Notícias

“The Leopard” is the new Italy-produced live-action drama TV series, created by Richard Warlow, adapting the novel “Il Gattopardo’, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, directed by Tom Shankland, Giuseppe Capotondi and Laura Luchetti, starring Kim Rossi Stuart, Benedetta Porcaroli, Deva Cassel, Saul Nanni, Paolo Calabresi, Francesco Colella, Astrid Meloni, and Greta Esposito, now streaming on Netflix:

“…set against the backdrop of revolution in 1860’s Sicily, ‘Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina’, leads a life surrounded by beauty and privilege.

“As Italy moves towards unification and the old aristocratic order is threatened, he realizes his family's future is in jeopardy. New allegiances must be made, each one a threat to his principles.

“Eventually Fabrizio is faced with an impossible choice. He has the power to engineer a marriage, between the rich & beautiful ‘Angelica’ and his nephew ‘Tancredi’…

“…that could secure his family’s legacy, but doing so he would break his favorite daughter,...

Netflix’s “The Leopard” is gaining global traction with viewers just as the streaming giant is taking the sumptuous Sicilian series on a tour involving gala presentations in Italian embassies and other institutions in Washington D.C., London, Berlin, Brussels and other world capitals.

The high-end show, based on the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, dropped on Netflix March 5. In its first five days, “The Leopard” scored more than 3 million views worldwide and landed in the streamer’s Top 10 in over 30 countries including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Mexico and Spain — in addition to Italy, where “The Leopard” rapidly shot to No. 1, Netflix said on Wednesday.

Following a glitzy March 3 Rome launch with a black-tie gala held in the Eternal City’s Opera Theatre, the lavish historical tapestry — with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown” – has been unveiled, in part, at a slew of hosted events...

Netflix pulled out all the stops as it unveiled its hotly anticipated limited series “The Leopard,” based on the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, which marks the streamer’s biggest splash in Italy thus far.

On Tuesday, Netflix held a packed press conference in the frescoed ballroom of Rome’s central Hotel Plaza, which was also used to film one of the show’s key scenes. “The Leopard” will formally premiere in Rome on March 3 with a black-tie gala held in the Eternal City’s Opera Theatre before dropping globally on March 5.

The lavish historical tapestry — with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown” and potential to make a global mark — is a modern take on the sensual Sicilian saga famously adapted into a film by Luchino Visconti starring Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon and Burt Lancaster. The film, now an Italian cinema classic, won the 1963 Palme...

Italy’s True Colours has unveiled key sales across its slate, including deals for Toronto title U Are The Universe, Venice Horizons feature Familia and Locarno premiere Death Will Come.

Ukrainian director Pavlo Ostrikov’s sci-fi U Are The Universe, which played in Toronto’s Discovery section, has sold to France (The Jokers Films), German speaking territories (Pandastorm Pictures), Poland (Aurora Film), Brazil (Imovision) and Indonesia (Falcon Pictures).

Set after the explosion of Earth, the film follows a lonely Ukrainian astronaut who believes he is the only survivor – until he hears a French scientist on the radio, and decides to find her.

“The Leopard” is the new Italian-produced live-action TV series, created by Richard Warlow, adapting the novel “Il Gattopardo’, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, directed by Tom Shankland, Giuseppe Capotondi and Laura Luchetti, starring Kim Rossi Stuart, Benedetta Porcaroli, Deva Cassel, Saul Nanni, Paolo Calabresi, Francesco Colella, Astrid Meloni, and Greta Esposito. streaming in 2025 on Netflix:

“…set against the backdrop of revolution in 1860’s Sicily, ‘Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina’, leads a life surrounded by beauty and privilege.

“As Italy moves towards unification and the old aristocratic order is threatened, he realizes his family's future is in jeopardy. New allegiances must be made, each one a threat to his principles.

“Eventually Fabrizio is faced with an impossible choice. He has the power to engineer a marriage, between the rich & beautiful ‘Angelica’ and his nephew ‘Tancredi’…

“…that could secure his family’s legacy, but doing so he would break his favorite daughter,...

Exclusive: Sound of Freedom and Cabrini filmmaker Alejandro Monteverde will reteam for a third time with Angel Studios on the epic Bethlehem, which re-imagines one of the most infamous stories in history, Herod’s slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem as a profound spiritual thriller.

In the movie, which is currently shooting in Morocco and eyeing a 2025 theatrical release, an extraordinary woman will do anything to protect her newborn son from the murderous King Herod, who is obsessed with finding and killing the child.

Avatar franchise star Sam Worthington is playing Herod’s son Antipater, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s Ben Mendelsohn is portraying the devil Nahash, Mozart in the Jungle‘s Gael García Bernal is Joachim, and Deva Cassel will play Mary.

Cassel starred in Laura Luchetti’s movie Beautiful Summer and can be seen in the upcoming Netflix miniseries The Leopard.

For creative reasons, the producers...

Tereza Nvotova’s drama Father (Otec) has won the Screen International Award at the C EU Soon work-in-progress programme at Rome’s Mia Market.

Inspired by real events, Father is about a man who has everything – until one tragic summer day, when he realises too late that the infant daughter he thought he dropped off at nursery is still locked in the back of his car.

A Slovak, Czech and Polish co-production, Father is produced by Veronika Pastekovaá and Anton Skreko of Danae Production, Karel Chvojka and Milos Lochman of Moloko Film, and Marta Gmosińska and Mariusz Włodarski of Lava Films.

Exclusive: Wild Bunch production house Bim Produzione is readying a TV series adaptation of Fumettibrutti (Uglycomic), a popular Italian graphic novel trilogy about the life of a young transgender woman.

The show won the Wiftmi Award today at Mia in Rome after Bim boss Riccardo Russo presented it in the drama category of the Co-Production Market and Pitching Forum this week. ‘Fumettibrutti’ is the professional name of cartoonist and activist Josephine Yole Signorelli.

The eight-episode first series will include live-action scenes and others animated in the style of the trilogy. It is planned to Yole’s life from her adolescence in Catania, Sicily, through to the publication of her first novel, when she had transitioned and was realizing an ambition to become a cartoonist. It will not follow a linear storyline, and will see the lead character reflecting on herself, her transition from a teenage boy named P. in devoutly...

Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer transports viewers to 1930s Turin, a backdrop alive with the promise and perils of a fateful season. We meet two young women on the cusp of change: Ginia, a gifted seamstress yearning to stretch her wings, and Amelia, a carefree artist’s model whose allure both entices and unsettles.

As Ginia falls under Amelia’s spell and is swept up in bohemian circles far from her stable family life, she begins a journey of self-exploration that brings new feelings and freedoms but also tensions with the world she came from.

Meanwhile, fascist ideals tighten their grip on Italy, casting shadows over private moments of passion and progress. Through vivid imagery and magnetic performances, Luchetti’s 2023 drama breathes life into a timeless coming-of-age narrative and examination of individual hearts navigating society’s constraints.

A Summer Awakening

The film introduces us to Ginia, a young seamstress...

Rome’s Mia Market has seen a 20% increase in submissions for its Co-Production Market and Pitching Forum, with 60 of the 600 received selected to be presented.

The number of submissions rose from 80 to 90, with a 12.5% increase in the number of countries of origin. Genres span drama, docs, film and animation

The popular Drama Co-Production Market and Pitching Forum has seen submissions up 6%, with 14 series projects from 12 nations presenting.

Among the drama projects are Italian productions A Family Reunion (Riuione di Famiglia), a family thriller produced by Rosario Rinaldo for Cross Productions and written by Donatella Diamanti, Mauro Casiraghi, Simona Coppini, Alessandra Martellini, Marzio Paoltroni and Nicola Ravera Rafele; and Uglycomics (Fumettibrutti), which is based on the graphic novel trilogy by Josephine Yole Signorelli, produced by Riccardo Russo for Bim Produzione and written by Teresa Ciabatti, Laura Luchetti and Michele Pellegrini.

International co-productions Palmyra is a French-Lebanese story about three heiresses of...

There are plenty of good reasons why the summer has emerged as a fitting backdrop for coming-of-age stories. Whereas spring suggests renewal and winter retreat, the sun-dappled long days of summer lend themselves quite nicely to tales of unbridled discovery. The sweltering heat allows for a kind of abandon that may well help you discover yourself anew, possibly for the first time. Laura Luchetti’s touching “This Beautiful Summer” may tread familiar ground in that regard, but her handsomely mounted Italian period piece brims with a such playfully coy sensibility that you cannot help but fall for its charms.

Described as “freely inspired” by Cesare Pavese’s “La bella estate,” Luchetti’s film takes place in Turin over the summer of 1938. At its center is Ginia (a transfixing Yile Yara Vianello), a young woman who has moved away from the countryside with her brother in hopes of a more exciting life.

Pierfrancesco Favino as submarine Commander Salvatore Todaro in Edoardo De Angelis’s intense and humanistic Comandante

Edoardo De Angelis’s Comandante, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, was the Opening Night selection of the 23rd edition of Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s exceptional program, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema in New York. Other highlights included Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So; Giorgio Diritti’s Lubo (Franz Rogowski); Roberta Torre’s In the Mirror (Mi Fanno Male I Capelli with Alba Rohrwacher mirroring Monica Vitti); Piero Messina’s Another End; Stefano Sollima’s Adagio; Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer; Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow (Il Sol Dell’Avvenire with Nanni, Margherita Buy,...

Pierfrancesco Favino as submarine Commander Salvatore Todaro in Edoardo De Angelis’s intense and humanistic Comandante

Edoardo De Angelis’s Comandante, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, was the Opening Night selection of the 23rd edition of Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s exceptional program, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema in New York. Other highlights included Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So; Giorgio Diritti’s Lubo (Franz Rogowski); Roberta Torre’s In the Mirror (Mi Fanno Male I Capelli with Alba Rohrwacher mirroring Monica Vitti); Piero Messina’s Another End; Stefano Sollima’s Adagio; Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer; Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow (Il Sol Dell’Avvenire with Nanni, Margherita Buy,...

"I want someone to look at me... and show me who I am." Film Movement has revealed an offiical trailer for an indie Italian coming-of-age film titled The Beautiful Summer, arriving on VOD to watch this summer. Not to be confused with this year's French indie favorite Last Summer. This Italian film premiered at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival last year, and it also played at the Chicago and Denver Film Fests. The sapphic romance focuses on Ginia, who's 17, as she experiences the ecstasy & turmoil that come with the mysterious journey into adulthood. Meeting with Amelia confronts her with new and shocking emotions. But only by recognizing this love, she can be herself... "Featuring tender performances by Yile Yara Vianello and Deva Cassel, director Laura Luchetti's latest coming-of-age drama showcases 'the intertwined complexities of first love and first sexual experiences, highlighting the inevitable messiness and poignancy of adolescence.'" The...

A favorite at the Locarno Film Festival last summer, Laura Luchetti’s pre-wwii coming-of-age drama The Beautiful Summer will now be arriving in the ideal season. Luchetti adapted the script with Cesare Pavese from his novel, featuring a cast including Yile Yara Vianello, Deva Cassel, Nicolas Maupas, and Alessandro Piavani. Ahead of the August 9 digital release from Film Movement, we’re pleased to exclusively premiere the first U.S. trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “Young Ginia has just left the countryside with her brother in search of a new life in the city. Though Turin lies in the shadow of a rising fascistic government and her brother yearns to return home, Ginia is more optimistic about the future. In a short time, she excels in her works as a seamstress at an atelier, gaining new clients with her designs and impressing her otherwise irascible employer. Restless and seeking adventure, Ginia...

Laura Luchetti on Man Ray, Lee Miller, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jacques-Henri Lartigue: “The inspiration for me was photographs and photographs and photographs.” Photo: Anne Katrin Titze

The day after Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema opening night screening in New York of Edoardo De Angelis’s masterful The War Machine, Laura Luchetti joined me inside Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater for a conversation on her latest film, The Beautiful Summer (La Bella Estate) starring Deva Cassel (Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel’s daughter), Yile Yara Vianello, and Nicolas Maupas.

Based on the novel by Cesare Pavese, previously adapted by Michelangelo Antonioni in Le Amiche, Luchetti energetically and with flair takes us to 1938 Turin and the fashion atélier where 17-year-old Ginia (Yile Yara Vianello) works under the perceptive eye of Signora Gemma (Anna Bellato). She lives with her brother Severino (Nicolas Maupas...

Edoardo De Angelis’s The War Machine (Comandante), starring the commanding Pierfrancesco Favino, opened the 23rd edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema in New York and the Venice Film Festival. Photo: courtesy of Cinecittà

Edoardo De Angelis’s The War Machine; Roberta Torre’s In the Mirror (Mi Fanno Male I Capelli with Alba Rohrwacher mirroring Monica Vitti); Piero Messina’s Another End; Stefano Sollima’s Adagio; Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer; Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow; Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow; Alain Parroni’s An Endless Sunday; Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So; Giorgio Diritti’s Lubo...

Monica Bellucci with Anne-Katrin Titze on the Maria Callas Yves Saint Laurent dress she wore in Yannis Dimolitsas and Tom Volf’s Maria Callas: Letters And Memoirs: “This dress really brings me luck.”

On the afternoon before a private screening of Yannis Dimolitsas and Tom Volf’s Maria Callas: Letters And Memoirs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Monica Bellucci spoke about the connection she feels to the woman she portrayed on stage, working with women directors, including Kaouther Ben Hania (Oscar-nominated Best International Feature The Man Who Sold His Skin) and Rebecca Miller (The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee), her daughter Deva Cassel, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Medea, and the magic of the Maria Callas Yves Saint Laurent dress that brings her luck.

Monica Bellucci on Maria Callas: “The moment that is so incredible to me is when she is singing Carmen in Hamburg in 1962.” Photo:...

Italy’s True Colours has unveiled a raft of sales on its slate including a US deal for Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer and a UK and Ireland acquisition of Edoardo de Angelis’ Venice opener Comandante.

Film Movement has taken North American rights to 1938-set romance drama The Beautiful Summer, which world premiered last year in the Piazza Grande at the Locarno Film Festival. The film has also sold to Scene and Sound for South Korea and Zeta Film for Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, adding to previously announced international deals last year.

Meanwhile, Bulldog Film Distribution has taken...

Italian sales agent reports sales for summer festival slate.

Italy’s True Colours has unveiled sales on a string of its summer festival titles including Venice competition films Lubo and Comandante as well as Locarno world premiere The Beautiful Summer.

Edoardo de Angelis’s WWII drama Comandante, which opened Venice, has secured distribution in Japan with Aya Pro, in Spain with Alfa Pictures, in Portugal with Outsider Films, in former Yugoslavia with Stars Media, in Bulgaria with Beta Film and in Australia/New Zealand with Palace Films. Starring Pierfrancesco Favino, the co-production between Indigo Film, ‘O Groove and Trump Limited...

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled four new Italian originals – two feature films and two series – that confirm its continued investment in Italy as local subscribers grow. The new projects also bolster the fact that the bulk of the streamer’s Italian productions are not high end and have a primarily local focus.

During a Rome presentation Eleonora Andreatta – affectionately known as Tinny – who is Netflix’s VP of Italian originals, said that Netflix remains “committed to our investment in Italy and Italian stories with conviction, continuing our long-term commitment to the country and its creative community.”

Andreatta, who owing to having caught Covid-19 was speaking remotely to the packed room, described Netflix’s lineup as being characterised by “Authentic stories, able to speak to the present [and] about the present and [which can] emotionally touch the audience on issues closest to the lives they live.”

According to data released last month by Italy’s...

Appointed with a warmth and plushness that is reminiscent of a Merchant Ivory production, Laura Luchetti’s adaptation of Cesare Pavesi’s The Beautiful Summer is handsomely turned out, which is fitting for a film which is partially set within the world of fine tailoring. Ginia (Yile Yara Vianello) and her brother Severino (Nichoas Maupas) are recent arrivals in Turin from the countryside; he is working and studying while she is showing talent as a seamstress in one of the city’s fashion houses.

Things begin to shift for inexperienced Ginia with the arrival of the glamorous and much more worldly Amelia (Deva Cassel) into her social circle. The captivated gaze of Diego Romero’s camera immediately makes it clear that Ginia is first attracted by the look and confidence of Amelia, but soon she is also finding herself swept up in the free-spirited young woman’s social circle.

There,...

The Beautiful Summer (La Bella Estate) lives up to its title: The screen is alive with the sensual glow of balmy days and nights — and, specifically, with the youthful giddiness that the warmest season rouses. In the uneven period drama, a country girl starts to make her way in the big city and is drawn into a bohemian circle, intrigued by the impetuous painters who turn out to be cads and especially by a free-spirited, sad-eyed model. The romance at the movie’s core doesn’t deliver the intended emotional impact, but there’s a tender, potent resonance to other aspects of the story.

“Freely inspired” by the 1940 novel of the same name by Cesare Pavese, the third feature from writer-director Laura Luchetti (Twin Flower) sometimes slides into cliché or loses momentum, but it also offers some sharp coming-of-age observations and a delectable physicality, and it’s anchored by the...

Earlier this week Variety premiered the official trailer and leading up to 2023 Locarno Film Festival world premiere of The Beautiful Summer (August 4th) we’ve got your exclusive first look at the poster one-sheet featuring the film’s paired leads in Yile Yara Vianello and Deva Cassel. Filmmaker Laura Luchetti (part of our “Off Set series”) landed on our radar with the TIFF preemed 2018 Fipresci-winning Twin Flower and for her third feature film, she took on La bella estate – a loosely-based adaptation of Cesare Pavese’s award-winning and very much beloved 1949 novel. Currently filming one of the episodes for Netflix-backed “The Leopard,” Luchetti re-teamed with Cassel on this series currently in production.…...

Starring Deva Cassel, Laura Luchetti’s “The Beautiful Summer” (“La Bella Estate”) has bowed sales and a trailer, ahead of its world premiere at this week’s Locarno Festival.

In a first deal to go down for sales agent True Colours, Palace Films has swooped on distribution rights to Australia and New Zealand. Xenix Filmdistribution will release in Switzerland “The Beautiful Summer,” which is loosely based on Cesare Pavese’s novel.

“His vision is so contemporary. He speaks about adolescence, the time in your life when everything is possible. It’s a story of a simple girl trying to make it in the big city, forced into becoming a woman. It’s a story of every girl,” Luchetti told Variety.

In the film, set in Turin in 1938, hard-working Ginia (Yile Yara Vianello) is looking for an adventure. She finds Amelia (Deva Cassel), who models for painters and introduces her to a whole different world.

Netflix has released first-look images of limited series “The Leopard,” based on the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that marks the streamer’s most ambitious Italian original to date.

Production on the lavish historical tapestry with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown” – and potential to make a global mark – is currently underway in the Sicilian cities of Palermo, Syracuse and Catania. The show is a modern take on the sensual Sicilian saga famously adapted into a film by Luchino Visconti starring Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon and Burt Lancaster. The movie, now an Italian cinema classic, won the 1963 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Published posthumously in 1958, “The Leopard” chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the 19th century unification of Italy, known as the Risorgimento. It became the top-selling novel in modern Italian literature of its day and was translated into more than 40 different languages.

Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End Of The World (Radu Jude).The lineup for the 76th edition of the festival has been announced, including new films by Eduardo Williams, Leonor Teles, Lav Diaz, Radu Jude, and others.Concorso INTERNAZIONALEAnimal (Sofia Exarchou)Critical Zone (Ali Ahmadzadeh)Essential Truths of the Lake (Lav Diaz)Home (Leonor Teles)The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams)The Invisible Fight (Rainer Sarnet)Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End Of The World (Radu Jude)Lousy Carter (Bob Byington)Manga D’Terra (Basil Da Cunha)Nuit Obscure – Au Revoir Ici, N’Importe Où (Sylvain George)Patagonia (Simone Bozzelli)The Permanent Picture (Laura Ferrés)Rossosperanza (Annarita Zambrano)Stepne (Maryna Vroda)Sweet Dreams (Ena Sendijarević)The Vanishing Soldier (Dani Rosenberg)Yannick (Quentin Dupieux)Excursion (Una Gunjak).Concorso Cineasti Del PRESENTECamping du Lac (Eléonore Saintagnan)Ein Schöner Ort (Katharina Huber)Excursion (Una Gunjak)Family Portrait (Lucy Kerr)Dreaming...

For his third edition at the helm, Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro has assembled a wide spectrum of films that “do not resemble each other in terms of tone or form” while reflecting “the world in all its expressions and manifestations,” he tells Variety.

This boundless range is best exemplified by the fact that starkly surrealist Filipino arthouse star Lav Díaz’s latest work, “Essential Truths of the Lake,” will be vying for the fest’s Golden Leopard alongside fare that, at least on paper, appears much lighter. This includes U.S. director Bob Byington’s indie comedy “Lousy Carter” and Estonian helmer Rainer Sarnet’s “The Invisible Flight,” which Nazzaro says “mixes Kung Fu, hard rock and the Orthodox Church.”

There are also lots of titles at Locarno that can broadly be described as “political,” like Ukrainian director Maryna Vroda’s “Stepne” — which marks a rare...

A stellar precursor to the busy fall film festival season, Locarno Film Festival annually premieres some of the year’s most exciting cinema and 2023 looks to be no different. Taking place from August 2-12 in the Swiss town, the festival has now unveiled its lineup for the 76th edition. Highlights include Eduardo Williams’ The Human Surge 3 (brilliantly forgoing a second film), Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End Of The World, Lav Diaz’s Essential Truths of the Lake, Sylvain George’s Nuit Obscure – Au Revoir Ici, N’Importe Où, and Quentin Dupieux’s Yannick.

Speaking to its main section, Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival, said, “From Quentin Dupieux and his edgy surrealism to Lav Diaz. From the sarcastic humor of Radu Jude to the night poetry of Sylvain Georges. From the mad inventions of Rainer Sarnet to the abstract psychedelia of Eduardo Williams.

UK star Riz Ahmed will be feted with a career achievement award at the upcoming 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, running August 2 and 12.

The Sound Of Metal actor will be presented with the Excellence Award Davide Campari at the opening night ceremony on the festival’s landmark Piazza Grande open-air cinema.

The ceremony will premiere Yann Mounir Demange’s semi-autobiographical short film Dammi, in which Ahmed participated alongside Isabelle Adjani, Souheila Yacoub, Sandor Funtek and Suzy Bemba.

The tribute will also screen Bassam Tariq’s 2020 rapper drama Mughal Mowgli, which Ahmed starred in and also produced and co-wrote, as part of it program.

Locarno announced the tribute during its announcement on Wednesday of its full 2023 line-up.

French directorial duo Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel’s The Falling Star will open the festival as part of the Piazza Grande program, which also features Justine Triet’s 2023 Cannes d’Or Winner Anatomy of a Fall,...

The Locarno International Film Festival unveiled the full program for 2023 on Wednesday, with dozens of world premieres set to screen in the 76th edition of the Swiss festival.

Locarno’s main Piazza Grande section will include several of this season’s festival favorites, among them Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall from French director Justine Triet starring Sandra Hüller; Ken Loach’s latest (and possibly last) feature, The Old Oak; Noora Niasari’s Sundance audience award winner Shayda, featuring Holy Spider star Zar Amir Ebrahimi; and Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman’s comedy Theater Camp, which won a special jury prize at Sundance. Other highlights include U.S. horror feature Falling Stars by directors Richard Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki; Dammi from 71′ and White Boy Rick-helmer Yann Demange; and Magnetic Continent, the new nature documentary from March of the Penguins‘ filmmaker Luc Jacquet about the continent of Antarctica.

Laetitia Casta will soon appear on the big screen as the former wife of an abusive southern Italian man whom she is accused of murdering in the thriller “A Dark Story,” directed by Italy’s Leonardo D’Agostini.

In “Dark Story” the French star, whose recent credits include “The Crusade” directed by her husband Louis Garrel, plays Carla (first look image above), the ex-wife of Vito Semeraro, a banker who beat her when they were together and is the father of her three children. She is accused of murdering him a few years after they split up.

Italian sales company True Colours is launching sales in Cannes on this psychological noir that marks the sophomore feature by D’Agostini whose 2019 debut drama “The Champion” – a soccer dramedy about a young male soccer star and a shy academic who becomes his tutor – sold widely via the same outfit. Andrea Carpenzano stars in “Dark Story” alongside Casta.

Shooting has kicked off in Rome on limited series “The Leopard” based on the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that marks Netflix’s most ambitious Italian original to date.

Production on the lavish period piece will take place in the Sicilian cities of Palermo, Syracuse, Catania as well as the Italian capital over the next four months.

The historical tapestry with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown,” and potential to make a global mark, is a modern take on the sensual Sicilian saga famously adapted into a film by Luchino Visconti starring Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon and Burt Lancaster. The film, now an Italian cinema classic, won the 1963 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The six-episode epic set against the backdrop of social revolution in 1860s Sicily will star top model Deva Cassell – who is Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel’s daughter – as Angelica Sedara,...

Italy’s Kino Produzioni, the indie shingle that co-produced 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” is ramping up production with new films by emerging Italian filmmakers Carlo Sironi, Laura Luchetti and Irene Dionisio, as well as also Dutch director Michiel Van Erp and Argentine filmmakers María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat.

“We reached a turning point last year that started out well with the ‘Alcarràs’ victory,” said Kino chief Giovanni Pompili, speaking at the EFM. He noted that in 2022, the Rome-based outfit shot four films, “which for us was pretty challenging, but worked out well.”

Meanwhile, the Kino team has grown. Producer Lara Costa-Calzado, who has been working for a decade between the U.S. and Europe on films such as Eliza Hittman’s Silver Bear winner “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” Sally Potter’s “The Roads Not Taken” and Halina Rejin’s “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” has joined Kino as head of production.

La bella estate

Following her critically acclaimed sophomore feature Twin Flower (world preem at 2018’s TIFF), Laura Luchetti went on to shoot ten episodes of an Italian TV Series called “Nudes.” Next up is another portrait of youth but this time it’s based on a book to film adaptation of the 1950’s novel. The Beautiful Summer stars Deva Cassel in her debut role and the film went into production in September in Italy. Cinematographer Diego Romero Suarez Llanos (Roberto Minervini’s usual dp) joined the project. Giovanni Pompili (Sole) produced the project.

Gist: Set during a “beautiful summer” in Turin in 1938, against the backdrop of Fascist-era Italy’s subsequent entry into World War II.…...

This year, the Turin region hosted two Hollywood blockbusters, Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” and Louis Leterrier’s “Fast X,” the 10th movie of the “Fast & Furious” franchise, as well as major TV productions, such as HBO series “My Brilliant Friend.” Local productions featured at the Cannes and Venice film festivals, and at this week’s Torino Film Festival six local titles are in the lineup. Variety caught up with Film Commission Torino Piemonte’s president Beatrice Borgia, and its director, Paolo Manera, at the festival to discuss the health of the region’s production sector.

“Choosing Piedmont is not just a matter of locations, incentives or our work as mediators. […] We have created a structured system with thousands of highly specialized professionals, many actors as well as service producers and post-production companies,” Borgia said.

Italian series “Il Nostro generale” plays at the Torino Film Festival (Courtesy of Maria Vernetti)

Borgia added that Piedmont is,...

Filming recently wrapped up on Laura Luchetti’s third feature film. Variety reports that Deva Cassel and Yile Yara Vianello toplined the The Beautiful Summer — the book to film adaptation of the 1950’s novel ’s “La Bella Estate” by Cesare Pavese. Luchetti moved into television directly after 2018’s TIFF preemed Twin Flower (where we met the filmmaker). Set in Turin in 1938, against the backdrop of Fascist-era Italy’s subsequent entry into World War II, this sees the 18-year-old uninhibited model Amelia (Cassel) who introduces her younger friend Ginia (Yile Yara Vianello) to a world of bohemian artists where she will fall in love for the first time.…...

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...

Italy, the European country initially hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, is weathering the second wave well with film and TV production chugging along at a relatively healthy pace thanks to efficient safety protocols and government incentives.

Culture minister Dario Franceschini has just trumpeted a fresh injection of cash to support production, upping resources to fund the Italian tax rebate from €400 million ($474 million) to $652 million for 2021 while raising the incentive’s cap from 30% to 40% of a local production’s budget. The tax rebate is Italy’s main tool to combat the rise in economic costs and risks caused by coronavirus.

The Italian culture czar has also announced plans to double available backlot space at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios and to bring in millions of euros in new resources as part of a revamp of the famed facilities, where several substantial U.S. studio productions are expected to set up camp next year.

On behalf of Rai Play, the director of Twin Flower is shooting a 20-episode teen drama on the subject of revenge porn, based upon the homonymous Norwegian series and produced by Bim and Rai Fiction. Filming on the TV series Nudes, helmed by the director of Twin Flower Laura Luchetti, has commenced in the Emilia-Romagna region. Produced by Riccardo Russo on behalf of Bim Produzione (of the Wild Bunch Group) and Rai Fiction for the streaming platform Rai Play, Nudes is an Italian remake of the homonymous Norwegian teen drama and will unfold across 10 episodes, each lasting 20 minutes and exploring the subject of revenge porn. Penned by Emanuela Canonico, Valerio D’Annunzio, Matteo Menduni and Giulio Fabroni, Nudes recounts the experiences of a group of teenagers who find themselves contending with the online posting of sexual images, and ventures into the insidious world of social media, utilising an intimate...

Film and TV outfit was launched by Italian Wild Bunch subsidiary last year.

Rome-based Bim Produzione has begun principal photography on TV series Nudes, an Italian remake of the hit Norwegian teen drama of the same name.

It is the company’s first production to get underway since it was launched a year ago by parent company Bim Distribution, which is part of the pan-European Wild Bunch Group.

Bim Produzione is making the show in collaboration with Rai Fiction, the production arm of Italian state broadcaster Rai, as an original series for its RaiPlay streaming platform.

The anthology series explores...

Rome’s Mia market, the growing showcase for international TV series, feature films and documentaries, has announced a first batch of projects being pitched to prospective buyers during its sixth edition on track to take place both physically and online Oct.14-18 in the Italian capital.

They include “Lafayette,” a costume drama set during the the American Revolution written by David Franzoni, who won a best picture Oscar for producing “Gladiator.” “Lafayette” is being produced by France’s Nicolas Deprost via his Wild Horses shingle.

Other standout Mia Drama Pitching Forum projects comprise “Thank You for Playing,” a thriller from France’s Black Sheep Films and It’s Alive Films in which five professional online gamers are sent to a training camp in Lapland to try and beat artificial intelligence software. And from Italy’s Redstring and Minerva Pictures “Miss Fallaci Takes America,” about the 1958 journey to the U.S. of groundbreaking journalist Oriana Fallaci.

Some 50 projects span films, TV series and documentaries.

Rome’s Mia film and TV market has unveiled the first wave of projects for this year’s event, which will go-ahead as a mix of physical and digital elements from October 14-18.

The sixth edition of the Audiovisual International Market (Mia), which runs alongside the Rome Film Festival, will include 50 projects from more than 20 countries in its co-production market and pitching forum. The co-production market will comprise 16 projects, of which half are directed by women.

These include Amor y Dolor by Emanuele Scaringi, marking her second feature after youth comedy La Profezia Dell’Armadillo,...

Sardinia, a longtime a magnet for international productions spanning from James Bond classic “The Spy Who Loved Me” to George Clooney-directed TV series “Catch-22,” is ready for its close up again.

Following a hiatus due to the coronavirus crisis, the Italian island known for its emerald coast and ancient monuments is now hosting shoots for food and travel TV shows while scouting is under way for prospective big productions, including several from global streaming giants.

“We are doing lots of location scouting with Netflix, Amazon and Disney,” says Nevina Satta, head of the Sardinia Film Commission, who has long been a champion of eco-friendly best practices on set.

She has been busy training local executive producers in Covid-19 safety protocols alongside previous “green set” directives that the film commission had in place. Incidentally, during the pandemic, Sardinia had the lowest rates of coronavirus infection in Italy.

“Covid can actually...

Italian movies are taking a sharper turn towards genre storytelling, though classic auteur titles remain a strong component of the country’s cinematic output. Below is a compendium of standout cinema Italiano projects in various stages.

“Non Mi Uccidere” (“Don’t Kill Me”) Young director Andrea De Sica, who helmed the bulk of teen series “Baby” for Netflix, is set to shoot a horror film geared towards the same youth demographic as the show. It’s based on a bestselling Gothic novel about a 19-year-old named Mirta who, with her older lover, Robin, dies of a drug overdose. She then reanimates alone to find out that in order to continue living, and cherishing the memory of Robin’s love, she must eat living humans. Shooting is expected to start soon. Cast is being contractualized. Pic is the director’s sophomore feature after “Children of the Night,” a coming-of-age story set...

Producers on the Move, a networking forum for up-and-coming producers from Europe, takes place as a virtual event this week. The organizer, European Film Promotion, has given Variety exclusive access to the projects the producers are pitching to sales companies.

Here are their projects, including the latest films from the directors of SXSW standout “Lake Bodom” and Cannes breakout “Fire Will Come.” (Biographies of the producers can be found at this link.)

“After”

Producer: Andrea Queralt, 4 A 4 Productions (France)

Director: Oliver Laxe

Genre: Existential Road-Movie

The next film from Oliver Laxe, the director of Cannes breakout hit “Fire Will Come,” winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. “After” follows a disparate group of ravers who go in quest of the ultimate party in a remote corner of Africa. They embark on an odyssey into the depths of the Saharan desert, a mirror of sand for the characters.

“La Bella Estate”

Producer: Giovanni Pompili,...

Italy’s Kino Produzioni, which is in competition at Visions du Réel with Sicily-set “Il Mio Corpo,” has teamed up with Sweden’s Fasad on “About the End,” a timely apocalypse-themed doc.

Described in promotional materials as being “about the apocalypses that we have survived, and those that we are still waiting for,” this creative doc backed by the Sundance Institute is being prepped by Italian filmmaker and visual artist Cristina Picchi.

Picchi’s previous docs have screened in Venice, Locarno and Nyon where her “Cinetrain: Russian Winter” won a Visions du Réel audience award in 2014.

Fasad, which originated the project, is the shingle behind “The Raft” which won Germany’s Prix Europa for best doc last year.

Kino is now in talks for a top Italian broadcaster to come on board “About the End” for which the original plan was to start shooting late this summer,” says Kino chief Giovanni Pompili.

French distributor Destiny Films has acquired rights for France to Italian soccer dramedy “The Champion” from Italy’s True Colours in the runup to the De Rome a Paris festival and confab, which kicks off Friday.

Produced by Matteo Rovere’s Groenlandia (“Romulus”), “The Champion” turns on the uneasy relationship between a young male soccer star and a shy academic, also male, who becomes his tutor. This rare representation of the soccer world’s money-crazed star system recently won several Silver Ribbon prizes from Italy’s film journalists’ union, including best producer and best feature debut for director Leonardo D’Agostini.

Destiny Film’s David Chhouy said he hopes “The Champion” will resonate in France, where the plan is for a summer 2020 release in local multiplexes. “We need French audiences to perceive it not as an Italian arthouse movie, but something more mainstream,” he noted.

That said, two Italian arthouse titles,...

It includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory and Little Joe.

The 46 films recommended for nomination for the 2019 European Film Awards have been announced.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

The selection includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Little Joe.

The films were selected by a committee consisting of the Efa board and experts Giorgio Gosetti (festival programmer), Kathrin Kohlstedde (festival programmer), Paz Lazaro (festival programmer), Mary Nazari (exhibitor), Edvinas...

It includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory and Little Joe.

The 46 films recommended for nomination for the 2019 European Film Awards have been announced.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

The selection includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Little Joe.

The films were selected by a committee consisting of the Efa board and experts Giorgio Gosetti (festival programmer), Kathrin Kohlstedde (festival programmer), Paz Lazaro (festival programmer), Mary Nazari (exhibitor), Edvinas...