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Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino has set his next feature and will re-team with his longtime collaborator Toni Servillo who has signed on to star.

The film will be titled La Grazia. Fremantle confirmed news of the project with us this morning. There are currently no details about the film’s plot, but we understand it will feature a love story. Sorrentino has penned the screenplay. Shooting will begin next spring with Annamaria Morelli producing for The Apartment alongside Sorrentino’s Numero 10 outfit in association with PiperFilm. Piper will release the film in Italy.

Servillo is perhaps best known internationally for his collaborations with Sorrentino. The pair have made seven films together. Their joint credits include Loro, Il Divo, The Hand Of God, and The Great Beauty, which won the Best International Feature Oscar.

Sorrentino’s latest film Parthenope is currently on release in Italy via PiperFilm. The film debuted at...

“Parthenope” is a new live-action France/Italy-produced ‘coming-of-age’ drama feature, written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, starring Celeste Dalla Porta, Stefania Sandrelli, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Peppe Lanzetta and Isabella Ferrari, opening February 7, 2025 in theaters:

“…in Greek mythology, ‘Parthenope’ was a ‘siren’…

“…who lured sailors to their deaths with her seductive and enchanting songs.

“Her name comes from the Greek words ‘parthenos’ meaning ‘maiden/virgin’ and ‘ops’ meaning ‘voice’.

“In legend, Parthenope threw herself into the sea after failing to seduce ‘Odysseus’ and a city was named after her.

“In the film, an Italian woman searches for happiness…

“…during the long summers of her youth…

“…falling in love with her city and its many memorable characters…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

"She's not in love you." "But I am. My whole life." A24 has unveiled an official trailer for the new seductive Paolo Sorrentino film called Parthenope, which originally premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It's now set for a US release in theaters starting February 2025. "Partenope is a woman who bears the name of her city. Is she a siren or a myth?" The extraordinarily beautiful Celeste Dalla Porta stars as Parthenope – born in the sea of Naples in 1950, she searches for happiness over the long summers of her youth, falling in love with her native city of Naples (aka Napoli in Italian) and its many memorable characters. From Oscar-winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino comes a gorgeous and deeply romantic story of a lifetime. This also stars Stefania Sandrelli, Gary Oldman, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Peppe Lanzetta, and Isabella Ferrari. The film is crazy obsessed with Dalla Porta's beauty,...

While this year’s Cannes competition titles such as Anora, All We Imagine as Light, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and The Substance are in the spotlight right now, one you may have all but forgotten was Parthenope, the latest from Paolo Sorrentino. A24 has now set the film for a release this winter on February 7 and have unveiled the first trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “Parthenope, born in the sea of Naples in 1950, searches for happiness over the long summers of her youth, falling in love with her home city and its many memorable characters. From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino comes a monumental and deeply romantic story of a lifetime.”

See the trailer below for the film starring Celeste Dalla Porta, Stefania Sandrelli, Gary Oldman, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Isabella Ferrari, Silvia Degrandi, Lorenzo Gleijeses, Daniele Rienzo, Dario Aita, Marlon Joubert, Alfonso Santagata, Biagio Izzo, and Peppe Lanzetta.

A24 has dropped an eye-catching new trailer for Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” ahead of the February U.S. release of the Oscar-winning director’s lavish love letter to his native Naples.

The U.S. trailer focuses on the film’s titular character, a young woman born in Naples – Neapolitans in Italy are also known as “Parthenopeans” – played by newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta. In his review, Variety critic Siddhant Adlakha praised Dalla Porta for delivering “a beguiling performance,” he said, as “a woman of such stunning beauty that people stop and stare.”

Adlakha called “Parthenope” as “an exquisite treatise on cinematic beauty.” But it is also, as Sorrentino put it in an interview with Variety, a film about “missed youth” that comes as a follow-up to his autobiographical “The Hand of God” and has elicited comparisons with his 2013 love letter to Rome, “The Great Beauty,” which won the Academy Award for best international feature film.

Paolo Sorrentino is immersing himself in the land of milk and honey for his latest ode to intangible beauty, “Parthenope.”

Titled after the myth of Greek sirens who lured men to their deaths at sea, “Parthenope” stars Celeste Dalla Porta in the lead role. While the literary legacy of Parthenope had the character drowning herself after her songs failed to seduce Odysseus, Sorrentino’s version centers on a wealthy woman who slowly drives her family insane by her beauty.

The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where A24 acquired it. The distributor describes “Parthenope” as a “monumental and deeply romantic story of a lifetime.”

The official synopsis reads: “Parthenope, born in the sea of Naples in 1950, searches for happiness over the long summers of her youth, falling in love with her home city and its many memorable characters.”

Oscar winner Sorrentino writes and directs the feature, which also stars Gary Oldman,...

Look out, Challengers; another scorcher of a love triangle film is coming for your crown. Only instead of just two guys, this is about a woman who's managed to capture the hearts and minds of an entire city's worth of men. She and Zendaya should form some sort of Avengers-esque squad.

Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” is doing gangbuster business at the Italian box office, where the director’s lavish love letter to his native Naples has surpassed the €5 million ($5.3 million) mark less than two weeks after going on full release. These numbers have made it the country’s top local draw – excluding commercial comedies – of the year to date.

For its first theatrical outing since bowing at Cannes in May, new Italian distributor PiperFilm came up with a smart release strategy for “Parthenope” that involved marketing the film to youth audiences. “Parthenope” was teased with some midnight premieres in select Italian cinemas – between Sept. 19 and 25 – to stoke excitement prior to its full launch on Oct. 24.

On Wednesday, “Parthenope” reached $5.5 million in cumulative grosses from roughly 500 Italian screens, according to national box office compiler Cinetel. The film, which is Sorrentino’s 10th feature, could now become his personal best in terms of local returns.

La película llegará a los cines de España próximamente de la mano de BTeamPictures. © BTeamPictures

Ya se ha publicado el primer tráiler de Parthenope, la nueva película de Paolo Sorrentino (Fue la mano de Dios), que tuvo su estreno mundial en el pasado Festival de Cannes.

La película sigue el largo viaje de la vida de Parthenope, desde su nacimiento en 1950 hasta hoy. Una epopeya femenina, desprovista de heroísmo pero rebosante de una pasión inexorable por la libertad, Nápoles y los rostros del amor, todos esos amores verdaderos, inútiles e indecibles. El perfecto verano de Capri, el desenfado de la juventud. Que acaba en emboscada. Y luego todos los demás: los napolitanos, hombres y mujeres, observados y amados, desilusionados y vitales, sus olas de melancolía, sus ironías trágicas y sus miradas abatidas. La vida, ordinaria o memorable, sabe ser muy larga. El paso del tiempo ofrece un vasto repertorio de emociones.

Italian distributor Piper Film, Fremantle and Pathé have dropped the international trailer for Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” ahead of the widely sold film’s international rollout following its bow in May from the Cannes Film Festival.

Praised in his review by Variety critic Siddhant Adlakha as “An exquisite treatise on cinematic beauty,” “Parthenope” is a love letter to the director’s native Naples. But also, as Sorrentino has put it, a film about “missed youth” that comes as a follow-up to his autobiographical “The Hand of God.”

The film’s titular character is a young woman born in Sorrentino’s native Naples – Neapolitans in Italy are also known as “Parthenopeans” – played by newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta who “delivers a beguiling performance,” noted Adlakha, as “a woman of such stunning beauty that people stop and stare.”

“It’s a moving artistic quest, as a filmmaker explores, through the tale of one...

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...

Brie Larson, Katie Holmes, Bo Derek, Harvey Keitel, Kate Beckinsale, John David Washington, Matt Bomer, and Colman Domingo are among the robust contingent of Hollywood stars set to disembark on the island of Sardinia for the upcoming seventh edition of the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival.

The event, which kicks off Italy’s summer moviegoing season and combines film and TV, unspools June 20-23 in the Forte Village resort near Cagliari, capital of Sardegna (Sardinia in English). This year, the festival has upped its game making “a major effort to attract talents,” notes Tiziana Rocca, the marketing guru and former Taormina Film Festival chief who launched the Sardinia event seven years ago.

More than 70 international and italian titles comprising feature films, TV series, docs and shorts in a wide range of genres will be screening at the fest. Local premiers include Netflix’s Japanese anime film “The Imaginary” which will drop...

Cannes film festival

The heroine is a victim of her own beauty in this exercise in languorous image-making that is too conceited to allow any emotional investment

Paolo Sorrentino, for over 20 years one of the most vibrant and distinctive film-makers, is coming close to self-parody with this new film, which conceitedly announces its own beauty at every moment and finally drifts into an unearned elegiac torpor. It’s an exercise in style, with much bikini-clad gorgeousness and languorous image-making. There are some very exotic touches and though the camera movements are less hyperactive and angular than in his early work, this does not necessarily signal a new maturity; the lessening of flourishes might simply expose something rather facile.

We are in permanently sunny Naples and Parthenope, played by Celeste Dalla Porta with an unchanging Mona Lisa smile, is a young woman from a well-off Neapolitan background who is haunted by...

Gary Oldman took the opportunity to clarify his comments about his acting in the “Harry Potter” franchise during the Cannes press conference for his new film, “Parthenope,” on Wednesday.

When asked about a prior comment in which he disses his performance as Sirius Black as “mediocre,” Oldman said he didn’t mean to “disparage anyone out there who are fans of ‘Harry Potter’ and the films and the character who I think is much beloved.”

“What I meant by that is, as any artist or any actor or painter, you are always hypercritical of your own work,” he continued. “If you’re not, and you’re satisfied with what you’re doing, that would be death to me. If I watched a performance of myself and thought, ‘My God, I’m fantastic in this,’ that would be a sad day.”

He continued, “There was such secrecy that was shrouded around the novels,...

Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino ascended the red carpet here this evening for his latest Cannes competition entry, Parthenope, which was welcomed by a nine-minute standing ovation.

“This movie is a celebration of the journey of my life,” the humbled filmmaker told the crowd.

“The movie is a celebration of the journey of my life” : Paolo Sorrentino says in a speech after the ‘Parthenope’ premiere at #Cannes2024 pic.twitter.com/Z6PhssUcFL

— Deadline Hollywood (@Deadline) May 21, 2024

The movie follows Parthenope, a woman born in the sea of Naples in 1950 who searches for happiness over the long summers of her youth, falling in love with her home city and its many memorable characters. Sorrentino shot the Italian-French co-production between Naples and Capri.

The pic’s breakout star Celeste Dalla Porta was enthralled by the audience reaction, welling up as they applauded.

The cast also includes Dario Aita, Celeste Dalla Porta, Silvia Degrandi,...

Paolo Sorrentino embraced the stars of his latest film “Parthenope,” including Gary Oldman, Celeste Della Porta and Stefania Sandrelli, as the film received a 9.5-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night.

Tears streamed down the face of Della Porta, who plays the title character, and Sorrentino looked visibly moved as he addressed the crowd.

“For me, this movie is a celebration of the journey of my life,” he said. “I want to thank [Cannes general delegate] Thierry Fremaux for the beginning of my journey in cinema 20 years ago.”

His film “The Consequences of Love” premiered at Cannes two decades ago, and the Italian auteur has certainly made his mark on the festival since. He won the festival’s jury prize in 2008 for “Il Divo” and the prize of the ecumenical jury in 2011 for “This Must Be the Place.” Sorrentino has now had seven films compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or.

A decades-spanning drama about a young woman born in Naples — the hometown of writer-director Paolo Sorrentino — “Parthenope” is an exquisite treatise on cinematic beauty. Chronicling her birth, her youthful teenage summers and the years she spends adrift as a young adult, the film is an intoxicating reflection on the way people and places are seen, and the way they see themselves.

Celeste Dalla Porta delivers a beguiling performance as the film’s eponymous subject, a woman of such stunning beauty that people stop and stare. Her allure is practically disruptive, an idea the camera embodies by introducing her through pristine, symmetrical vistas that appear suddenly, as though they were demanding the edit skip past its dramatic connective tissue. She is named, after all, for the founder of Naples, and one of the six sirens of Green mythology, but Sorrentino maintains a consistent awareness of the ogling idealism he applies to Parthenope.

Paolo Sorrentino has done a wide range of films but until his most personal, The Hand of God two years ago (a prize winner in Venice), he had not returned to Naples, the land of his youth, except for the very first feature he made, 2001’s One Man Up. Since then though, he has been to Cannes with his films six times, and his impressive list of movies have included The Consequences of Love, Il Divo, Loro and his Oscar-winning The Great Beauty. There have been more mixed reactions for his starry English-language films like Youth and This Must Be the Place, but Italy seems to drive his creative mojo and may be closest to his heart in the current phase of his filmmaking career when he has found new inspiration by going back to his youth, first in Hand of God which closely reflected his own coming of age in Naples,...

Exclusive: Paolo Sorrentino’s anticipated new movie Parthenope has sold around the world for Pathé here in Cannes where the film is playing in Competition.

We broke news of the A24 domestic deal coming into the festival and now deals have closed this past week in UK (Picture House), Germany (Wildbunch – Alamode), Spain (Bteam), Cis (Pasatiempo Pictures), Latin America (Pasatiempo Pictures), Scandinavia (Triart) and South Korea (Aud).

The in-demand project is also heading to Poland (Monolith), Benelux (Cineart), Baltics (Aone Films), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), Czech Republic & Slovakia (Aero), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF), Portugal (Nos), Romania (Independenta), Hungary (Mozinet), Turkey (Bir Film) and Israel (Lev Cinemas).

Pathé will handle distribution in France and Switzerland. Piper Films will release in Italy. The movie debuts today in Cannes. Negotiations are ongoing in the handful of remaining territories.

Plot details have been kept under wraps but the production says the movie will be an “exploration of the relentless pursuit of freedom,...

Matteo Garrone’s refugee drama Io Capitano, an Oscar nominee this year for Italy in the best international feature category, was the big winner of this year’s 2024 David Di Donatello Awards, Italy’s equivalent to the Oscars, winning best film and director for Garrone.

Io Capitano also picked up prizes for best cinematography, editing, sound, and visual effects.

Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow, a black-and-white feminist dramedy that became the top-grossing film in Italy last year, won Cortellesi the Donatello honors for best actress, directorial debut, and original script for the screenplay she co-wrote with Furio Andreotti and Giulia Calenda.

“I want to thank those who gave me the opportunity to write this role as I wanted it,” she said, accepting her actress honor.

Cortellesi’s film, a dramedy about an abused woman in post-wwii Rome that manages to combine serious social drama with situational comedy, sight gags and even a musical number,...

A24 has acquired domestic North American rights to “Parthenope,” the new film by Academy Award winner director Paolo Sorrentino, which will premiere in official competition at 77th Festival de Cannes, the company announced on Friday morning.

The official logline is as follows: “Parthenope,” born in the sea of Naples in 1950, searches for happiness over the long summers of her youth, falling in love with her home city and its many memorable characters. From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino comes a monumental and deeply romantic story of a lifetime.

The film stars, in alphabetical order, Dario Aita, Celeste Dalla Porta, Silvia Degrandi, Isabella Ferrari, Lorenzo Gleijeses, Biagio Izzo, Marlon Joubert, Peppe Lanzetta, Nello Mascia, Gary Oldman, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Daniele Rienzo, Stefania Sandrelli and Alfonso Santagata.

The film, shot between Naples and Capri, is an Italian-French co-production written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino.

“Parthenope” is a Fremantle film produced by The Apartment Pictures,...

In the first major sale ahead of the Cannes Film Festival, A24 has acquired the North American rights to the competition title “Parthenope” from director Paolo Sorrentino, the distributor announced Friday, May 3.

“Parthenope” is the latest film from the Oscar winner Sorrentino, who will be competing for the Palme d‘Or for the seventh time. A24 describes the film as a “monumental and deeply romantic story of a lifetime.”

The film follows the titular character Parthenope, who is born in the sea of Naples in 1950 and searches for happiness over the long summers of her youth, falling in love with her home city and its many memorable characters. From Sorrentino, who also wrote the script, we expect a lot of lush Italian vistas and colorful, garish interiors.

The film features Gary Oldman and also stars, in alphabetical order, Dario Aita, Celeste Dalla Porta, Silvia Degrandi, Isabella Ferrari, Lorenzo Gleijeses, Biagio Izzo,...

A24 has acquired North American rights to Paolo Sorrentino’s Cannes Competition entry Parthenope.

Pathé handles international sales and will also distribute in France and Switzerland.

Inspired by the Greek myth of the siren who threw herself to her death in the sea after she failed to seduce Ulysses with her voice, Parthenope marks the Italian auteur’s seventh Competition selection after Youth most recently in 2015, and titles like eventual best foreign language Oscar winner The Great Beauty in 2013, and Il Divo in 2008.

The story centres on the titular character, born in the sea of Naples in 1950, who searches for...

Exclusive: A24 has acquired North American rights to Parthenope, the new film from Oscar winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, ahead of its world premiere at the 77th Festival de Cannes.

Parthenope is the seventh Sorrentino movie to play the Croisette following 2004’s The Consequences of Love, 2008’s Il Divo which won the Jury Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize, 2011’s This Must Be the Place starring Sean which also won the Ecumenical Jury Prize, 2013’s The Great Beauty and 2015’s Youth. The Great Beauty would go on to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2014.

Sorrentino’s previous directorial, The Hand of God, inspired by his youth, received a 2022 Oscar nomination for Best International Film and was released on Netflix stateside.

Pathe is handling foreign sales and is releasing the movie in France and Switzerland.

The movie follows Parthenope, who born in the sea of Naples in 1950, searches for happiness...

Over the past few years Italian cinema has been making strides in the global arena and 2024 looks likely to bolster its international standing. New works by top auteurs Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino will be launching from the festival circuit just as a fresh crop of directors comes to fore, starting with Margherita Vicario, whose first film “Gloria!” scored a Berlin competition slot.

Below is a compendium of new Italian movies set to hit this year’s fest circuit.

“Another End” – Gael García Bernal and Renate Reinsve (“The Worse Person in the World”) star as lovers caught in an unusual bind in Italian director Piero Messina’s sci-fi film “Another End” which is competing in Berlin. This second feature by Messina – whose first feature, “The Wait,” launched with a splash in the 2015 Venice competition – is set in a near-future when a new technology exists that can put the consciousness of...

First images have been released of Paolo Sorrentino’s new Naples-set movie, which remains as yet untitled. Scroll down for the eye-catching first shots from the production, which are a mix of stills and behind-the-scenes imagery.

As previously announced, the feature revolves around a character called Partenope, who, in Sorrentino’s own words, bears the name of her city but is neither a siren nor the mythical figure connected to the creation of Naples.

The film captures Partenope’s trajectory from her birth in 1950 to the current day, accompanied by a host of other characters, against the backdrop of Sorrentino’s native city of Naples, with its ability to both charm and cause harm.

Cast includes Gary Oldman, Celeste Dalla Porta, Silvia Degrandi, Isabella Ferrari, Lorenzo Gleijeses, Peppe Lanzetta, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Stefania Sandrelli, Alfonso Santagata, Nello Mascia and Biagio Izzo.

The film follows Sorrentino’s deeply-personal, Oscar-nominated 2021 drama...

Gary Oldman has been cast in Paolo Sorrentino's new film.The 65-year-old actor has landed a role in the untitled Italian-language drama that is currently filming in Naples.Details about Oldman's part have not been revealed, but Sorrentino's film is about a woman named Partenope "who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth".In Greek mythology, Parthenope – as she is known in English – is the name of a siren who, after failing to lure Odysseus with her songs, cast herself into the sea and drowned. Her body washed up on a symbolic foundational rock where Naples lies.Sorrentino said: "Her long life embodies the full repertoire of human existence: youth's lightheartedness and its demise, classical beauty and its inexorable permutations, pointless and impossible loves, stale flirtations and dizzying passion, night-time kisses on Capri, flashes of joy and persistent suffering, real and invented fathers, endings and new beginnings.

Gary Oldman has joined the cast of Paolo Sorrentino’s new film that is currently shooting in Naples.

Details about Oldman’s role in the still-untitled Italian-language drama are being kept under wraps.

Sorrentino’s 10th feature is about a woman named Partenope “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth,” as the auteur – who won an international Oscar in 2013 for “The Great Beauty” –put it in a statement to Variety in June, when the shoot started.

In Greek mythology, Parthenope, as she is known in English, is the name of a siren who having failed to entice Odysseus with her songs, cast herself into the sea and drowned. Her body washed up on a symbolic foundational rock where Naples lies. Neapolitans in Italy are also known as “Parthenopeans.”

“Her long life embodies the full repertoire of human existence: youth’s lightheartedness and its demise,...

As-yet-untitled feature is currently being shot in Italy

Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman has joined the cast of Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film which is currently shooting in Italy.

The as-yet-untitled film is written and directed by Sorrentino and centres on the life of a woman, Partenope, from her birth in 1950 through to today. It started shooting at the end of June, and is filming between Naples and Capri.

Also joining the cast are Nello Mascia and Biagio Izzo. The previously announced cast is, in alphabetical order, Celeste Dalla Porta, Silvia Degrandi, Isabella Ferrari, Lorenzo Gleijeses, Peppe Lanzetta, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri,...

Gary Oldman is set to join the next film from Paolo Sorrentino.

Announced in Venice, where Sorrentino is something of a favored son having premiered several features there, the two Oscar winners will team up for the as-yet-untitled project, which is being produced by Lorezeno Miele for The Apartment Pictures, part of Fremantle (The Hollywood Reporter‘s international producer of the year) and behind Sorrentino’s last film, 2021’s Venice-bowing The Hand of God). Other producers include Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent, Sorrentino for Numero 10 and Ardavan Safaee for Pathe.

The feature — Sorrentino’s 10th — takes him to his native Naples again, telling the story of a woman named Partenope “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth.”

In Greek mythology, Parthenope is a siren who casts herself into the sea after failing to entice Odysseus with her songs, washing up on a rock foundation where Naples lies.

Gary Oldman has been tapped for the cast of Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s as yet untitled, Naples-set new film.

As previously announced, the feature revolves around a character called Partenope, who, in Sorrentino’s own words, bears the name of her city but is neither a siren nor the mythical figure connected to the creation of Naples.

The film captures Partenope’s trajectory from her birth in 1950 to the current day, accompanied by a host of other characters, against the backdrop of Sorrentino’s native city of Naples, with its ability to both charm and cause harm.

There are no details on Oldman’s role, which follows his recent performances as British intelligence officer Jackson Lamb in Apple TV+’s Slow Horses and a brief appearance as Harry Truman in Oppenheimer.

Further fresh cast additions include Nello Mascia and Biagio Izzo.

Previously announced cast members include Celeste Dalla Porta,...

Francesca Archibugi on Paolo Virzì: “We actually were students together. We studied with Furio Scarpelli, who was a great screenwriter. I think we both loved him very much.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

As a screenwriter, Francesca Archibugi has worked with director/screenwriter Paolo Virzì on his films Magical Nights (Notti Magiche) and The Leisure Seeker (starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland) with Francesco Piccolo. Dry (Siccità) starring Monica Bellucci, Silvio Orlando, Valerio Mastandrea, Vinicio Marchioni, Claudia Pandolfi, Sara Serraiocco, and Tommaso Ragno is Archibugi’s third collaboration with Paolo Virzì, this time also with screenwriters Paolo Giordano and Francesco Piccolo.

Dry star Tommaso Ragno inside the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Piccolo is also the co-writer with Laura Paolucci on Archibugi’s The Hummingbird which was the opening night selection of Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s...

Untitled film centres on the life of a woman, Partenope, from her birth in 1950 through to today.

Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino is to begin production on his next film at the end of the month.

The as-yet-untitled film is written and directed by Sorrentino and centres on the life of a woman, Partenope, from her birth in 1950 through to today. It will shoot in Italy between Naples and Capri.

The film stars Celeste Dalla Porta, Silvia Degrandi, Isabella Ferrari, Lorenzo Gleijeses, Peppe Lanzetta, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Stefania Sandrelli and Alfonso Santagata, but there is as yet no indication who will play what roles.

Roughly two years after his return to Naples for “The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino is heading back to his hometown for another movie steeped in the lore of his native southern port city.

The still untitled film is about a woman named Partenope “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth,” the Oscar-winning auteur has revealed to Variety.

In Greek mythology, Parthenope, as she is known in English, is the name of a siren who having failed to entice Odysseus with her songs, cast herself into the sea and drowned. Her body washed up on a symbolic foundational rock where Naples lies. Neapolitans in Italy are also known as “Parthenopeans.”

Shooting on Sorrentino’s new film is set to start “at the end of June” and will take place in Naples and on the island of Capri.

Here is the film’s full director’s statement,...

Two years after his previous effort, “Three Floors” opened with a high-profile belly flop, festival-stalwart Nanni Moretti returns to Cannes with “A Brighter Tomorrow,” a comeback of sorts that also airs a list of grievances and could serve – should need arise – as a closing statement.

Not that it likely will. Funny and endearing in some places, and typically grumpy and old-fashioned in others, “A Brighter Tomorrow” should, at very least, keep Moretti far from director’s jail for years to come. And if the sheer existence of this title proves he wasn’t detained for very long, Moretti was very clearly shook by the experience, and very clearly used this follow-up to work through those anxieties.

As in his earlier beloved films “Dear Diary” and “April,” Moretti plays a version of himself, holding the screen as Giovanni (guess what Nanni’s short for), a Roman director about to shoot an...

Remember Titane? The day after Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or, a couple of summers ago in Cannes, Nanni Moretti took to Instagram and shared a selfie. The picture found him alone, staring––nay, glaring––at the camera, a halo of mercilessly grey hair framing his face, under-eye bags swollen. No filter. Moretti had traveled to Cannes for the premiere of his Three Floors, about which the less said the better, and waking up to the news that his film had lost to one where a Cadillac got a woman pregnant made him, per the selfie’s caption, “age overnight.” But the look embalmed on the ‘gram wasn’t that of a man trying to poke fun at his own mortality. It was the embittered frown of an artist who’d suddenly woken up to the fact that the world he once knew was changing, and would continue doing so...

The captivating opening sequence of Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow (Il Sol dell’Avvenire) watches as a dusty old Fiat passes Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome and pulls up next to the Tiber. A man with a can of red paint and a rope steps out and scoots halfway down the stone wall that hugs the riverbank, neatly painting the words of the title. The whimsical music instantly alludes to Fellini, an homage confirmed soon after by the arrival in town of a Hungarian circus, and for all intents and purposes, the film is Moretti’s Otto e mezzo. Or at least it wants to be.

More than 20 years after winning the Palme d’Or with his shattering grief drama The Son’s Room, Moretti is back with his 14th feature for his regular appointment with Cannes. But after decades of wildly varying success attempting to stretch beyond his signature auto-fictions,...

Nanni Moretti’s “Il sol dell’avvenire” (“A Brighter Tomorrow”), a multi-layered love letter to filmmaking in the age of streaming giants, has scored a slew of sales ahead of it’s Cannes bow.

French sales company Kinology has sealed deals to Moretti’s latest work with a slew of territories including Germany (Prokino); Spain (Caramel Films); Benelux (Cineart) and Switzerland (Xenix Filmdistribution).

Additional countries that have taken a shine to “Brighter Tomorrow” are Portugal (Midas Filmes); Austria (Filmladen); Ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom Film) Greece (Feelgood Entertainment); Hungary (Circo Film); Israel (Lev Films and Cinemas); Latin America (Providences Films); Romania (Independent Film); and Turkey (Filmarti).

In “Brighter Tomorrow,” Moretti, who often acts in his movies, stars as a Roman director who is shooting a period piece set in Rome in 1956, the year of the Hungarian Revolution when millions of citizens rebelled against Soviet domination. In this film-within-a-film, a Fellini-esque Hungarian...

Italian director Nanni Moretti’s new film “Il sol dell’avvenire” (“A Brighter Tomorrow”), a multi-layered love letter to filmmaking in the age of streaming giants, is doing brisk biz at the home box office ahead of its Cannes Film Festival international premiere.

The latest by Moretti — who customarily gets special permission from Cannes to release his works locally before launching them from the Croisette — has already scored close to €3 million ($3.3 million) from 500 screens in Italy via 01 Distribution since its April 20 release. “Brighter Tomorrow” came in second only to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” last weekend, which was a long frame due to the International Workers’ Day holiday on May 1.

Moretti’s box office result with “Brighter Tomorrow” is being hailed as a major success at a time when Italy lags behind much of Europe in terms of post-pandemic box office recovery. In 2022, the country tallied a measly 44.5 million admissions,...

Il Sol Dell’Avvenire

Nanni Moretti makes a quicker-than-usual return behind the camera – waiting very little time in-between projects. Following 2021’s Three Floors, the veteran filmmaker shot Il Sol Dell’Avvenire in the early summer in Rome. The dramedy sees Mathieu Amalric, Margherita Buy, Barbora Bobulova, Silvio Orlando and Moretti himself in a set between the 1950s and the 1970s tale amid the city’s circus world. We got some recent cool outtakes on Nanni’s Ig account.

Gist: This is a period piece set in Rome between the 1950s and the 1970s amid the city’s circus world, but will also involve the world of cinema.…...

A disparate group of characters collide in Dry (Siccita), a semi-apocalyptic drama premiering out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. Paolo Virzi directs this glossy portmanteau film that assembles a strong cast for overlapping storylines and satirical social comment.

The setting is urban Rome, where it hasn’t rained for three years. The drought has become a political issue, with commentators queueing up to offer theories and to point the finger of blame. The social divide is increasing, with wealthy citizens finding a way around the water shortage, while others go thirsty. Hospitals are overloaded with patients, many suffering from lethargy, and apparently related to an influx of cockroaches.

There’s clearly an environmental issue here, but most people we encounter are too self-involved to think about that. The drought is the backdrop to their stories, and the impact of it puts their issues into sharp focus.

There’s...

Italian director Paolo Virzì (“Human Capital,” “Like Crazy”) is in Venice where his dystopic drama “Siccità,” which means drought in Italian, is premiering out-of-competition. The innovative pic, which features an A-list ensemble cast comprising Monica Bellucci, Sara Serraiocco (“Counterpart”) and Silvio Orlando (“The Young Pope”), is set amid a protracted drought caused by climate change in the Italian capital where the Tiber has dried up.

Virzì spoke to Variety about how “Siccità” germinated during Covid-19 and was shot amid tight pandemic protocols. Excerpts.

You worked with novelist and screenwriter Paolo Giordano on the concept and the script for this film. How did the collaboration start?

I knew Paolo, but it’s not like we had ever worked together. I knew him a bit as a writer and during the pandemic I read his articles in Corriere della Sera about what was happening at a time when there were lots of different fears going around.

Paris-based company Kinology has secured international sales to “Il Sol Dell’Avvenire,” from Italian auteur and Cannes regular Nanni Moretti. Pic is currently shooting in Rome.

The deal between Kinology and Domenico Procacci’s Fandango, which is producing in tandem with Moretti’s Sacher shingle and Rai Cinema, marks the first time Kinology has handled a Moretti pic.

Kinology, which is headed by Grégoire Melin, will be launching pre-sales on “Il Sol” in Cannes.

Moretti’s latest work has been described by the director as both an unconventional comedy and a period piece set in Rome between the 1950s and the 1970s amid the city’s circus world, but also involving the world of cinema.

Though that is quite vague, what’s clear is that Moretti seems keen to shift gears, moving into lighter fare following his ensemble melodrama “Three Floors,” which was in Cannes last year.

Last week in Rome,...

The Hand Of God won four prizes including best film, best director and best supporting actress.

Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God won four prizes at the 67th David di Donatello awards, including best film (the first Netflix title to do so), best director and best supporting actress for Teresa Saponangelo.

The Oscar-nominated coming-of-age drama also shared the cinematography prize with Gabriele Mainetti’s Venice competition title Freaks Out, which won six awards in total, including prizes for the producers, production design, hairdressing, make-up and VFX.

The two films both had the highest number of nominations with 16.

The in-person...

The David di Donatello Awards were held in Rome on Tuesday evening, the first time Italy’s equivalent to the Oscar has had a fully in-person ceremony in the pandemic era. Taking top honors was Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God which scooped Best Film and Director as well as Best Supporting Actress for Teresa Saponangelo and a tie for Best Cinematography. In the latter category, The Hand Of God shared the win with Freaks Out, a fantasy drama that likewise debuted in Venice.

Sorrentino’s autobiographical drama launched on the Lido last September where it won the Grand Jury Prize. A Netflix title, it went on to myriad festival and critics prizes and was also nominated for an Oscar as Best International Feature.

Freaks Out, directed by Gabriele Mainetti, also picked up prizes for Producer, Production Design, Hair and Makeup. Other titles to figure in the David di...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated autobiographical drama “The Hand of God” took top honors at Italy’s 67th David di Donatello Awards, winning best picture, director, supporting actress and tying for the best cinematography statuette.

Sorrentino’s Naples-set film about the personal tragedy and other vicissitudes that drove him to become a top notch film director had been the frontrunner along with young helmer Gabriele Mainetti’s second feature, the elegant effects-laden historical fantasy “Freaks Out.”

“Freaks Out” won six prizes, including for its producer, Andrea Occhipinti, as well as cinematographer, set design, and effects.

The cinematography prize, which was a tie, was split between “Hand of God” Dp Daria D’Antonio, marking the first time this David goes to a woman, and Michele Attanasio for “Freaks Out.”

The Davids were held as a fully in-person ceremony at Rome’s Cinecittà studios just as the famed facilities undergo a radical renewal being...

Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” and Gabriele Mainetti’s “Freaks Out” lead the pack at the David di Donatello Awards this year with 16 nominations each.

Here’s the complete list of nominees:

Picture

“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo

“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino

“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore

“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti

“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone

Director

“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo

“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino

“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore

“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti

“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone

Debut Director

“The Bad Poet,” Gianluca Jodice

“Maternal,” Maura Delpero

“Small Body,” Laura Samani

“Re Granchio” (The Legend of King Crab), Alessio Rigo De Righi, Matteo Zoppis

“Una Femmina” (The Code of Silence), Francesco Constabile

Producer

“A Chiara,” Jon Coplon, Paolo Carpignano, Ryan Zacarias, Jonas Carpignano (Stayblack Productions) — Rai Cinema

“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Carlo Cresto...

Nanni Moretti is set to start shooting unconventional comedy “Il Sol Dell’Avvenire” in March. Pic will star French actor-director Mathieu Amalric and feature a cast comprising Polish multi-hyphenate Jerzy Stuhr.

Stuhr appeared in Moretti’s “We Have a Pope” and “The Caiman.” He will star in “Il Sol Dell’Avvenire” — which translates as “The Sun of the Future” — alongside Moretti regulars including Margherita Buy (“Three Floors”), Silvio Orlando (“The Caiman”) and Moretti himself.

Details of Moretti’s new film, revealed by the director in an interview with local trade publication Italian Cinema, have been confirmed by Fandango, which is producing in tandem with Moretti’s own Sacher shingle and Rai Cinema.

While the veteran auteur is keeping plot details under wraps, he has said that it’s a period piece set in Rome between the 1950s and the 1970s amid the city’s circus world, but will also involve the world of cinema.

Italy’s Rai Com, which is the sales arm of Italian state broadcaster Rai, is scoring sales to key territories on Gabriele Mainetti’s “Freaks Out,” following the genre-bending film’s launch in competition at Venice.

Mainetti’s lavish historical fantasy set in 1943 Rome, where four “freaks” who work in a circus are left to their own devices when the Eternal City is bombed by Allied Forces, has been sold to Metropolitan Film for France and to The Klockwork Co. for Japan.

In an interview with Variety, Rai Com CEO Angelo Teodoli called these first sales on “Freaks,” which is screening at Rome’s Mia Market, “very important for us because due to Covid we were getting less titles,” while now things are perking up again.

The Rai Com lineup at Mia also includes another Venice title, Roberto Andò’s “The Hidden Child,” starring Silvio Orlando, who plays Cardinal Voiello in “The Young Pope,...

Prominent Italian thesps Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”) and Silvio Orlando, who plays Cardinal Voiello in “The Young Pope,” had never had a chance to share the screen before director Leonardo Di Costanzo cast them – respectively as a prison guard captain and an incarcerated Mafia boss – in his prison drama “The Inner Cage.”

This naturalistic film is shot in an ancient rural prison on the island of Sardinia with real ex convicts and former correctional officers also in the cast. The plot turns on growing tensions between the guards and inmates and the dynamics of finding a way to coexist when the facility is due to be shut down and thus partly evacuated, then left in an administrative limbo. This forces a skeleton staff to remain and guard a dozen prisoners who can’t be moved elsewhere yet. In this predicament they find a way to make their mutual captivity more bearable.