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Netflix’s latest European originals include scripted series out of Italy and Germany, another Too Hot to Handle remake and a doc on German soccer player Lukas Podolski.

Italian drama Motor Valley will follow a trio working for a famous racing car team and their journey to the Italian Gran Turismo Championship, while dark German miniseries Die Falle comes from the co-creator of Dear Child (Liebes Kind), Isabel Kleefeld. Poldi, meanwhile, explores the life of German World Cup winner Podolski as he reaches the end of his soccer career.

Synopsis for Motor Valley reads: “Arturo, Elena and Blu have lost almost everything in their lives, but one thing still lights them up: the love for cars and adrenaline. Elena, a young member of the Dionisi family, owner of a famous motorsport team, must regain a role in the family business, now in the hands of her brother; she hires Blu,...

Italy’s Groenlandia, the Banijay Entertainment-owned and Rome-based company headed by directors and producers Matteo Rovere and Sydney Sibilia, is on a roll with three shows launching this month respectively on Disney+, Sky Italia and Netflix. They include crime drama “This Is Not Hollywood,” which bows Friday at the Rome Film Festival.

The four-part crime series is based on the true story of a 15-year-old named Sarah Scazzi, whose body was thrown into a well after she was strangled in the a small Southern Italian town of Avetrana. A massive media storm ensued over the 42 days it took to find her body. The show, directed by Pippo Mezzapesa (“Burning Hearts”), will premiere Oct. 25 on Disney+ in Italy and across European, Middle East and Africa territories, plus some other countries, and also on Hulu in the U.S.

Rovere says the show’s catchy title refers to the fact that...

Black Souls CinemaltaliaUK’s mini film festival returns to the Riverside Studios in London for its fourth edition this month. The festival - titled Donne di Mafia - focuses on the role and presence of women in the Italian mafia, and their portrayal in Italian cinema and runs on the weekend of March 16 to 17.

Among the films screening this year is Francesco Munzi's Black Souls, based on a true story and featuring Aurora Quattrocchi as an elderly matriarch and Pippo Mezzapesa's Burning Hearts, which charts the love story of a man and a woman from rival clans.

Nevia, directed by Nunzia De Stefano, about a girl who joins a circus, is also in the line-up along with Francesco Rosi's 1958 debut The Challenge. The screenings will be followed by Q&As, with guests inlcuding Munzi and Virginia Apicella, who stars in Nevia.

The event is sponsored by the University of Bath,...

Lee’S Legacy Lauded

Lee Jung-jae, star of hit series “Squid Game,” and the show’s director Hwang Dong-hyuk were awarded the Geumgwan Order of Cultural Merit, South Korea’s highest cultural medal at a ceremony last week held at the office of Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol. Hwang was honored for his career efforts that included “Miss Granny” and “Silenced.” Lee was noted for being the first Asian the US critics’ Choice Award for best actor, the first Asian to win an Emmy for best actor in a drama series and for his SAG Award.

In a separate Korean honors list Lee, director Park Chan-wook, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” star Park Eun-bin and star Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) were named on a list of 10 cultural icons who received 2023 Visionary Awards from Cj Enm. In addition to his “Squid Game” success, Lee last year also made his feature directing debut “Hunt.

CBS shared a handful of announcements during the network’s Television Critics Association sessions on Friday, revealing the crew for upcoming reality romance series “The Real Love Boat” and a new animated holiday special titled “Reindeer In Here.”

Three crew members and twelve singles will join hosts Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell on a luxury Princess Cruises ship through the Mediterranean, with the series set to premiere on October 5. The ship’s crew members – Captain Paolo Arrigo, Ezra Freeman and Matt Mitcham – will play pivotal roles in the matchmaking, similar to how the original scripted “Love Boat” series operated.

The show’s contestants attempt to find a love connection while visiting and competing on challenges in cities such as Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, Santorini, Athens and more. The singles’ names are listed below:

Alisa ShahBrett De LauraBrooke WhiteDaniel CooperEmily StoneForrest JonesJordan MalabananMarty HassettMichael GonzalezNathan KrogerNicole WongShea-Lynn Noyes

The show’s...

Disney+ has put Italian true crime drama This is Not Hollywood — Avetrana into production in Puglia.

The four-part series (original title Avetrana – Qui non è Hollywood) is based on the true story of the death Sarah Scazzi and the massive media response. Each 80-minute episode takes point of view of one of the story’s main protagonists — Sarah, Sabrina, Michele and Cosima, who are played by Federica Pala, Giulia Perulli, Paolo De Vita and Vanessa Scalera, respectively.

Imma Villa, Anna Ferzetti and Giancarlo Commare have also been cast for key roles in the show, which is based on Carmine Gazzanni and Flavia Piccinni’s book ‘Sarah: La Ragazza di Avetrana.’

The series’ synopsis reads: “On August 26, 2010, in Avetrana, a small town on the edge of the holiday destination Salento, a young girl leaves home never to return. Her name is Sarah Scazzi, she is 15. The whole town is in turmoil,...

Pippo Mezzapesa’s Italian romance centres around the forbidden love of a rich heir and a Mafia wife.

Screen can exclusively reveal the first trailer for Pippo Mezzapesa’s Italian romance Burning Hearts which will premiere in the Horizon’s strand of Venice’s 79th International Film Festival (August 31 - September 10).

Rome-based sales outfit True Colours has picked up worldwide rights on Mezzapesa’s adaptation of the book Ti Mangio Il Cuore (I Eat Your Heart) by Carlo Bonni and Giuliano Fosch.

Centring around the forbidden love of a rich heir and a Mafia wife, it stars Italian singer Elodie...

White NoiseCOMPETITIONWhite Noise (Noah Baumbach)Il Signore Delle Formiche (Gianni Amelio)The Whale (Darren Aronofsky)L’Immensita (Emanuele Crialese)Saint Omer (Alice Diop)Blonde (Andrew Dominik)Tár (Todd Field)Love Life (Koji Fukada)Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths (Alejandro G. Inarritu)Athena (Romain Gavras)Bones & All (Luca Guadagnino)The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg)Beyond The Wall (Vahid Jalilvand)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Argentina, 1985 (Santiago Mitre)Chiara (Susanna Nicchiarelli)Monica (Andrea Pallaoro)No Bears (Jafar Panahi)All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)A Couple (Frederick Wiseman)The Son (Florian Zeller)Our Ties (Roschdy Zem)Other People’s Children (Rebecca Zlotowski)Out Of COMPETITIONFictionThe Hanging Sun (Francesco Carrozzini)When The Waves Are Gone (Lav Diaz)Living (Oliver Hermanus)Dead For A Dollar (Walter Hill)Call Of God (Kim Ki-duk)Dreamin’ Wild (Bill Pohlad)Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)Siccità (Paolo Virzi)Pearl (Ti West)Don’t Worry Darling...

With opening night locked in––Noah Baumbach’s highly-anticipated Don DeLillo adaptation White Noise––Venice Film Festival has unveiled the rest of their lineup. Amongst the slate is Todd Field’s TÁR, Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener, Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All, Joanna Hogg’s The Eternal Daughter, Frederick Wiseman’s A Couple, Laura Poitras’ All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, Walter Hill’s Dead for a Dollar, and more.

Check out the lineup below, with a hat tip to Deadline.

Venezia 79 Competiton

Il Signore Delle Formiche, dir: Gianni Amelio

The Whale, dir: Darren Aronofsky

L’Imensita, dir: Emanuel Crialese

Saint Omer, dir: Alice Diop

Blonde, dir: Andrew Dominik

TÁR, dir: Todd Field

Love Life, dir: Koji Fukada

Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths, dir: Alejandro G. Inarritu

Athena,...

Includes films by Alejandro G. Inarritu, Joanna Hogg, Olivia Wilde, Darren Aronofsky, Andrew Dominik, Luca Guadagnino and Florian Zeller.

The line-up of the 79th Venice Film Festival (August 31-September 10) has been announced by festival president Roberto Cicutto and artistic director Alberto Barbera.

Scroll down for full line-up

The heavyweight competition line-up includes films by Alejandro G. Inarritu, Joanna Hogg, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Darren Aronofsky, Andrew Dominik, Luca Guadagnino, Martin McDonagh and Florian Zeller. As with last year, five female directors were selected in the main competition. Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling is playing out of competition.

As previously announced, Noah Baumbach...

The line-up will be unveiled this morning at around 11:00 Cest (10:00 BST).

The line-up for the 79th Venice International Film Festival (August 31-September 10) will be unveiled this morning at around 11:00 Cest (10:00 BST) by festival president Roberto Cicutto and artistic director Alberto Barbera.

Scroll down for line-up

The press conference will be live-streamed below, and this page will be updated with the films as they are announced.

As previously announced, Noah Baumbach’s White Noise will open the festival in competition.

Julianne Moore will preside over the competition jury that also includes Audrey Diwan, Leonardo Di Costanzo, Mariano Cohn,...

Italian sales company True Colours has taken world sales on a trio of Venice films, and Toronto title “The Vice of Hope,” by Edoardo De Angelis, whose “Indivisible” made an international splash.

New Venice pics on the True Colours slate include Horizons entry “If Life Gives You Lemons,” by Italian first-timer Ciro D’Emilio. Pic is about a 17 year old who dreams of playing in the country’s Serie-a soccer league. The movie has been praised by Venice fest artistic director Alberto Barbara as an unexpected gem. The others on the True Colous slate are suicide-themed comedy “Emma Peeters,” a sophomore work by by Belgium’s Nicole Palo (“Get Born”), which will close the Venice Days section; and Pippo Mezzapesa’s “My Own Good,” also in Venice Days, starring veteran Italian actor Sergio Rubini as the last inhabitant of a ghost town in southern Italy’s Apulia region.

“Emma,” which...

With the Venice Film Festival due to reveal its competition lineup tomorrow, parallel sections are getting a jump. Today’s roster unveiling is for the Venice Days section, or Giornate degli Autori — an independent section that resembles Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. In the mix are new films from Oscar nominee Rithy Panh, After Love‘s Joachim Lafosse, and Peter Medak with The Ghost Of Peter Sellers. The latter is billed as a Special Event and is a tragicomic documentary about the unraveling of 1973 pirate comedy Ghost In The Noonday Sun.

Panh will open the section with Graves Without A Name, the Cambodian helmer’s latest examination of the fallout of the Khmer Rouge. Lafosse is in competition with mother-son drama Keep Going starring Virginie Efira. Out of competition, the closing film is The Suicide Of Emma Peteers by Nicole Palo. In total, six of the official selection titles are directed by women.

The Venice Film Festival’s independently run Venice Days section, modeled on Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, has unveiled its lineup of 11 competition entries, all world premieres, marked by a particularly strong presence of female directors.

The section will open with “Graves Without a Name” (pictured), a new documentary on the horrors of the Khmer Rouge era by revered Cambodian-born director Rithy Panh, producer of Angelina Jolie’s “First They Killed My Father.” The lineup mixes promising entries from both well-known auteurs and newcomers. The out-of competition closer is suicide-themed comedy “Emma Peeters” from young Belgian director Nicole Palo.

Venice Days artistic director Giorgio Gosetti noted that six out of 12 titles in the official selection are directed by women and said that “female characters play a crucial role in all the films.” But he also said his choice was unconstrained by gender considerations. “We sought the best that we could find and...