News

The 70th David di Donatello Awards, held at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios, marked a pivotal moment for Italian cinema as women filmmakers emerged at the forefront of the country’s most prestigious film honors. Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio dominated the evening, winning seven awards, while major honors were also claimed by Valeria Golino and Margherita Vicario, signaling a broad shift in creative leadership and recognition.

Delpero’s wartime drama, set in 1944 in an isolated Alpine village, earned the top prizes: Best Film and Best Director. She became the first woman to receive the directing award in the seven-decade history of the event. Only two women had previously taken the Best Film category. Vermiglio also collected awards for Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound, Casting, and Production. These achievements reflect both the artistic ambition of the film and its technical command across multiple disciplines.

The narrative of Vermiglio follows the disruption caused by...

Maura Delpero’s Italian WW2 drama Vermiglio won best film at the 70th David Di Donatello awards, Italy’s version of the Oscars, held at Rome’s historic Cinecittà film studio on Wednesday night. Delpero also took best directing honors en route to a 7-trophy sweep.

The film, which had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival last year, beat out the two award frontrunners, Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, a sumptuous, occasionally surreal tribute to his hometown of Naples, and Andrea Segre’s The Great Ambition, a political biopic about Italian Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer, which lead the pack going into the David awards with 15 nominations each. Parthenope went away empty-handed, but The Great Ambition took two awards: Best actor for Elio Germano, who play Berlinguer, and best editing for Jacopo Quadri.

Tecla Insolia won best actress for her starring role in Nicolangelo Gelormini’s Sicilian...

Women dominated Italy’s David di Donatello Awards with Maura Delpero’s Venice Silver Lion winner “Vermiglio” taking top honors and Valeria Golino’s female empowerment drama “The Art of Joy” and Margherita Vicario’s directorial debut “Gloria!” also scoring multiple statuettes.

“Vermiglio,” which is set at the end of World War II in an Alpine village where the arrival of a soldier causes disruption in the dynamics between three sisters, was the night’s big winner taking best picture, best director, screenplay, producer, cinematography, sound and the David’s newly introduced casting category.

Delpero, who is the first woman to win the best director David in the 70-year history of the awards – and only the third female filmmaker to win best film – underlined the anti-war aspect of “Vermiglio”

“When I thought about writing it, someone asked me if it wasn’t anachronistic to talk about war,” she said.

“Unfortunately,...

Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio took home Best Film and Director at the 70th edition of Italy’s David di Donatello Awards on Wednesday evening, in an historic win for a female director.

Delpero is the first woman to win the David di Donatello Best Director prize in the history of the awards, and only the third female filmmaker to win Best Film.

The film picked up seven David di Donatellos in total which also included Best Original Screenplay, Casting, Producer, Cinematography and Sound.

Set in a remote mountain village in 1944, Vermiglio revolves around a family whose life is disrupted by the arrival of a deserted soldier. The feature world premiered in Venice where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and went on to be Italy’s 2025 Oscars submission.

It was an historically strong night for female directors.

Other big winners included Italian actress and singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario who won Best First Film,...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, the director’s sumptuous, occasionally surreal tribute to his hometown of Naples, and Andrea Segre’s The Great Ambition, a political biopic about Italian Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer, are the frontrunners for this year’s David Di Donatello awards, Italy’s version of the Oscars.

Parthenope and The Great Ambition picked up 15 nominations each, including for best film and best director. In the best film category, they will face up against Maura Delpero’s Italian WW2 drama Vermiglio and Valeria Golino and Nicolangelo Gelormini’s L’arte della gioia (The Art of Joy), which received 14 nominations each, and the Francesca Comencini-directed drama The Time It Takes, which received four nominations. Other multiple nominees include Margherita Vicario’s debut feature Gloria!, about women musicians at a Church-run establishment in early-1800s Italy, which scored nine nominations, and Francesco Costabile’s crime thriller Familia, with eight.

In the best international film category,...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope and Andrea Segre’s The Great Ambition have taken the lead at the nomination stage for Italy’s upcoming 70th David di Donatello awards.

The titles have secured 15 nominations each including for best film and director.

Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio and Valeria Golino and Nicolangelo Gelormini’s The Art Of Joy received 14 nominations each, followed by Gloria! and Familia with nine and eight nominations respectively.

Sorrentino’s Parthenope, following a woman from her birth in 1950 to the current day against the backdrop of Naples, world premiered in Cannes.

Biopic The Great Ambition stars Elio Germano as 1970s and 1980s left-wing political leader Enrico Berlinguer, who nearly led the Communist party into power.

Vermiglio world premiered in Venice where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and went on to be Italy’s 2025 Oscars submission. Set in a remote mountain village in 1944, the drama revolves around...

"Vanished into the Night" on Netflix is a thriller similar to "Prisoners" starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Both films center on the theme of missing children, but "Prisoners" has a better Rotten Tomatoes score. "Prisoners" directed by Denis Villeneuve stars Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki and is available for purchase on various platforms.

Netflix's Vanished into the Night is rising to the top of the streaming service's charts shortly following its premiere, and the film's spike in popularity raises memories of a Jake Gyllenhaal movie from 13 years ago that contains similar themes. The 2024 Italian thriller film, directed by Renato De Maria and written by Francesca Marciano and Luca Infascelli, chronicles the disappearance of a soon-to-be-divorced couple's two young children while they were staying with their father. Shortly after they go missing, the couple receives a menacing phone call from a man demanding 150,000 euros in exchange for the kids.

The cast of Vanished into the Night...

“Vanished Into the Night,” a thriller starring Annabelle Wallis and Riccardo Scamarcio as a divorced couple in southern Italy whose children get kidnapped for ransom, has rapidly risen to the top of the global Netflix chart in a rare milestone for an Italian film.

In “Vanished,” Wallis – who played the character Grace Helen in the series “Peaky Blinders” – stars as a U.S. psychiatrist who lives in Italy’s scenic Puglia region after her breakeup with Pietro, a man with a dark past played by Italian A-list actor Scamarcio. When the young children of this estranged couple go missing on the outskirts of the port city of Bari, Pietro connects with a criminal from his past on a dangerous mission to get his kids back home.

The elevated genre film, directed by the prolific Renato De Maria shot to No. 1 just days after dropping globally on July 11 on Netflix, where...

Netflix's Vanished into the Night with Riccardo Scamarcio made the US Top 10 list at Number 6. The movie's captivating premise and talented cast contributed to its success. Despite mixed reviews, the thriller's familiar storyline and interesting new take led to its popularity.

A new Netflix mystery thriller starring an actor from John Wick: Chapter 2, titled Vanished into the Night, has risen onto the Top 10 movies chart for the United States on the streaming platform. The Italian movie stars Riccardo Scamarcio, best known for his role as the mob boss Santino D'Antonio in the John Wick movies, and the main antagonist of Chapter 2. In his newest movie, however, he portrays Pietro, a father whose children go missing in the middle of his divorce proceedings, leading to an investigation into what happened to them.

Now, Netflix reports that Vanished into the Night managed to make the list of Top 10 movies in...

Vanished Into the Night has mixed reviews, with a 40% critics' score and a 15% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite criticisms of its shallow plot, the movie is praised for its entertainment value and thrilling storyline. While not a standout film, Vanished Into the Night offers escapism for fans of popcorn crime thrillers with its formulaic approach.

The Italian crime thriller Vanished Into the Night is doing well on Netflix but is it worth watching or can its not-so-great Rotten Tomatoes score be trusted? Vanished Into the Night revolves around a father whos stuck in the middle of a trying divorce. When his young children go missing from their isolated country home, he embarks on a dangerous quest to find them on the outskirts of Bari, Italy. He has to get in touch with a criminal from his dark past to ensure that his children get home safe.

The movie was directed by Renato De Maria,...

Vanished Into the Night is an Italian-American crime thriller film directed by Renato De Maria from a screenplay co-written by Luca Infascelli and Francesca Marciano. The Netflix film follows the story of a couple on the brink of breaking up when both of their children mysteriously vanish into the night under their father’s watch, leading them down a dangerous path to save their children. Vanished into the Night stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Annabelle Wallis in the lead roles with Massimiliano Gallo, Gaia Coletti, Lorenzo Ferrante, and Elena Riccardi starring in supporting roles. So, if you love the thrill and mystery of Vanished Into the Night, here are some similar movies you could watch next.

Without a Trace (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – 20th Century Fox

Without a Trace is a crime drama film directed by Stanley R. Jaffe from a screenplay by Beth Gutcheon. Based on the novel titled...

When the young children of an estranged couple go missing on the outskirts of Bari, Italy, their father connects with a criminal from his past on a dangerous mission to get his kids home safe. The Italian thriller Vanished into the Night, from director Renato De Maria, stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Annabelle Wallis and was written by Francesca Marciano (The Miracle) and Luca Infascelli (The Catholic School).

Stream it now.

Check it out at the top of this page.

Pietro (Scamarcio) and Elena (Wallis) are in the middle of a divorce when their two children, Bianca (Coletti) and Giovanni (Ferrante), disappear. The kids were asleep in bed at Pietro’s home, then gone without a trace by the time their father checked on them. Elena, away in Milan, rushes back to Bari just as Pietro gets a call: It’s a man demanding 150,000 euros in cash for...

Plot twists are great. Who doesn’t love a good plot twist? We all love to get the rug pulled from under our feet while we’re watching a film, and then we rewatch the whole thing so we can see if we can catch the telltale signs of the act that has already subverted our expectations. And a good plot twist gets embedded so deeply into your psyche that the mere mention of something like Fight Club makes you remember the moment where it’s revealed that Tyler Durden and the Narrator are one and the same. If I say Oldboy, I’m sure you start thinking about the terrifying scene where Oh Dae-su learns the truth about his daughter. And even before I can finish saying the words Kahaani, I’m certain that you’re already picturing the scene where Vidya Balan pulls out the fake baby bump.

Netflix is bringing some of their popular shows’ highly-anticipated new seasons and a legacy sequel that will not disappoint in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F this July. This month, Netflix subscribers will be entertained, and that’s a guarantee as the final season of Vikings: Valhalla and Cobra Kai lands. If you are in the mood for a dark and post-apocalyptic story, don’t miss the third season of Sweet Home. So, here are the very best new movies and TV shows coming to Netflix in July 2024.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Eddie Murphy is back with one of his most iconic characters ever in Netflix’s upcoming film Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Directed by Mark Molloy from a screenplay by Will Beall, Tom Gormican, and Kevin Etten, the Netflix action-comedy film follows an aging Axel Foley, who still hasn’t slowed with his antics as he goes...

Italian actor and director Valeria Golino is set to make her debut as a TV series director with “The Art of Joy,” an erotically charged female empowerment drama set in early 20th-century Sicily and produced by Sky Studios.

Golino’s high-end period skein about a Sicilian young woman named Modesta, born into an impoverished family in early 1900 and driven by a strong belief that she’s destined for a better life, was announced during a Sky Italy presentation in Rome where the pay-tv operator unveiled its upcoming lineup of 60 Italian originals – series and films – for 2022, most of which have been already announced.

The presentation’s standout, revealed for the first time, is “The Art of Joy,” which is based on an epic, and highly erotic, feminist novel by the late Italian author and actor Goliarda Sapienza.

“Art of Joy” has been a longtime passion project for Golino, who was very...

“After that summer, nothing would be the same,” says Edo (Emanuele Maria Di Stefano), the narrator of “The Catholic School,” Stefano Mordini’s worryingly watchable, stylistically polished account of the lead-up to the tawdry and brutal real-life incident known to Italians as the Circeo Massacre. It is a curiously light beginning for a film that will end in an upsettingly extended sequence of torture and sexual violence, and it points to the queasy contradiction Mordini never resolves, between the painstakingly re-created, rueful coming-of-ager his film mostly is, and the unflinchingly ghoulish true-crime sadism-horror it suddenly becomes.

It is Rome in 1975, and Edo, along with the sons of half of Rome’s wealthy, untouchable elite, attends a private Catholic school in the suburbs. The boys are introduced to us, rather confusingly en masse, but eventually the unwieldy screenplay, co-written by Mordini and Massimo Gaudioso, Luca Infascelli, and based on the sprawling,...

The Leone Film Group has begun developing an English-language TV series titled "Colt," based on an idea developed by the late and great iconic spaghetti western filmmaker Sergio Leone.

The concept centers around the six-shooter gun packed by Clint Eastwood in "For a Fistful of Dollars." In 1987 Sergio Leone hooked up with his old writing partners Sergio Donati and Fulvio Morsella to work on an idea for a TV series about a Colt revolver that passes from owner to owner throughout the Old West.

Leone was said to be interested in a more naturalistic take on the Spaghetti Western genre than his earlier works, hoping to show the Old West "like it really was." Donati wrote a treatment draft, but then the project was abandoned.

Italian director Stefano Sollima (Sky's "Gomorra") will direct the first two episodes and act as showrunner along with writing the screenplay alongside Luca Infascelli and Massimo Gaudioso.