.” Techine’s “Farewell to the Night,” which stars Catherine Deneuve, also receives its world premiere at the Berlinale but will play out of competition. Alan Elliott’s documentary “Amazing Grace,” about Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, will screen out of competition as well,...

French company Mediawan has acquired a majority stake in Palomar, the leading independent Italian production outfit behind the cop show “Inspector Montalbano” and the highly anticipated series “The Name of the Rose,” with John Turturro and Rupert Everett.

The deal marks the first international acquisition by Mediawan, the listed company launched in 2016 by three media industry veterans: Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Pierre-Antoine Capton. Mediawan was formed as a special investment vehicle but has now become an integrated media group specializing in production and distribution for both film and TV.

Palomar is involved in film, TV series and documentaries. It will be attending the Berlin Film Festival with Claudio Giovannesi’s “La paranza dei bambini” (“Piranhas”), which is set to world premiere in competition.

Under the new deal, Mediawan becomes the majority shareholder of Palomar with a 72% stake, with the remaining 28% to be retained by Carlo Degli Esposti, Palomar’s founder and CEO.