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Saint Clare starring Bella Thorne will open this year’s Taormina Film Festival.

The July fest has unveiled gala lineup, including action title Twisters directed by Lee Isaac Chung starring Daisy Edgar-Jones; psychological thriller The Surfer by Lorcan Finnegan starring Nicolas Cage and Il giudice ed il boss, which comes from the director of Placido Rizzotto, Pasquale Scimeca.

The main titles are completed by three rom-coms with the British-Icelandic Touch, directed by filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur and starring Kôki; and two Italian films, L’invenzione di noi due by Corrado Ceron starring Lino Guanciale, Silvia D’Amico and Paolo Rossi; and Finché notte non ci separi by Riccardo Antonaroli starring Pilar Fogliati, Filippo Scicchitano and Valeria Bilello, which closes the festival.

There will be an international premiere of From Ground Zero that presents the “tale of untold stories” signed by 22 young Palestinian filmmakers who have filmed daily life in Gaza. As ever,...

The world premiere of Mitzi Peirone’s horror film “Saint Clare” will open the Taormina Film Festival, this year celebrating its 70th anniversary edition. The adaptation of Don Roff’s novel stars Bella Thorne, Ryan Phillippe, Frank Whaley and Rebecca De Mornay. It’s the first of four world premieres to screen at the outdoor Teatro Antico in the Sicilian town, which looks out towards Mount Etna, an active volcano, to the West.

Lee Isaac Chung’s highly anticipated remake/sequel “Twisters,” distributed by Warner Bros. in Italy, is blowing into town for its local premiere. Starring “Normal People’s” Daisy Edgar Jones and “Hitman” star Glen Powell, the “Minari” director’s film is a reupping of Jan de Bont’s mid-90s classic, with a James Cameron-esque title promising to multiply the mayhem.

Marco Mueller, who has taken over as the festival’s artistic director (see interview), commented...

Updated with latest: The Venice Film Festival began August 30 with opening-night movie Comandante, an Italian World War II drama, kicking off a lineup for the venerable fest’s 80th edition that includes world premieres of Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, David Fincher’s The Killer, Ava DuVernay’s Origins, and new films from lightning-rod directors Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson.

Deadline is on the ground to watch all the key films. Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which last year awarded Laura Poitras’ documentary All The Beauty and the Bloodshed its Golden Lion for best film.

Click on the film titles below to read the reviews in full, and keep checking back as we add more movies throughout the fest, which runs through September 9.

Adagio

Section: Competition

Director: Stefano Sollima

Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino,...

A 73m x 7m submarine was always going to be a left-field substitute for A-lister Zendaya after Luca Guadagnino’s hotly anticipated tennis movie Challengers was pulled from the Venice Film Festival’s prestigious opening-night slot. And although the gargantuan Cappellini is a formidable presence in Edoardo De Angelis’s 1940-set war drama, Comandante seems woefully out of its depth as a curtain-raiser to a festival still reckoning with the effects of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Held together by a very strong performance by Pierfrancesco Favino as sub commander Salvatore Todaro, De Angelis’ film takes a long time to set sail, beginning with a strange prologue in which we see Todaro plunging into the sea. This is his first brush with death, and it leaves him severely disabled, being forced to wear a back brace and prescribed serious doses of morphine. “I like you disabled,” says his wife, Rina...

"Comandante" is a new 'submarine' thriller, set during 'World War II', directed by Edoardo De Angelis, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Johan Heldenbergh, Massimiliano Rossi, Johannes Wirix, Silvia D’Amico and Paolo Bonacelli, releasing in North America Spring 2024:

"...based on the real-life story of 'Salvatore Todaro', the naval officer and submariner who saved 26 Belgian merchant seamen during World War II, "Comandante', follows 'Salvatore Todaro', Captain of the 'Cappellini' who leads in his own way: the bow is reinforced with steel, in the off-chance an opportunity to ram a ship arises and his crew is armed with daggers, should an unlikely hand-to-hand battle occurs..."

Click the images to enlarge...

‘Comandante’ (The Commander) is a war drama film co-written and directed by Edoardo De Angelis, starring Pierfrancesco Favino. The film is set to open the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival on September 30th.

Synopsis

During the onset of World War II, Salvatore Todaro assumes command of the Italian Royal Navy submarine Cappellini. While navigating in the Atlantic on a dark October night in 1940, he encounters an unidentified merchant vessel sailing without lights. Employing his cannons, Todaro successfully sinks the ship. In a moment that would later be recorded in history, the Commander makes a crucial decision: he rescues the 26 shipwrecked Belgians who otherwise faced certain death in the vast ocean. Accommodating the survivors aboard his submarine necessitates three days of surface navigation, thereby exposing himself and his crew to enemy forces and placing their lives at risk.

Comandante (2023) The Director Edoardo De Angelis

Edoardo De Angelis is a director,...

‘Comandante’ (The Commander) is a war drama film co-written and directed by Edoardo De Angelis, starring Pierfrancesco Favino. The film is set to open the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival on September 30th.

Synopsis

During the onset of World War II, Salvatore Todaro assumes command of the Italian Royal Navy submarine Cappellini. While navigating in the Atlantic on a dark October night in 1940, he encounters an unidentified merchant vessel sailing without lights. Employing his cannons, Todaro successfully sinks the ship. In a moment that would later be recorded in history, the Commander makes a crucial decision: he rescues the 26 shipwrecked Belgians who otherwise faced certain death in the vast ocean. Accommodating the survivors aboard his submarine necessitates three days of surface navigation, thereby exposing himself and his crew to enemy forces and placing their lives at risk.

Comandante (2023) The Director Edoardo De Angelis

Edoardo De Angelis is a director,...

Jesus didn't please everyone, and history is about to repeat itself on our screens. In Season 1 of Topic exclusive series Christian, the title character (played by Edoardo Pesce) suddenly found himself with healing powers. This drastically changed his reality, of those around him, and especially his friend’s Rachele's (Silvia D’amico) who was brought back to life after an overdose. Now, Topic shared with Collider that Season 2 is coming, with higher stakes presented in the trailer that we can now share with you. Topic also allowed Collider to reveal when Season 2 premieres: Just a little over a week from now, on July 6.

The Italian comedy-drama follows an aspiring punk band whose friendship is put to the test when they get the chance to open for their favourite band.

Screen can exclusively reveal the first trailer Niccolò Falsetti’s debut feature Margins which is playing in Venice Film Festival’s Critics Week (August 31 - September 10).

The Italian comedy drama follows an aspiring punk band whose friendship is put to the test when they get the chance to open for their favourite band and kickstart their careers.

Falsetti co-wrote the screenplay with Tommaso Renzoni and Francesco Turbanti who stars in the film alongside Emanuele Linfatti,...

Hou Zuxin’s ‘The Italian Recipe’ to open the 24th edition of the Asian festival in Italy.

The Far East Film Festival (Feff), held in the Italian town of Udine, has unveiled the full line-up for its 24th edition, including 13 world premieres.

The festival, which has established itself as a European showcase for Asian cinema, is set to run from April 22-30 and will open with the world premiere of The Italian Recipe from China’s Zuxin Hou. The romantic comedy, starring Huang Yao and Liu Xan, is mostly set in Rome and marks just the second official co-production between Italy and China.

Italian firm Indiana Production, German outfit SquareOne Productions and French company Snd (Groupe M6) have revealed details about their Italian-language mafia series L’Ora (Ink Against Bullets).

The 10-part returning mafia origin series is inspired by the real-life investigative endeavors of the Sicilian newspaper of the same name.

The series is directed by Piero Messina, best known for Netflix Original series Suburra, Ciro d’Emilio and Stefano Lorenzi. Currently in post-production, completion is scheduled for Q2, 2021. Snd and SquareOne handle international rights.

The series will chart how in October 1958, the Sicilian newspaper L’Ora denounced the mafia and its endemic organized crime in the region. Shortly after, a bomb detonated in front of the editorial offices; only two days later the daily reappeared with the headline: ‘The Mafia may threaten us, our investigation continues.’

Inspired by those events, the series takes place in Palermo of the late 1950s and early...

"The world isn't how you think it is." "Why not? This is my life." Netflix has debuted an official trailer for an indie film from Italy titled The Man Without Gravity, also known as L'uomo senza gravità in Italian. This film seems similar, in a few ways, to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But instead of a baby being born old, this baby has no connection to gravity. He just floats. A gravity-defying baby raised in seclusion matures into an extraordinary man—and an international celebrity—but he still longs for an ordinary life. Starring Elio Germano as Oscar, with a cast including Michela Cescon, Elena Cotta, Silvia D'Amico, Vincent Scarito, and Pietro Pescara. This actually looks quite charming and uplifting. Perhaps a little cliche, but still seems like a good story about how to live your own life even when everyone else wants a part of it. I'm curious about seeing this one,...