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As we continue to celebrate the 50th anniversary of "Jaws," cinema enthusiasts everywhere can wax poetic about the film's impact as the godfather of the modern blockbuster. The 1975 big screen adaptation of Peter Benchley's novel of the same name not only captivated audiences and frightened them from visiting the beach that summer, but it also served as the ultimate calling card for the filmmaker who would be king: Steven Spielberg. After making his feature-length debut with his television film "Duel" and his theatrical debut with "The Sugarland Express," Spielberg ventured into uncharted waters with "Jaws," which was a notoriously difficult production for him.

"Jaws" was a cultural juggernaut, becoming the highest-grossing film ever at the time of its release (a record that Spielberg himself would break two more times with "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Jurassic Park"). Adjusted for ticket price inflation, it is the 7th highest-grossing film in history,...

Hailed for his ability to portray characters with depth, Al Pacinos filmography includes numerous roles that have stayed with audiences, become a part of pop culture and earned the actor countless awards & nominations. Throughout the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Al Pacino has been nominated for nine Oscars and received his only win for best actor in 1992; however, in the very same year, Al Pacino starred in another film that shouldve earned him the coveted golden statue.

As one of the best years of the actors career, 1992 saw Al Pacino star in Scent of a Woman and Glengarry Glen Ross, where the latter film displays some of Al Pacinos finest work. Given the huge response to his long overdue win for Scent of a Woman, many have overlooked Al Pacinos turn in Glengarry Glen Ross, which not only elevates the film as the classic it...

The upcoming Los Angeles-Italia Film Fashion and Art Festival will be honoring Italian directors Paolo Sorrentino (“The Hand of God”) and Enrico Casarosa (“Luca”) as well as costume-designer Massimo Cantini Parrini (“Cyrano”) all of whom have scored nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards.

The 17th edition of the pre-Oscars event will be held March 20-26 at Hollywood’s Tcl Chinese Theatre and also online.

This year’s opening ceremony will be hosted by veteran Italian-American actor Robert Davi, who is also this year’s president of the event. Sofia Milos (“CSI: Miami”) and Hollywood acting coach Bernard Hiller will co-host.

Consul General of Italy Silvia Chiave and Italian Institute of Culture chief Emanuele Amendola will also be introducing honorees both at the Chinese Theatre and during a separate March 25 event being held at the Italian Institute of Culture.

Other Los Angeles-Italia honorees this year are ace cinematographer Dante Spinotti actors Riccardo Scamarcio,...

Late great Italian actor Vittorio Gassman, who is best known to U.S. audiences as the star of classics such as “Big Deal on Madonna Street” and “Il Sorpasso” (“The Easy Life”), will be celebrated by the Los Angeles-Italia Film Fashion and Art Festival, which will run March 20-26 at Hollywood’s Tcl Chinese Theater.

The annual pre-Oscars event comprising movies and music and celebrating showbiz ties between Italy and Hollywood, now at its 17th edition, will pay tribute to the centennial of Gassman’s birth with a mini-retro honoring the memory of the iconic thesp who, among other accolades, won the best actor prize at Cannes in 1975 for his performance as a blind man in Dino Risi’s ”Profumo di Donna,” later remade in English as ”Scent of a Woman” with Al Pacino.

“We are honored and extremely pleased to pay a well-deserved tribute to an Italian genius whose...

Titles this year range from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai to John Landis’s An American Werewolf In London.

The selection of restored titles screening at this year’s Venice Film Festival (Aug 31 - Sept 10) have been revealed.

Italian director Roberto Andò (The Confessions) will oversee the strand’s jury of cinema history students which will award two prizes: Best Restored Film and Best Documentary On Cinema (the line-up of the latter will be revealed at a later date).

Now in its fifth year, this year’s selection includes Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Woody Allen’s Manhattan, John Landis’s An American Werewolf In London, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, and George A Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead amongst a host of other restorations.

The full Venice Film Festival line-up will be revealed on Thursday (July 28).

Venice Classics 2016 line-up:

1848, Dino Risi (Italy, 1948, 11’, B/W)

restored by: Archivio Nazionale Cinema Impresa-csc-Cineteca Nazionale and Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano...

The Venice Film Festival opens Wednesday with its share of big-screen bound blockbuster potential, from Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan," to Sofia Coppola's highly anticipated "Somewhere" and Ben Affleck's sophomore directorial effort, "The Town."But director Marco Mueller says that the economic downturn has forced even big name directors to come up with cheaper means of production, giving rise to innovation and an "in-between" budget category . bridging low-budget under a million dollars and mid-range of around (Euro)6 million-(Euro)7 million ($7.5 million to $9 million)."In between there was very little. And now several people rush to occupy that special space," Mueller told The Associated Press in an interview. "Because it's also the space where with some local, regional subsidy, some private money, and maybe with a few distributors interested in the project you can get your film off the ground.

The Italian Film Festival, Scotland

No gimmicks here – just the chance to see some world-class Italian films from directors old and new. From veteran Enzo Castellari, director of the original Inglourious Basterds, comes Eagles Over London, the film that invented the "macaroni combat" genre by dazzlingly recreating the Battle Of Britain. There's also a four-film tribute to legendary actor Vittorio Gassman – Il Mattatore, as he's affectionately known – with screenings of the little-seen swashbuckler For Love And Gold and the original Scent Of A Woman, which won Gassman the Best Actor award in Cannes. More recent titles include director Federico Bondi's Mar Nero, a touching tale of the relationship between an elderly lady and her youthful carer, and Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore's dark, modern thriller The Unknown Woman. And, for the more traditional, there's a screening of everyone's favourite Italian classic, La Dolce Vita.

Various venues, Fri 16 to...

Oscar-nominated Italian director Dino Risi has died at the age of 91.

Risi died at his home in Rome, Italy on Saturday following a long spell of ill health.

He received an Academy Award nomination for his 1974 picture Profumo di Donna (Scent of a Woman) and the 1993 remake gained Al Pacino a Best Actor Oscar.

Rome's mayor Gianni Alemanno paid tribute to the moviemaker - insisting his loss will be greatly felt by the film industry.

He says, "His legacy is pages of minute work by someone who loved the world and his country.

"We have lost one of the masters of the most beautiful and intense seasons of the Italian comedy, which gave the world so much."...