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The Israeli-Palestinian drama “Roll,” from Italian-American first-time director Loris Lai and producer Lawrence Bender, has wrapped production in Tunisia and in Tarak Ben Ammar Studios in Tunis.

The film, which is inspired by the Italian novel “Sulle Onde della Libertà” by Nicoletta Bortolotti, is written by Lai and Dahlia Heyman. The story is set in the midst of war-torn Gaza, where two 12-year-old boys, one Palestinian and the other Israeli, along with an ex-surfing champion, form an unlikely friendship over their mutual love for the water. The lessons they learn from one another go beyond the waves, helping influence their decision-making and show their community that peace can exist.

The Palestinian and Israeli boys are played by newcomers Marwin Hemdan and Mikael Fridel, while Tom Rhys Harries (“The Gentleman; White Lines”) will play the ex-surfing champion. Lyna Khoudri (“The French Dispatch”) also stars.

“Roll” is co-produced by Jean Vigo Italia,...

The new film by the director of The Viceroys tells the story of Nobel medicine prize winner Mario Capecchi. An Italian-American co-production by Jean Vigo Italia and Rhino Films. Yesterday, 24 August, in Alto Adige, shooting started on Resilient, the new film by Roberto Faenza about the story of Italian geneticist Mario Capecchi. Produced by Elda Ferri and Milena Canonero for Jean Vigo Italia with Rai Cinema, and by Rex Glensy for the American production company Rhino Films, with the support of Idm Film Fund, the 19th film by the director of According to Pereira and The Viceroys is about the life and childhood of Mario Capecchi, Nobel medicine prize winner born in Italy from an American mother, poet and political activist, arrested by fascists in 1941 and later imprisoned in a German concentration camp. It is with this arrest when he was 5 years old that Mario’s life quickly...

Biopic premiered at Rome Film Festival last year.

Corinth Films has acquired North American rights to Andrei Konchalovsky’s Italian epic Sin (Il Pecato), which chronicles a critical juncture in the life and work of Michelangelo.

The distributor has set a virtual theatrical release in the third quarter of this year and after that will release on home entertainment and digital platforms.

Sin premiered at Rome Film Festival last year and follows the 16th century Renaissance’s most iconic artist as he struggles to complete the Sistine Chapel for Pope Julius II of the Della Rovere nobility.

When Julius II...

Elda Ferri produces for Ad Hoc Film and Rai Cinema.

Italian sales outfit Filmexport has picked up international rights to Gianfrancesco Lazotti’s completed feature The Night Is Short For Us, an ensemble drama produced by Elda Ferri for Ad Hoc Film and Rai Cinema.

Inspired by classic Italian films of the 1970s, the story takes place on a dancefloor and interweaves the stories of different dancers. The cast includes Philippe Leroy and Cristiana Capotondi.

As part of its expansion into television Filmexport is in Cannes to pitch the TV drama The Serpent Queen, a drama based on the 16th-century figure of Caterina de’ Medici,...

Oscar statue (Courtesy: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

There was always a chance for the best picture category at the 2017 Academy Awards to feature solid representation for female producers and, with the nominations official, the numbers are in. Turns out there are five of the nine films in this year’s top category with women behind it — but how does that stand up to the rest of Oscar history?

As mentioned above, there are five out of the total nine films in the best picture category this year that took some girl power to get made. There’s Hell or High Water (Carla Hacken and Julie Yorn), Hidden Figures (Donna Gigliotti and Jenno Topping), Lion (Angie Fielder), Manchester by the Sea (Kimberly Steward and Lauren Beck), and finally Moonlight (Adele Romanski and Dede Gardner). This leaves out Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, and La La Land as...

Fortissimo Films has added two Last Summer from Italy and Atlantic from the Netherlands to its Cannes slate.

Fortissimo Films is to begin pre-sales at the Cannes market on Italian feature Last Summer and Dutch film Atlantic. Both are currently in post-production and slated for festival launches later this year.

Fortissimo will handle worldwide sales for both outside their respective countries of origin and will introduce the films to buyers during the Marche with exclusive footage.

Last Summer marks the feature debut of London-based Italian commercials and short film director Leonardo Guerra Seragnoli.

Starring Rinko Kikuchi (Babel), the English and Japanese language film also introduces child actor Ken Brady. Produced by Elda Ferri (Jean Vigo Italia), Luigi Musini (Cinemaundici) and Rai Cinema, the film was written by Seragnoli and Igort. Acclaimed Japanese writer Banana Yoshimoto is a contributing writer on the film.

The film is partially set on a luxury yacht anchored off the coast of Apulia...

Rome-based sales company Adriana Chiesa Enterprises (Ace) will launch sales on Roberto Faenza’s English-language Anita B., about a young Auschwitz survivor trying to re-build her life after the war, at the Efm.

Eline Powell, who got her big screen break in Dustin Hoffman’s Quartet, plays Anita opposite Robert Sheehan, as a young man with whom she embarks on a passionate affair.

Rising star Sheehan, best known for his roles in TV series Misfits and fantasy feature The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, is also set to star in Tiago Mesquita’s Caesar and Gren Wells’ The World Within this year.

Life is Beautiful producer Elda Ferri of Jean Vigo Italia and Luigi Musini of Cinema Undici co-produced the film.

Ace is handling all international rights except for the Us. The picture’s Us co-producer Ron Stein of Four of a Kind Productions is handling North America rights. Stein also co-produced Faenza’s last film Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You...

#60. Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You - Roberto Faenza I'd normally wouldn't associate a veteran Italian filmmaker such as Roberto Faenza (see pic above) with the festival - but this shot in NYC, coming-of-age indie drama based on the novel by the same name (Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You) features a mix of the next generation of actors (Toby Regbo and Deborah Ann Woll) along with some stellar actresses in the biz (Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden) and is backed by producers who've been to the fest with some recent indie items Allen Bain (The Missing Person) and Ron Stein (The Romantics). Premieres category a possibility. Gist: Based on the award-winning novel Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You by Peter Cameron, is a funny and tender film about James Sveck (Toby Regbo), a vulnerable teenager with a deep appreciation for the world and...

Deborah Ann Woll has joined the cast of the drama "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You." According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Lucy Liu, Toby Regbo and Stephen Lang have already been cast. The film focuses on an isolated young adult (Regbo) who must deal with his dysfunctional family the summer before he heads to college. Roberto Faenza is directing the film, which is adapted from the novel by Peter Cameron. John Heyman of World Productions and Elda Ferri of Jean Viggo Italia are producing. Shooting begins next month in New York. Woll is best known for her role on HBO's "True Blood." She recently booked "Catch .44," a crime drama with...

Deborah Ann Woll ("True Blood") has signed on for the ensemble drama "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You" for World Prods. and Jean Viggo Italia says The Hollywood Reporter.

The story follows an isolated young adult (Toby Regbo) who must contend with his dysfunctional family during his pre-college summer. He's also dating a married professor and writing her memoirs.

Woll plays his sister Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Lucy Liu and Stephen Lang also star. Roberto Faenza is directing and adapted the script from Peter Cameron's novel.

John Heyman and Elda Ferri are producing bad shooting kicks off next month in New York City.

Deborah Ann Woll, one of the key players in HBO's "True Blood," is joining the ensemble drama "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You."

The drama tells the tale of an isolated young adult who must contend with his dysfunctional family the summer before he heads to college.

Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Lucy Liu and Stephen Lang are already on board.

Woll plays the sister of the young adult (Toby Regbo), who is dating a married professor and writing her memoirs, hoping to cash in on the youthful memoirs craze.

Roberto Faenza is directing the pic, which adapts the novel by Peter Cameron and shoots next month in New York. John Heyman of World Prods. and Elda Ferri of Jean Viggo Italia are producing.

The heat generated from "True Blood" has opened doors for many of the cast. Alexander Skarsgard is a couple of weeks away from shooting "Battleship,...

The Italian production starts shooting today in Central Park, New York City. The Oscar-winning actress joins Marcia Gay Harden, Toby Regbo (Harry Potter), Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels), Stephen Lang (Avatar) and Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood) in this coming-of-age story. Italian financiers including Rai Cinema are fully financing this adaptation of the teenage novel by New York-based author Peter Cameron, which was a bestseller in Italy. The novel tells a Holden Caufield-ish tale of a teenager working in his mother’s pretentious Manhattan art gallery, where he finds himself accused of sexual harassment. Roberto Faenza is the director and the producer is Elda Ferri (Life Is Beautiful). It’s a wholly Italian-financed production, partly financed by Rai Cinema. One footnote is that the script is by Dahlia Heyman, step-sister of Harry Potter producer David Heyman. By my reckoning, she’s the fifth member of the Heyman dynasty to enter the business.

With its release in Italy coming Friday, the high-octane publicity machine for Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio has kicked into top gear, with the Italian actor-director making his first promotional press appearance before the film's record-breaking rollout on about one-third of the country's cinema screens. "Very rarely have we seen such an extraordinary anticipation for a film. I can only be happy about this. This is great," Benigni -- who is the film's director and also stars as the popular puppet who becomes a human boy -- told Italian reporters during a news conference Friday in Rome. Italian distributor Medusa has increased the number of screens on which Pinocchio will debut Friday in Italy from 860 -- as originally announced -- to 900 in order "to accommodate requests that have been pouring in from exhibitors all over the country," producer Elda Ferri said. Italy has about 3,000 screens in total.

Beloved Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni's new movie Pinocchio is set to break records across his native Italy when it opens in almost 30 per cent of the country's cinema screens. The film, based loosely on Carlo Collodi's puppet fairytale, will open on a record 860 screens on October 11. The owners of one particular single-screen theatre, which has been closed for 20 years, have even offered to re-open the cinema if they can show the film there on opening night. Producer Elda Ferri says, "Requests have come from all over Italy. Even tiny theatres in small towns want to run it." Ironically, the locals of Collodi in Tuscany, which was named as a tribute to the author, will have to travel to see their favorite son's greatest work - because there's no cinema in the village.

ROME -- Roberto Benigni is set to break Italian release records with a massive rollout of his Pinocchio, planned for roughly one-third of Italy's cinema screens, producer Elda Ferri said Monday. Directed and co-scripted by Benigni -- who also stars as the puppet who becomes a human boy -- Pinocchio will make its Italian debut Oct. 11 on 860 screens via distributor Medusa. Italy has some 2,500 screens in total. Miramax plans to release a differently edited version for U.S. audiences Dec. 25. "Movie theaters in small towns that have been closed down for years, and only open rarely, have been inundating us with requests," Ferri said. The previous Italian record for a wide release belonged to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which went out on 700 copies. The effects-laden Pinocchio, which has a budget of around $45 million, making it the costliest Italian film ever made, already has received much attention in the Italian press, with full-page articles dedicated to the film over the weekend. Eleven hundred trailers are playing in cinemas, and a TV ad campaign is under way.