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Halle Berry, Payal Kapadia, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi, Hong Sangsoo, Carlos Reygadas and Jeremy Strong have been announced as members of the Cannes Film Festival’s main Competition jury for its 78th edition running from May 13 to May 24.

They join previously announced Jury President Juliet Binoche. Together, they will award the Palme d’Or to one of the 21 films in the main Competition, as well as the Grand Prix, Jury Prize, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Actor awards.

U.S. Actress and filmmaker Berry was the first African-American woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Marc Forster’s Monster’s Ball (2002).

Alternating between blockbusters and independent productions, her credits include Jungle Fever (1991), Dorothy Dandridge (1999), X-Men (1999), Swordfish (2002), Die Another Day (2003), Gothika (2003), Frankie & Alice (2011), Cloud Atlas (2012), Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) and John Wick Parabellum (2019).

In 2020, she directed her first film, Bruised. Also a producer,...

When we first meet Nino Sarratore in the HBO adaptation of “My Brilliant Friend,” based on the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, he’s a young child at a wake for the dead husband of his father, Donato Sarratore’s (Emanuele Valenti) mistress, Melina (Pina Di Gennaro). While it’s clearly not the first time that our narrator, Elena Greco, has met the slightly older Nino, what’s important is that six-year-old Elena is already secretly in love with him. Later, when teenage Elena (Margherita Mazzucco) sees Nino (Francesco Serpico) at high school with his perfectly floppy hair, glasses on his adorable face while smoking a cigarette, she drops a sandwich on the ground at first glance. Her lust for him is palpable. How many of us haven’t felt that feeling for someone we would later learn is a nightmare?

As Elena narrates her life through the lens of...

The complex relationship between Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo lies at the heart of My Brilliant Friend. We first met them as clever children navigating poverty and oppression in 1950s Naples. Now adults in the turbulent 1970s, their bond endures despite separate paths.

Elena pursues writing, traveling between Italy and France. But marriage troubles and an affair with Nino strain ties with family. Lila finds success but battles gangsters in her old neighborhood.

Their friendship surprises with turns, as do lives entwined with history. Lila encourages Elena’s ambitions, though envying her escape. Elena admires Lila’s fire, borrowing some rebelliousness.

In Season 4, old dangers materialize amid political turmoil. Elena faces disintegrating dreams with Nino while reconnecting with daughters and the past. Lila confronts roots she can’t quit, seeking empowerment through challenging the powerful.

The series excels at depicting lives shaped by location and era and their affection transcending rivalry.

The final season of the drama series “My Brilliant Friend”, based on the novels of Elena Ferrante, is directed by Laura Bispuri, starring Alba Rohrwacher, Irene Maiorino, Fabrizio Gifuni, Stefano Dionisi, Anna Rita Vitolo, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Daria Deflorian, Lino Musella, Eduardo Scarpetta Pesce and Sonia Bergamasco, streaming September 9, 2024 on Max:

“…the series follows ‘Elena Greco’ and the most important friend in her life, ‘Raffaella Lila Cerullo’. After meeting as children in 1950’s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila - Elena's brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy.

“They now find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980’s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest. Amid motherhood and career demands, amid betrayals, threats, disappearances and natural disasters, Elena and Lila once again reside in the same neighborhood…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

HBO has released the official trailer and key art for the fourth and final season of the critically acclaimed original drama series My Brilliant Friend, which will debut on Monday, September 9 (9:00-10:00 p.m. Et/Pt). The 10-episode season will be available on HBO and Max. New episodes debut weekly.

Based on Elena Ferrante’s bestselling novels, My Brilliant Friend follows Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo. After meeting as children in 1950s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila – Elena’s brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy.

The fourth installment of the saga, “Story of the Lost Child,” delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila. They find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest.

The fourth and final season of HBO’s sumptuous 20th-century saga “My Brilliant Friend” brings us back to Naples one more time. HBO has released the trailer for the last 10 episodes of the series, based on Elena Ferrante’s worldwide-bestselling quartet of Neapolitan novels, with Season 4 adapting the last book, “The Story of the Lost Child.” Watch below.

The series is created by Saverio Costanzo, who hands directing duties over to “Sworn Virgin” and “Daughter of Mine” filmmaker Laura Bispuri. Costanzo’s partner and Bispuri’s longtime collaborator Alba Rohrwarcher joins onscreen as protagonist Elena Greco after narrating behind the camera the last three seasons. Irene Maiorino joins the cast as Elena’s complicated longtime friend Lila, whom she first met as a girl in 1950s Naples. This season brings us back to the namesake Italian city — which the production recreated on a vast soundstage when not filming on location — where Elena,...

HBO has released the official trailer for the fourth and final season of the critically acclaimed original drama series My Brilliant Friend. It premieres Monday, September at 9 p.m. on HBO and streaming on Max. New episodes will debut every Monday. Watch the trailer above.

Created by Saverio Costanzo, based on Elena Ferrante’s bestselling novels, My Brilliant Friend follows Elena Greco (Alba Rohrwacher) and the most important friend in her life, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo (Irene Maiorino). After meeting as children in 1950s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila – Elena’s brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy.

The fourth installment, titled “Story of the Lost Child,” delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila. They find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest.

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as Gianna with Valeria Golino as Pupa in Ginevra Elkann’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema highlight I Told You So (Te l’Avevo Detto)

Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So (Te l’Avevo Detto), starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Valeria Golino, Alba Rohrwacher, Riccardo Scamarcio, Greta Scacchi, and Danny Huston was a highlight of the 23rd edition of Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema in New York. The first time I spoke with Ginevra Elkann was at the Istituto Luce Cinecittà opening night reception for The Wonders: Alice and Alba Rohrwacher at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2019. It was for her début feature Magari, also shot by Vladan Radovic.

Ginevra Elkann with Anne-Katrin Titze on Valeria Bruni Tedeschi: “She’s an incredible actress and very funny”

On the morning of the Italian Cultural Institute New York and Cinecittà...

Enter the adult lives of longtime girlfriends-on-edge Lenù and Lila in the final season of HBO’s “My Brilliant Friend.” The Italian series is based on Elena Ferrante’s wildly popular, globally best-selling Neapolitan Novels, beginning with “My Brilliant Friend” and concluding with “The Story of the Lost Child,” which forms the basis of the fourth and final season. Watch the teaser below.

New to the cast are Alba Rohrwacher, who has previously only narrated the decades-spanning series as the autofiction-writing Lenù, and Irene Maiorino as Lila, her dark-haired mercurial childhood friend with whom Lenù has fractiously jockeyed for the affections of the lothario Nino Sarratore. Nino, a political writer, is now played by Fabrizio Gifuni. The series is set in Naples, with this season directed by Laura Bispuri (who directed the films “Sworn Virgin” and “Daughter of Mine” with Alba Rohrwacher) and executive produced by Saverio Costanzo, who created the series.

HBO has announced that the fourth and final season of its original drama series My Brilliant Friend will debut on Monday, September 9 (9:00-10:00 p.m. Et/Pt). The 10-episode season will be available on HBO and Max. New episodes debut weekly.

Based on the bestselling novels by Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend follows Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life, Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo. After meeting as children in 1950s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila – Elena’s brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy.

The fourth installment of the saga, titled “Story of the Lost Child,” delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila. They find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest.

Amid motherhood and career demands,...

French multi-hyphenate Lou Doillon, who is Jane Birkin’s daughter, is set to star in Italian comedy “Quasi a casa” directed by Carolina Pavone, a former assistant director on several Nanni Moretti films.

Shooting is underway in Rome on the sophisticated comedy, in which Doillon — a model, actor and singer-songwriter, like her half-sister Charlotte Gainsbourg — plays an eclectic, successful singer who strikes up a turbulent friendship with a younger female musician who idolizes her.

Doillon became a French fashion icon in her teens after working with famed atelier Givenchy and is currently the testimonial of Cartier’s new Baignoire watchmaking collection. The Parisian star first acted in Italy in Abel Ferrara’s “Go Go Tales” and more recently appeared in French director Maïween’s “Polisse” and in “A Child of Yours” directed by her father, Jacques Doillon.

Pavone is a promising young helmer who has worked with Moretti on “My Mother” and “Three Floors,...

Shooting is underway in Naples on the fourth and final season of HBO/Rai series “My Brilliant Friend” which sees some key casting changes in the lead roles of the two best friends, Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo, no longer played by Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace.

For the fourth season of the Elena Ferrante quadrilogy, titled “The Story of the Lost Child,” as previously announced, Alba Rohrwacher (on the left of the first look image) is playing Elena Greco, aka Lenù. Irene Maiorino (“Gomorrah”) has now been announced as Lila. And additionally, Fabrizio Gifuni (“Exterior Night”) will play Nino Sarratore, the writer who has long been the object of Lenù’s affection. Sarratore was previously played by Francesco Serpico.

The fourth season of “Brilliant Friend” is being directed by Laura Bispuri, known for the transgender-themed drama “Sworn Virgin” and for “Daughter of Mine.” Both films starred Rohrwacher and played in Berlin.

The pals on My Brilliant Friend are all grown up.

For the drama’s fourth and final season on HBO, Alba Rohrwacher will play Elena Greco and Irene Maiorino will take over as Lila Cerullo in the series based on “The Story Of The Lost Child,” Elena Ferrante’s fourth and final book of her quadrilogy.

The series follows Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life — Raffaella Cerullo, whom she has always called Lila, in the first year of primary school in 1950. Their story goes on to cover more than 60 years of their lives and explores the mystery of Lila, Elena’s brilliant friend and – in a way – both her best friend and her worst enemy.

Fabrizio Gifuni will also join season four as Nino Sarratore.

Irene Maioria (Lila) and Alba Rohrwacher (Elena). Photo by Eduardo Castaldo

My Brilliant Friend is created by Saverio Costanzo. This season...

Top model Deva Cassell, who is Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel’s daughter, is making her acting debut as a wild and provocative artists’ model named Amelia in Italian director Laura Luchetti’s “The Beautiful Summer.” Italian sales company True Colours is launching sales on the drama at AFM.

True Colours has taken all rights outside Italy to the period piece set during a “beautiful summer” in Turin in 1938, against the backdrop of Fascist-era Italy’s subsequent entry into World War II.

The coming-of-age drama is based on Italian author Cesare Pavese’s novel “La Bella Estate,” which won Italy’s prestigious Premio Strega literary prize in 1950 and has been widely translated.

“Beautiful Summer” sees the 18-year-old Cassell (pictured above right in the first look image above) who models regularly for Dolce & Gabbana, as the uninhibited model Amelia. She introduces her younger friend Ginia, played by Yile Yara Vianello...

All The Beauty And The Bloodshed In Competition(Jury: Julianne Moore, Mariano Cohn, Leonardo di Costanzo, Audrey Diwan, Leila Hatami, Kazuo Ishiguro, Rodrigo Sorogoyen)Golden Lion – All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)Silver Lion (Grand Jury Prize) – Saint Omer (Alice Diop)Silver Lion (Best Director) – Luca Guadagnino (Bones & All)Coppa Volpi for Best Actress – Cate Blanchett (Tár)Coppa Volpi for Best Actor – Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)Best Screenplay – Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)Special Jury Prize – No Bears (Jafar Panahi)Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress – Taylor Russell (Bones & All)Orizzonti(Jury: Isabel Coixet, Laura Bispuri, Antonio Campos, Sofia Djama, Edourad Waintrop)Orizzonti Award for Best Film – World War III (Houman Seyedi)Orizzonti Award for Best Director – Vera (Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel)Special Orizzonti Jury Prize – Bread And Salt (Damian Kocur)Orizzonti Award for Best Actress – Vera Gemma (Vera)Orizzonti Award for...

Venice’s red carpet became a stage for quiet protest on Friday, as festival director Alberto Barbera and jury president Julianne Moore, among many more, held a somber walk-out to stand in solidarity with imprisoned filmmaker Jafar Panahi.

Traffic on the red carpet flowed normally as attendees made their way into Venice’s Palazzo del Cinema for the world premiere of Panahi’s latest film, “No Bears.” And then, at 4:30 pm sharp, the doors to the theater swung open and a sea of people filed out. Moore stood with a delegation that also included fellow juror Audrey Diwan, Horizons jury president Isabel Coixet, and filmmakers Laura Bispuri and Sally Potter.

In a steely show of resolve, many held posters calling for the release of Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof, and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, the three Iranian filmmakers imprisoned earlier this year. Others stood for Myanmar’s Ma Aeint and Turkey’s Çiğdem Mater,...

The star studded Variety and Hotel Danieli pre-festival cocktail party on Aug. 30 was a taster of the riches in store at the Venice Film Festival that kicks off the following day.

Head of the jury Julianne Moore and fellow jurors, “A Separation” actor Leila Hatami and filmmakers Audrey Diwan, Mariano Cohn, Leonardo Di Costanzo and Rodrigo Sorogoyen, were present as was “Thor: Love and Thunder” actor Tessa Thompson, who is serving on the festival’s Horizons strand jury.

The evening, titled “Cinema Danieli – An Unforgettable Story,” on the terrace of the plush Hotel Danieli, which turns 200 this year, has become a festival tradition dating back 13 years. It was introduced by Claudio Staderini, director of the Danieli, who described the hotel as a shooting and residential choice of many of the biggest movie stars in the world.

Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera said that the Variety and Danieli pre-festival cocktail as...

Michelangelo Frammartino was also named president of the Luigi de Laurentiis award.

Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet has been named president of the Horizons jury for the Venice Film Festival (August 31 - September 10).

Coixet’s credentials include My Life Without Me, The Secret Life Of Words and The Bookshop. Most recently her documentary The Yellow Ceiling was introduced at Cannes Marché 2022 slate.

Joining her on the jury is Italian director Laura Bispuri; US filmmaker Antonio Campos; Algerian filmmaker Sofia Djama and former Cannes’ Directors Fortnight director Edouard Waintrop.

The Horizons section awards seven prizes in total in all major categories including a special jury prize.

Spanish director Isabel Coixet will preside over the international jury of the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti competition at the upcoming edition running from August 31 to September 10.

The director knows Orizzonti well having world premiered her 2005 drama The Secret Life Of Words in the section, ahead of it winning four Spanish Goya awards the following year.

More recent credits include The Bookshop, which also swept the Goyas in 2017, winning best director, film and adapted screenplay, and Spanish and English-language romantic drama It Snows In Benidorm, starring Timothy Spall.

She will be by Italian filmmaker Laura Bispuri, whose third film The Peacock’s Paradise played in Orizzonti last year, and US director Antonio Campus, whose recent credits include HBO show The Staircase.

Further members include Sofia Djama, the Algerian director of The Blessed, for which lead Lyna Khoudri won the Orizzonti Best Actress Award in 2017 and former Cannes Directors’ Fortnight Delegate General Edouard Waintrop.

Click here to read the full article.

Spanish director Isabel Coixet (The Bookshop, My Life Without Me) will head up the competition jury for the Orizzonti, or Horizons, section of this year’s Venice International Film festival, organizers unveiled on Wednesday.

The Secret Life of Words helmer will be joined by Italian director Laura Bispuri (Sworn Virgin, Daughter of Mine); American filmmaker Antonio Campos (The Staircase, The Devil All the Time); Algerian director Sofia Djama, whose feature debut, The Blessed, screened in Oizzonti last year, winning the best actress honor for star Lyna Khoudri; and French journalist and critic Edouard Waintrop, who most recently was artistic director at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight section.

The Orizzonti jury will present awards for best film, best director, a jury prize, best actor and actress, best screenplay and a best short film honor, picking from the titles selected for the Venice sidebar this year.

Venice...

Spanish director Isabel Coixet, known for prizewinning works such as “The Secret Life of Words” and “The Bookshop,” will preside over the jury of the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons (Orizonti) section dedicated to more cutting-edge works.

Coixet will be joined on the Horizons jury by Italian director Laura Bispuri; U.S. director and producer Antonio Campos, who most recently created, wrote and directed HBO Max series “The Staircase,” starring Colin Firth, Toni Collette and Juliette Binoche; Algerian director Sofia Djama, whose first feature “The Blessed” won the 2017 Horizons best actress award for Lyna Khoudri; and former Cannes Director’s Fortnight chief Edouard Waintrop.

Additionally, Italian director Michelangelo Frammartino, who was in Venice last year with “Il Buco,” will preside over the jury for the “Luigi de Laurentiis” award for best first work across all Venice sections, which is worth 100,000.

Joining Frammartino on the Venice jury for best first work...

“Join forces,’ says Susanna Nicchiarelli, Michela Occhipinti, Chiara Bellosi, and Maura Delpero.

Four Italian directors came together in London last week to call for greater support for female film directors in Italy’s male-dominated industry.

Films by female directors comprised just 13 of the total films produced in Italy in both 2019 and 2020, according to data released by Cinecittà, Italy’s largest production studio. However, this is a significant gain on the 2 figure of 2010.

“There is a cultural problem at the root of all this. I realised it when I tried to get my first film done,” said Susanna Nicchiarelli, of her debut fiction feature Cosmonaut,...

The rising clutch of women directors breaking the glass ceiling in Italy’s male dominated film industry is being celebrated by a curated screenings’ series titled The Wave playing this week in London and set to open with Chiara Bellosi’s Berlin Panorama coming-of-age drama “Swing Ride.”

Running June 15-19 at London’s Ciné Lumière, Kensington, after a previous run in Berlin, The Wave has been assembled by Cinecittà’s promotional arm to draw international notice to what chief Carla Cattani says is “a unique time” for female filmmakers in Italy where they are “no longer isolated cases.”

Indeed, as Cattani notes in her introduction to The Wave’s program notes, prior to 2010 it was very rare to find more than two Italian films directed by females within the same year. In fact in 2010, out of 122 Italian films released theatrically only two titles were directed by women.

Cut to a decade later,...

Festival has programmed 120 films from 52 countries

The Munich Film Festival (June 23 – July 2) is showcasing many of the highlights from last month’s Cannes Film Festival when it returns with a full programme of features for the first time since 2019.

Munich pivoted online in 2020 due to the pandemic, and programmed a reduced number of films in 2021, mainly in open-air locations.

Munich is opening this year with Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, which saw Vicky Krieps win the Un Certain Regard best performance award for her portrayal of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

Corsage will play in Munich’s main Cinemasters Competition, alongside Cannes...

Festival has programmed 120 films from 52 countries

The Munich Film Festival (June 23 – July 2) is showcasing many of the highlights from last month’s Cannes Film Festival when it returns with a full programme of features for the first time since 2019.

Munich pivoted online in 2020 due to the pandemic, and programmed a reduced number of films in 2021, mainly in open-air locations.

Munich is opening this year with Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, which saw Vicky Krieps win the Un Certain Regard best performance award for her portrayal of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

Corsage will play in Munich’s main Cinemasters Competition, alongside Cannes...

Gabriele Mainetti’s Freaks Out, co-written with Nicola Guaglianone, starring Franz Rogowski, Aurora Giovinazzo, Pietro Castellitto, Giancarlo Martini, Claudio Santamaria, and Giorgio Tirabassi opens Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà’s 21st edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema

Giuseppe Bonito’s A Girl Returned; Paolo Taviani’s Leonora Addio (The Demise Of Luigi Pirandello); Laura Bispuri’s The Peacock’s Paradise (Il Paradiso Del Pavone) starring Dominique Sanda, Alba Rohrwacher, Carlo Cerciello, and Maya Sansa; Chiara Bellosi’s Swing Ride (Calcinculo) with Gaia Di Pietro and Andrea Carpenzano; Nanni Moretti’s Three Floors with Margherita Buy, Adriano Giannini, Elena Lietti, Riccardo Scamarcio, Paolo Graziosi, and Rohrwacher, and Gabriele Mainetti’s Freaks Out, co-written with Nicola Guaglianone, starring Franz Rogowski, Aurora Giovinazzo, Pietro Castellitto, Giancarlo Martini, Claudio Santamaria, and Giorgio Tirabassi are six highlights of Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà’s 21st edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema.

Some creatures waste away when they’re domesticated, pining for the freedom of the outdoors. That seems to be the case not only for the immensely improbable, leadenly symbolic peacock at the center of Laura Bispuri’s “The Peacock’s Paradise,” but also for Bispuri’s flair for characterization and absorbingly grounded melodrama, which comes tamely indoors after the vibrant, windblown elementalism of “Sworn Virgin” and “Daughter of Mine,” and vanishes.

In the stultifying environment of a small coastal apartment, “The Peacock’s Paradise” follows a family of unbearably self-involved secret-keepers at a reunion that precipitates an entire telenovela’s worth of soapy revelation in the space of a single afternoon. Long-term same-sex affairs are discovered; dormant passions are reawakened; new lovers are betrayed; a history of institutionalization is dredged up; financial petitions are broached; and a clinically mute character speaks, delivering one single, loaded comment that scriptwriters Bispuri and...

“The Peacock’s Paradise” is one of the worst types of films to watch and review. Ineffectual in its style, but inoffensive in its content and execution, Laura Bispuri’s most recent directorial effort fails to move beyond the rudimentary elements that comprise the average movie.

Read More: Venice Film Festival 2021 Preview: 12 Must-See Films To Watch

The narrative centers on an estranged family gathering to celebrate the birthday of Nena (Dominique Sanda), its matriarch.

Continue reading ‘The Peacock’s Paradise’: Laura Bispuri Crafts A Masterclass In Mediocre Filmmaking [Venice Review] at The Playlist.

The country’s box office is still sputtering but Italian cinema is instead “in a state of grace,” as Venice chief Alberto Barbera put it recently as he announced the five features from Italy that are competing for the fest’s Golden Lion. It’s the most he’s ever selected from Italy.

And Barbera is adamant that he didn’t allocate almost one-fourth of Venice’s 21 competition slots to Cinema Italiano “to support our colors at a difficult time.”

“Some years he selects very little from Italy,” notes Barbara Salabè, who is the top Warner Bros. exec in Italy. “But this year Alberto told me: ‘the [Italian] films are good.’”

The Italian contingent on the Lido spans a wide range of cinematic styles, from “Il Buco,” an eclectic film with no dialogue or music about a group of speleologists who, in 1961, discover the world’s second-deepest cave — directed by underground helmer Michelangelo Frammartino,...

The programme for the 2021 Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Pedro Almodóvar, Jane Campion, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michelangelo Frammartino, Pablo Larraín, Paul Schrader, Ridley Scott, and more.Parallel MothersCOMPETITIONParallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar)Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (Ana Lily Amirpour)Un Autre Monde (Stephane Brize)The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)America LatinaL’Evenement (Audrey Diwan)Official CompetitionThe Hole (Michelangelo Frammartino)Sundown (Michel Franco)Lost Illusions (Xavier Giannoli)The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal)Spencer (Pablo Larrain)Freaks Out (Gabriele Mainetti)Qui Rido Io (Mario Martone)On The Job: The Missing 8 (Erik Matti)Leave No Traces (Jan P. Matuszyński)Captain Volkonogov EscapedThe Card Counter (Paul Schrader)The Hand of God (Paolo Sorrentino)Reflection (Valentyn Vasyanovych)The Box (Lorenzo Vigas)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesDune (Denis Villeneuve)Il Bambino Nascosto (Roberto Andò)Les Choses Humaines (Yvan Attal)Ariaferma (Leonardo Di Costanzo)Halloween Kills (David Gordon Green...

Dina Amer’s debut feature takes in the relationship between two sisters.

Germany’s The Match Factory has boarded international sales on Dina Amer’s You Resemble Me, which was announced today in the selection for Venice sidebar Giornate degli Autori.

CAA is handling North American sales on the film, which is produced by US companies The Othrs and Vice Studios/Ryot Films, in association with Quiet and Level Forward. France’s Dartagnan and Egypt’s Hameda’s Stories are co-producers.

In the film, when a bond is broken between two sisters, one of them transforms into someone new in...

Taking place September 1 through 11, the Venice Film Festival has now unveiled its lineup, after a few teases of what it contains (the opening night selection of Madres Paralelas by Pedro Almodovar and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune). Among the selections are Jane Campion’s The Power of a Dog, Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter, Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, Ana Lily Amirpour’s Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand of God, and Edgar Wright’s The Last Night in Soho will premiere there, along with new shorts by Radu Jude and Tsai Ming-liang.

Check out the line below for the festival that will feature 50% capacity at screenings.

Venezia 78 – Competition

Madres Paralelas, dir: Pedro Almodovar

Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon, dir: Ana Lily Amirpour

Un Autre Monde, dir: Stéphane Brizé

The Power Of The Dog,...

The 2021 Cannes Film Festival brought the international film circuit back to life in roaring fashion earlier this month (French filmmaker Julia Ducournau became the second woman director to win the Palme d’Or thanks to Neon release “Titane”), and next up are the trio of major fall film festivals in September: the Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival. Venice is first out of the gate by launching its 78th edition Wednesday, September 1. The lineup for Venice 2021 has now been revealed.

As previously announced, Pedro Almodóvar will kick off the 2021 Venice Film Festival with the world premiere of his new drama “Parallel Mothers.” The film will debut in competition and vie for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion. “Parallel Mothers” is written and directed by Almodóvar, and stars both regular and new collaborators, including Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Julieta Serrano,...

This year’s line-up includes five female directors in competition.

The line-up of the 78th Venice Film Festival (September 1-11) has been announced by festival president Roberto Cicutto and artistic director Alberto Barbera.

Scroll down for the full line-up

This year’s selection saw the festival take a backward step for gender balance, with five female directors selected in the main competition, down from last year’s eight. 26% of films in the overall line-up are directed by women, down from 28% in 2020.

The high-profile titles picked for competition this year include Pablo Larrain’s Spencer; Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God...

The Venice film festival runs September 1-11.

The line-up for the 78th Venice Film Festival (September 1-11) is being unveiled this morning at around 11:00 Cest (10:00 BST) by festival president Roberto Cicutto and artistic director Alberto Barbera.

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

As previously announced, Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers will open the festival in competition. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune will also have its world premiere at the festival out of competition on September 3.

Bong Joon Ho will preside over the competition jury that also includes Chloé Zhao,...

Despite Italy having been among countries hardest hit by the pandemic, film production almost never stopped. So there is a backlog of new titles ready to hit global festivals and markets starting from Cannes, as well as newer projects.

Below is a compendium of hot Cinema Italiano titles in various stages of production.

“Bones and All”

Luca Guadagnino started shooting this U.S.-set film in May, marking his first collaboration with Timothée Chalamet since “Call Me by Your Name.” Pic is adapted from the eponymous novel by Camille DeAngelis and tells the story of first love between Maren, a young woman learning how to survive on the margins of society, and Lee, a disenfranchised drifter, as they meet and join forces for a road trip through Ronald Reagan’s America.

“La Chimera”

Alice Rohrwacher will soon shoot her fourth feature revolving around the black market of stolen archaeological artifacts.

Dominique Sanda, Alba Rohrwacher and Maya Sansa star in the director’s new film, the story of an impossible love that will throw into question the feelings of an entire family. Filming on Il paradiso del pavone, the latest film from Laura Bispuri, has just wrapped in Ostia. The film comes three years after Sworn Virgin and Daughter of Mine (selected in competition at the 2018 Berlinale). This story of an impossible love that will throw into question the feelings of an entire family will be told by actors Dominique Sanda (recently seen in Saint Laurent), Alba Rohrwacher (seen last year in The Ties and shortly in Tre piani), Maya Sansa (last year in Lasciami andare), Carlo Cerciello, Fabrizio Ferracane, Leonardo Lidi, Tihana Lazović (the Croatian actress...

Leading arthouse outfit The Match Factory is continuing its successful partnership with Laura Bispuri as it boards sales on her latest film, “The Peacock’s Paradise.” The film stars Cannes best actress winner Dominique Sanda and Venice best actress winner Alba Rohrwacher, Bispuri’s long-time collaborator.

The Match Factory previously represented the director’s “Sworn Virgin,” which played in Berlinale Competition in 2015, and “Daughter of Mine,” which was in Berlinale Competition in 2018.

“The Peacock’s Paradise” follows Nena’s family, who reunite in their house by the sea to celebrate her birthday. Everybody is there: her husband Umberto, their children Vito and Caterina, cousin Isabella, their daughter-in-law Adelina, Caterina’s ex Manfredi with his new girlfriend Joana, their granddaughter Alma, and Lucia, the maid, with her daughter Grazia. Finally, there is Paco, Alma’s peacock, who surprisingly falls in love with a little painted dove: an impossible love that will...

Ali is Gianfranco Rosi’s silent anchor in Notturno (Nocturne)

Gianfranco Rosi’s Notturno (Nocturne), screening in the Main Slate of the New York Film Festival and the Journey section in London, comes nestled at the abyss. The chaotic, unstable border regions of Lebanon, Iraq, Kurdistan, and Syria are where this arresting important documentary was shot by Rosi during the past three years. He has had a longtime collaboration with editor Jacopo Quadri that began with his first documentary, Boatman (1993) and continued successfully on to Below Sea Level (2008), the frightening El Sicario, Room 164 (2010), his vigilant Sacro Gra (2013), and the masterful Fire At Sea (2016). Fabrizio Federico is the third member of the brilliant editing team for Notturno. Federico is also the editor for Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden (opening virtually at Film at Lincoln Center on October 16). Quadri has edited Laura Bispuri’s Sworn Virgin and <a...

The Berlinale in recent years has been a prime launching pad for Italian films directed by women, which though fewer in number to their male counterparts, make up a considerable portion of the country’s representation on the festival circuit — Alice Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro”) at Cannes, Susanna Nicchiarelli (“Nico”) at Venice, and Berlin regular Laura Bispuri (“Daughter of Mine”) are all festival faves.

Here is a compendium of new and upcoming Italian films and TV series directed by women including two (out of nine Italian titles overall) in Berlin this year.

“Ordinary Justice”

This first feature by Chiara Bellosi, who previously made several docs, looks at a day in a Turin courthouse where the lives of two women and a young girl on opposite sides of a murder case intersect. In Berlin, Generation 14Plus.

“Faith”

An observational doc by Valentina Pedicini is about a reclusive spiritual sect of kung...

Vivo Film, the Italian shingle at Berlin with Abel Ferrara’s “Siberia,” has a robust slate in various stages including the next drama by Laura Bispuri, whose “Sworn Virgin” and “Daughter of Mine” both launched from the Berlinale.

Bispuri later this year will shoot her third feature, which is currently titled “Di Lotta e D’Amore” (“Of Battle and Love”), a love story between two teen girls set against the backdrop of squatters’ houses and other spaces occupied by both Italians and immigrants on Rome’s outskirts. She is working with her regular writer Laura Manieri.

The Rome-based indie headed by Marta Donzelli and Gregorio Paonessa — which has the distinction of being the Italian company that landed the most Berlin lineup slots in recent years — has several other new pics by emerging Italian directors in the pipeline.

They include:

“Miss Marx” — Susanna Nicchiarelli, whose “Nico, 1988,” about the late German chanteuse...

Marco Bellocchio with Pierfrancesco Favino on The Traitor (Il Traditore): “The whole world is really tied together by the moon.”

Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor (Il Traditore), co-written with Valia Santella, Ludovica Rampoldi, Francesco Piccolo, and Francesco La Licata, shot by Vladan Radovic is a film of breathtaking beauty with costumes by Daria Calvelli. Pierfrancesco Favino gives a career-defining performance in his portrayal of real-life Mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta.

Judge Falcone (Fausto Russo Alesi) with Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino)

There is nothing alluring about the lifestyle of his family, when Marco Bellocchio takes it on, because the director never lets us forget the threat of violence, lurking around every corner, in every scene. A count-up warns of assassinations to come and music soothes and heightens, in a way only Bellocchio knows how to combine.

Buscetta, after his extradition from exile in Brazil in the Eighties, and the murderous rampage by rivalling factions of.

Ginevra Elkann with Alba Rohrwacher at the Museum of Modern Art premiere of Magari (If Only) Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At the Istituto Luce Cinecittà opening night reception for The Wonders: Alice and Alba Rohrwacher at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, while Julian Schnabel circulated through the crowd and Sony Pictures Classics Michael Barker and Rome Film Festival Artistic Director and Le Conversazioni founder Antonio Monda held court, Ginevra Elkann, the director of Magari (If Only) joined me for a conversation on her debut feature film, co-written with Chiara Barzini.

Riccardo Scamarcio as Carlo with Alba Rohrwacher as Benedetta in Magari (If Only)

Magari, shot by Vladan Radovic, stars Oro De Commarque, Alba Rohrwacher, Céline Sallette, Brett Gelman, and Riccardo Scamarcio with Ettore Giustiniani, Milo Roussel, and Benjamin Baroche. After viewing If Only, I thought of my Babsi, Isabella Rossellini’s Nando, and Thom Browne’s Hector with Andrew Bolton,...

Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art with Istituto Luce Cinecittà’s Camilla Cormanni, Alice Rohrwacher, and Alba Rohrwacher Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At the Istituto Luce Cinecittà opening night reception for The Wonders: Alice and Alba Rohrwacher at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Julian Schnabel circulated through the crowd, Sony Pictures Classics Michael Barker chatted with Magari (If Only) director Ginevra Elkann and Rome Film Festival Artistic Director and Le Conversazioni founder Antonio Monda held court.

Alba Rohrwacher on Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders: “I can say it's my life, but from her point of view.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

There is only one actress linked to Gianni Zanasi’s Troppa Grazia (Lucia’s Grace); Giorgio Diritti’s L’Uomo Che Verrà (The Man Who Will Come); Luca Guadagnino’s Lo Sono L’Amore (I Am Love) and Part...

Alba Rohrwacher on Adam Driver and Saverio Costanzo during the filming of Hungry Hearts in New York: “We were like dancers, because the director was also the Dp. He was always with us. And we dance in this kind of nightmare where the characters are.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Before I met with Alice Rohrwacher, the director of Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice), The Wonders (Le Meravigile) and Corpo Celeste (Heavenly Body) which are all screening in The Wonders: Alice and Alba Rohrwacher retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, Alba Rohrwacher the director’s sister and star, joined me for a lively conversation on her career.

Isabella Rossellini cracks up Saverio Costanzo and Alba Rohrwacher Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

First up was her starring role opposite Adam Driver in Saverio Costanzo’s comedy of metaphors, Hungry Hearts, which takes a Roman Polanski Rosemary’s Baby turn. Next up, Arnaud Desplechin, whose...

Italian director Andrea De Sica, who has been helming the bulk of Netflix teen series “Baby,” is set to shoot a horror film based on a bestselling Gothic novel, “Non Mi Uccidere,” geared towards the same youth demographic as the show.

The book – written by late cult author Chiara Palazzolo, with a title that translates as “Don’t Kill Me” – is about a 19-year-old named Mirta, who, with her older lover, Robin, dies of a drug overdose. She then resuscitates alone to find out that in order to continue living, and cherishing the memory of Robin’s love, she must eat living humans.

Prior to directing “Baby,” which is about teen prostitution in Rome, De Sica made his directorial debut with “Children of the Night,” a coming-of-age story, set at an upper-crust boarding school, that flirted with horror elements.

De Sica described “Uccidere” as “not a full-fledged horror film but...

American director returns to festival for fifth time.

American director Oliver Stone will attend this year’s Zurich Film Festival (September 26 – October 6) as president of the jury.

He will be joined on the International Competition jury by Colombian director Ciro Guerra, Italian director Laura Bispuri, German actor Sebastian Koch, and Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani.

Zurich’s International Documentary Film Competition will this year be chaired by British producer Simon Chinn. He will be joined by American producer Stephen Nemeth, Swiss director Anja Kofmel, French director Maryam Goormaghtigh, and Swiss documentary filmmaker Christian Frei.

The Focus Competition, which selects first, second or third features from Switzerland,...

Oliver Stone will serve as the jury president of the international competition at this year’s Zurich Film Festival, it was announced Thursday. The Oscar-winning filmmaker will also present his Showtime documentary series “The Putin Interviews” and the restored version of his 1991 film “The Doors” at the festival.

“Oliver Stone is an edgy Hollywood auteur who continues to create epoch-making masterpieces and manages to broach explosive issues with brilliance,” said festival co-directors Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri. “We are delighted that [he] has accepted our invitation.”

The international competition jury also comprises Colombian filmmaker Ciro Guerra, Italian director Laura Bispuri, German actor Sebastian Koch, and Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani.

Double Oscar-winning documentary producer Simon Chinn has been tapped to chair the festival’s documentary film competition. German producer Thomas Kufus heads the Focus Competition, which is for Swiss, German or Austrian productions from a director making his or her first, second or third feature.

Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone will lead the jury of the upcoming Zurich Film Festival's international competition. 

Stone will also present a restored version of his 1991 biopic The Doors and his documentary series The Putin Interviews at the 15th edition of the Swiss film fest. 

He will preside over a jury that includes Colombian director Ciro Guerra (Waiting for the Barbarians), Italian director Laura Bispuri (Figlia Mia), German actor Sebastian Koch (Werk Ohne Autor) and Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani (Lazzaro Felice).

"Stone has been a friend of our festival for 12 years now. He was recipient of ...

Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone will lead the jury of the upcoming Zurich Film Festival's international competition. 

Stone will also present a restored version of his 1991 biopic The Doors and his documentary series The Putin Interviews at the 15th edition of the Swiss film fest. 

He will preside over a jury that includes Colombian director Ciro Guerra (Waiting for the Barbarians), Italian director Laura Bispuri (Figlia Mia), German actor Sebastian Koch (Werk Ohne Autor) and Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani (Lazzaro Felice).

"Stone has been a friend of our festival for 12 years now. He was recipient of ...