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Gaetano Maiorino, the former managing director and head of acquisitions at Italian sales company True Colours, has joined leading Italian producer Tramp Limited with a brief to expand its international footprint.

Maiorino, who left True Colours earlier this year, has joined Tramp Limited in the newly created role of head of international co-productions & business affairs.

Until now Tramp Limited has mostly focused on the local Italian market, producing a slate of successful comedies and, more recently, arthouse dramas that have exceeded expectations.

Its 2022 period comedy drama Strangeness, starring Toni Servillo and directed by Roberto Andò, was the highest-grossing Italian film of the year,...

The stars are descending on Tuscany. Ethan Hawke, Paul Schrader, Matthew Modine and Swedish auteur Ruben Östlund will walk the red carpet at the Lucca Film Festival, the annual event held in the picturesque Tuscan town, home to old-fashioned merchants, tailors, jewelers and some of the best olive oil on the planet.

The Hollywood Reporter Roma will become the official International Media Partner of Lff this year, providing daily coverage throughout.

The Llff, which kicks off on Saturday and concludes on Sunday, Sept. 29, is the vision of fest director Nicola Borrelli, who places an emphasis on uncompromising, unconventional cinema.

Also attending is Italian cinema legend Pupi Avati, fresh from premiering his gothic horror film The American Backyard in Venice. Francesco Costabile, the writer of of Familia, will also be in Lucca, along with the film’s lead actor, Francesco Gheghi, who recently won best actor in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Fest.

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in ‘The Room Next Door’ (Photo Credit: Sony Classics)

The 2024 Venice Film Festival winners were announced on September 7th, with Oscar-winner Pedro Almodóvar (Talk to Her) earning the Golden Lion for Best Film for The Room Next Door. Almodóvar took home the coveted prize for this first English-language film, and he dedicated the win to his family. “It is my first movie in English but the spirit is Spanish,” said the acclaimed filmmaker.

Academy Award-winner Nicole Kidman was named Best Actress for her starring role in director Halina Reijn’s Babygirl. Kidman wasn’t able to attend the ceremony, and Reijn read a statement accepting the award. “Today, I arrived in Venice to find out shortly after that my brave and beautiful mother Janelle Ann Kidman has just passed. I’m in shock and I have to go to my family. But this award is for her.

The 2024 Venice Film Festival awards ceremony has wrapped up after a sweltering week and a half on the Lido.

The prestigious Golden Lion award for best film went to Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. The Spaniard’s first-ever English-language feature received a whopping 17-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the festival. Almodóvar said in his acceptance speech Saturday: “I would like to dedicate it to my family, who is here now… This movie The Room Next Door, it is my first movie in English.. but the spirit is Spanish.”

His film, an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through, follows best-selling writer Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) as they rekindle their friendship after losing touch. As they immerse themselves in past memories, anecdotes, art and movies, Martha, battling terminal cervical cancer, wants to die with dignity and asks Ingrid to be...

True Colours has acquired the international sales rights to “Familia,” directed by Francesco Costabile. The film will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section. Variety is debuting the film’s trailer (below).

“Familia” is a dark melodrama that weaves together elements of psychological thriller and social commentary. The film follows the harrowing journey of Luigi, a young man grappling with a toxic family legacy and his entanglement with extremist ideologies. Based on Luigi Celeste’s autobiographical book “It Won’t Be Like This Forever,” the story delves into the destructive cycles of violence and the struggle for redemption.

The cast includes Francesco Gheghi, Barbara Ronchi (“Kidnapped” by Marco Bellochio), and Francesco Di Leva (“Nostalgia” by Mario Martone). Cinematography is by Giuseppe Maio and the score is by Valerio Vigliar.

“Familia” is produced by Attilio de Razza and Nicola Picone at Rome-based Tramp Limited. The...

Just a day after New York Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival made major announcements, Venice Film Festival is here with their full lineup ahead of the festival taking place August 28 through September 7.

Highlights include Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements, Harmony Korine’s Baby Invasion, Pablo Larraín’s Maria, Takeshi Kitano’s Broken Rage, Errol Morris’ Separated, Lav Diaz’s Phantosmia, Thomas Vinterberg’s Families Like Ours, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April, and more.

Check out the lineup below with a hat tip to Cineuropa.

Competition

The Room Next Door – Pedro Almodóvar

Campo di battaglia – Gianni Amelio

Leurs enfants après eux – Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma

The Brutalist – Brady Corbet

Jouer avec le feu – Delphine & Muriel Coulin

Vermiglio – Maura Delpero

Iddu (Sicilian Letters) – Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza

Queer – Luca Guadagnino

Love – Dag Johan Haugerud...

Venice Film Festival has revealed the programme for its 81st edition, featuring a 21-strong Competition that includes new films from Todd Phillips, Pedro Almodovar, Luca Guadagino, Pablo Larrain, Brady Corbet and Justin Kurzel.

Scroll down for full line-up

The selection was unveiled by festival president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and artistic director Alberto Barbera. It marked Buttafuoco’s first time at the annual press conference, after replacing Roberto Cicutto in October 2023.

Further filmmakers in Competition include Wang Bing, Luis Ortega, Dea Kulumbegashvili, Dag Johan Haugerud, Athina Rachel Tsangari and Walter Salles.

The line-up also includes Jon Watt’s Wolfs, starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney,...

The mob in Italy, besides being an endemic plague, has always been grist for the film and TV mill, with gritty Naples-set show “Gomorrah,” the country’s top TV export, being one recent example.

But a major change is underway in how Italian producers and talents are tackling organized crime tropes that were once exclusively imbued in patriarchal pathos. Mob stories coming out of Italy are primarily a woman’s thing these days. Or, rather, the perspective is a female one.

Take Amazon’s recently launch­­ed Italian original “Bang Bang Baby,” the 1980s Milan-set tale of 16-year-old Alice Barone (rising star Arianna Becheroni), who while living with her single mom learns by chance that her dad, whom she thought dead, is very much alive and a boss of the Calabrian crime syndicate known as the ’Ndrangheta.

Against her mother’s wishes, she joins the dark side of her family,...

The film marks the debut of blind, wheelchair-using actor Petri Poikolainen.

Intramovies has sold North American rights to SXSW title The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic to Cinedigim.

The Italian outfit closed a brace of additional deals for Finnish director Teemu Nikki’s romantic thriller in other territories, including Sky Digi Entertainment (Taiwan); Cineworx (Switzerland); and Cinobo (Greece.)

Theatrical rights for Chile were taken up by Cinetopia, and Eastern Europe television rights by HBO Europe.

The film marks the debut of blind, wheelchair-using actor Petri Poikolainen.

In further deals, Intramovies has sold Francesco Costabile’s The...

Travel within Europe is returning to normal as the coronavirus pandemic winds down. The same is not yet true in Asia, where some countries are behind the pandemic curve – Hong Kong is currently closed to all travel from nine countries – making FilMart’s online market a viable way of connecting film industry buyers and sellers without the quarantine and testing hassle.

Eight European sales companies make their FilMart debuts this week on the Europe! Umbrella! stand at this year’s third virtual edition of the Hong Kong rights market. In total, 25 European sales outfits, hailing from eight countries have signed up to use the European Film Promotion-operated platform within a platform.

For Asian distributors which did not make it to Berlin and the European Film Market the umbrella allows them to dip into several Berlinale titles where rights in Asia are still available.

These include Coproduction Office’s Berlin competition...

Italy’s robust 2022 Berlinale representation of a half-dozen titles runs the gamut from the latest works by venerable veterans Paolo Taviani and Dario Argento to pics by fresh new Cinema Italiano voices including Chiara Bellosi, whose first film, “Ordinary Justice,” launched from Berlin in 2020.

Taviani, who is 91, is returning to Berlin but alone this time — his filmmaker brother, Vittorio, with whom he won a Golden Bear in 2012 for “Caesar Must Die,” passed away in 2018 — in competition with surreal drama “Leonora Addio,” inspired by a short story by Italian playwright and author Luigi Pirandello.

Argento, who set his 1977 chiller “Suspiria” in Germany, will be at the Berlinale for the first time as a director with Rome-set suspenser “Dark Glasses,” though he was on the fest’s main jury panel in 2001. Film unspools as a Berlinale Special Gala.

Bellosi is back with Panaorama selection “Swing Ride” (“Calcinculo”), about a 15-year-old named...

The trailer for Francesco Costabile’s Mafia family drama “Una Femmina,” which premieres in Berlinale’s Panorama section, has debuted. Intramovies will handle sales at the virtual European Film Market.

The film centers on Rosa, a restless young woman who lives with her mother’s relatives in a remote village in Calabria, Southern Italy. Her mother’s mysterious death when she was still a child casts a shadow on her present. When the truth emerges and Rosa realizes she is trapped in a same predestined fate, she decides to betray her family, seeking revenge against her own blood. However, when your family belongs to the ‘Ndrangheta Mafia, a single misstep can lead to death.

The script was adapted from Lirio Abbate’s book “Fimmine Ribelli,” and the storyline was written by Abbate with Edoardo de Angelis, one of the producers of the movie and an established director. Together, they distilled...

The Mafia drama is the directing debut of Francesco Costabile.

Italy-based sales agent Intramovies has acquired international rights to Mafia drama Una Femmina – The Code Of Silence ahead of the film’s world premiere in Panorama at next month’s Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-16).

The film is the directorial debut of Italian filmmaker Francesco Costabile, and is produced by Italy’s Tramp Limited and O’Groove. Costabile wrote the film with Lirio Abbate, Serena Brugnolo and Adriano Chiarelli.

Una Femmina follows a girl living with relatives in a remote South Italian village following her mother’s mysterious death when she was young.

Berlinale Series Market, Co-Production Market name selections.

The world premiere of French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie’s Nobody’s Hero will open the Panorama section at next month’s Berlin International Film Festival, marking the first time the director has screened at the event.

Nobody’s Hero is one of 16 world premiere additions to the Panorama strand, joining the 13 titles confirmed last month for a complete list of 29 films.

Scroll down for the full list of new titles

The film takes place after a terrorist attack in Clermont-Ferrand in France, and centres on a likeable man in his mid-thirties, an older...

The program announcements continue for the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival this week, with the full Panorama line-up now confirmed.

Adding to the initial titles unveiled back in April are films including Alain Guiraudie’s Nobody’s Hero, which opens the strand this year.

Also confirmed today were the titles that will participate in the Berlinale Series Market and Co-Pro Series event this year.

Taking part in Berlinale Series Market Selects will be The Fear Index, the upcoming show from Left Bank Pictures that is set to star Josh Hartnett, as well as projects from Keshet, Viaplay and Globo. See the full lists below.

Tomorrow, Berlin chiefs Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek will unveil the 2022 Competition line-up at an event that kicks off at 11Am Cet.

Panorama Additions:

Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm

Germany

by Cem Kaya

World premiere / Panorama Dokumente

Baqyt (Happiness)

Kazakhstan

by Askar Uzabayev

with Laura Myrzakhmetova,...

French auteur Alain Guiraudie’s political drama “Nobody’s Hero” has been set as the opener of the 2022 Berlin Film Festival’s multifaceted Panorama strand, which has announced its full lineup.

The latest feature from Guiraudie, who is best known for his 2016 “Staying Vertical,” takes place in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, where a terrorist attack triggers some paranoid dynamics involving a young homeless man, a middle-aged sex worker and her married lover who have taken refuge in a building. The film’s cast comprises actor-director Noémie Lvovsky, Jean-Charles Clichet and Doria Tillier.

The ten-title Panorama Dokumente strand, which runs concurrently with the feature films, comprises previously announced transgender-themed doc “Nel Mio Nome” (“Into My Name”) by Italian director and producer Nicolò Bassetti. Elliot Page has come on board as executive producer to support the doc which observes gender transition from a female to a male identity of four characters within a...

Titles include ‘Sex In The Soviet Union’ and ‘In A Future April’.

Italy’s documentary-focused Biografilm Festival, which takes place each June in Bologna, has announced 11 of the 18 projects to be showcased in its Bio To B - Doc & Biopic Business Meeting co-production event.

They include Sex In The Soviet Union by Ukrainian filmmaker Chad Gracia; In A Future April, which is an exploration on Pasolini’s time in northern Italy, by Federico Savonitto and Francesco Costabile; Simone Manetti’s I’m In Love With Pippa Bacca; and Kemp, about actor, choreographer, dancer and theatrical producerLindsay Kemp, which is being...

The Rome festival has also revealed its first raft of guests, including Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.

The line-up for this year’s Alice In The City (Alice nella Citta) – the sidebar dedicated to younger generations at Rome Film Festival (Oct 13-23) – has been revealed.

Now in its 14th edition, the event will present a total of 42 titles across five programmes.

The Competition Young/Adult programme will screen films including Matt Ross’s Captain Fantastic, which premiered in Cannes, Taika Waitit’s Hunt For The Wilderpeople, New Zealand’s highest-grossing local film, and Travis Knight’s Kubo And The Two Strings. A 27-strong jury aged 14-18 will select a winner from the 12-strong line-up.

The Alice Panorama programme will feature ten titles including Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama [pictured], which recently played at Toronto International Film Festival, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Sundance premiere Swiss Army Man, with Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano, and [link=nm...

The Lesson by co-directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov was the big winner at this year’s Sofia International Film Festival in Bulgaria.

The duo’s feature debut became the second Bulgarian feature in Siff’s 19-year history to receive the international jury’s Grand Prix after Dragomir Sholev’s Shelter in 2011.

The Lesson also picked up the Audience Award, the Fipresci International Critics’ Prize and the award for the Best Bulgarian Feature Film.

Accepting the award, Valchanov pointed to the importance of the Sofia Meetings where The Lesson had originally been pitched and said that this event should be ¨an example¨ to the Bulgarian state to develop a long-term and sustainable film policy for the future.

The sentiment was echoed by international jury president Stephan Komanderev (The Judgement) when he presented the ¨Sofia City Of Film¨ Grand Prix to the young directors.

The Lesson, which is handled internationally by Wide Management, premiered last year...