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The 70th David di Donatello Awards, held at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios, marked a pivotal moment for Italian cinema as women filmmakers emerged at the forefront of the country’s most prestigious film honors. Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio dominated the evening, winning seven awards, while major honors were also claimed by Valeria Golino and Margherita Vicario, signaling a broad shift in creative leadership and recognition.

Delpero’s wartime drama, set in 1944 in an isolated Alpine village, earned the top prizes: Best Film and Best Director. She became the first woman to receive the directing award in the seven-decade history of the event. Only two women had previously taken the Best Film category. Vermiglio also collected awards for Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound, Casting, and Production. These achievements reflect both the artistic ambition of the film and its technical command across multiple disciplines.

The narrative of Vermiglio follows the disruption caused by...

Maura Delpero’s Italian WW2 drama Vermiglio won best film at the 70th David Di Donatello awards, Italy’s version of the Oscars, held at Rome’s historic Cinecittà film studio on Wednesday night. Delpero also took best directing honors en route to a 7-trophy sweep.

The film, which had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival last year, beat out the two award frontrunners, Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, a sumptuous, occasionally surreal tribute to his hometown of Naples, and Andrea Segre’s The Great Ambition, a political biopic about Italian Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer, which lead the pack going into the David awards with 15 nominations each. Parthenope went away empty-handed, but The Great Ambition took two awards: Best actor for Elio Germano, who play Berlinguer, and best editing for Jacopo Quadri.

Tecla Insolia won best actress for her starring role in Nicolangelo Gelormini’s Sicilian...

Women dominated Italy’s David di Donatello Awards with Maura Delpero’s Venice Silver Lion winner “Vermiglio” taking top honors and Valeria Golino’s female empowerment drama “The Art of Joy” and Margherita Vicario’s directorial debut “Gloria!” also scoring multiple statuettes.

“Vermiglio,” which is set at the end of World War II in an Alpine village where the arrival of a soldier causes disruption in the dynamics between three sisters, was the night’s big winner taking best picture, best director, screenplay, producer, cinematography, sound and the David’s newly introduced casting category.

Delpero, who is the first woman to win the best director David in the 70-year history of the awards – and only the third female filmmaker to win best film – underlined the anti-war aspect of “Vermiglio”

“When I thought about writing it, someone asked me if it wasn’t anachronistic to talk about war,” she said.

“Unfortunately,...

Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio took home Best Film and Director at the 70th edition of Italy’s David di Donatello Awards on Wednesday evening, in an historic win for a female director.

Delpero is the first woman to win the David di Donatello Best Director prize in the history of the awards, and only the third female filmmaker to win Best Film.

The film picked up seven David di Donatellos in total which also included Best Original Screenplay, Casting, Producer, Cinematography and Sound.

Set in a remote mountain village in 1944, Vermiglio revolves around a family whose life is disrupted by the arrival of a deserted soldier. The feature world premiered in Venice where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and went on to be Italy’s 2025 Oscars submission.

It was an historically strong night for female directors.

Other big winners included Italian actress and singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario who won Best First Film,...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, the director’s sumptuous, occasionally surreal tribute to his hometown of Naples, and Andrea Segre’s The Great Ambition, a political biopic about Italian Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer, are the frontrunners for this year’s David Di Donatello awards, Italy’s version of the Oscars.

Parthenope and The Great Ambition picked up 15 nominations each, including for best film and best director. In the best film category, they will face up against Maura Delpero’s Italian WW2 drama Vermiglio and Valeria Golino and Nicolangelo Gelormini’s L’arte della gioia (The Art of Joy), which received 14 nominations each, and the Francesca Comencini-directed drama The Time It Takes, which received four nominations. Other multiple nominees include Margherita Vicario’s debut feature Gloria!, about women musicians at a Church-run establishment in early-1800s Italy, which scored nine nominations, and Francesco Costabile’s crime thriller Familia, with eight.

In the best international film category,...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope and Andrea Segre’s The Great Ambition have taken the lead at the nomination stage for Italy’s upcoming 70th David di Donatello awards.

The titles have secured 15 nominations each including for best film and director.

Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio and Valeria Golino and Nicolangelo Gelormini’s The Art Of Joy received 14 nominations each, followed by Gloria! and Familia with nine and eight nominations respectively.

Sorrentino’s Parthenope, following a woman from her birth in 1950 to the current day against the backdrop of Naples, world premiered in Cannes.

Biopic The Great Ambition stars Elio Germano as 1970s and 1980s left-wing political leader Enrico Berlinguer, who nearly led the Communist party into power.

Vermiglio world premiered in Venice where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and went on to be Italy’s 2025 Oscars submission. Set in a remote mountain village in 1944, the drama revolves around...

Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza are directors known for telling gritty crime stories set in their native Sicily. In films like Salvo and Sicilian Ghost Story, they’ve shined a light on the island’s shadowy world of organized crime. Their latest work, Iddu, continues in a similar vein, this time focusing on two complex characters embroiled in the mafia’s machinations.

Iddu centers around Catello and Matteo, a former politician and wanted crime boss. Having recently been released from prison, Catello is eager to regain what he’s lost. So when asked to correspond covertly with his gangster godson Matteo, now in hiding, he sees an opportunity. Through letters exchanged in a secretive “pizzini” system, the two men engage in an intricate dance of deceit.

Catello hopes to leverage Matteo’s vulnerability for his own gain, while Matteo navigates the challenges of leading from the shadows. Played masterfully by Toni Servillo and Elio Germano,...

Bound In Heaven, the feature debut of director Huo Xin, won the top prize at the 2024 Rome Film Festival, with the awards unveiled at the Auditorium Parco della Musica on October 26.

The domestic abuse drama won best film in the Progressive Cinema Competition, the festival’s competitive strand, and also shared the best first feature award ex aequo with Edgardo Pistone’s Ciao Bambino.

Bound In Heaven premiered at Toronto, and features a starry cast including Ni Ni, Zhou You and Liao Fan. Director Huo is a veteran scriptwriter whose credits include Shower, Kung Fu Hustle, Sunflower and The Monkey King.

The acclaimed Italian television drama series “La Storia” has signed agreements to expand its international distribution significantly. Based on Elsa Morante’s landmark 1974 novel, the World War II series is streamlining in North America through U.S. and Canadian distribution with MHz Choice. Dual deals in Israel with Yes and Hot networks were also reached. Earlier partnerships were made with several Nordic broadcasters. Beta Film handles global distribution for the series.

The series tells the story of Ida Ramundo, a Jewish widow living in Rome during and after World War II with her two sons. Actress Jasmine Trinca stars as Ida. An ensemble cast of renowned Italian performers bring the production to life, including Asia Argento, Elio Germano, and Valerio Mastandrea.

Director Francesca Archibugi adapted the screenplay from the novel along with writers Francesco Piccolo, Giulia Calenda, and Ilaria Macchia. Picomedia and Thalie Images produce the series in partnership with broadcasters Rai Fiction and Beta.

Exclusive: Italian drama ‘La Storia’ has been picked up for the U.S. and Israel. The series, adapted from the iconic Elsa Morante bestseller, is set in Rome during and soon after World War II. It stars Jasmine Trinca (The Gunman) in the lead role.

MHz Choice, the SVOD service that majors in bringing prestige international television to North American viewers, has acquired it for the U.S. and Canada. Elsewhere, Yes and Hot have picked it up for Israel. Beta Film is handling distribution and cut the deals. It has already sold it to Nrk in Norway, Yle in Finland, Svt in Sweden, Dr in Denmark and Ruv in Iceland.

The series is set during World War II and its immediate aftermath. It turns on the story of a Jewish woman, Ida Ramundo, a widowed mother living in Rome, and her two sons. The book was first published in...

Andrea Segre’s The Great Ambition, the opening film of the Rome Film Festival, tells the story of how the Italian Communist Party came close to governing Italy.

It focuses on Italian politician Enrico Berlinguer, who ran the Communist Party when it reached its peak of popularity in the 1970s. His great ambition was to achieve a democratic path to communism, which meant severing his Party’s ties with Moscow.

Leading the film as Berlinguer is Elio Germano, winner of the best actor prize at the 2020 Berlinale for Hidden Away and at Cannes in 2010 for Our Life. The Great Ambition...

The Rome Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 19th edition, which takes place from October 16-27.

Rome will present a lifetime achievement award to Johnny Depp, who will present Modi - Three Days on the Wing of Madness, about Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, at the festival.

Viggo Mortensen will also receive a lifetime achievement award, and will present The Dead Don’t Hurt, which he wrote, directed and stars in.

Francis Ford Coppola will also be in Rome for a special ‘pre-opening’ festival presentation of the Italian premiere of Megalopolis at Cinecittà Studios – the Rome studio that hosted him...

There is a disconcertingly ambivalent tone to Sicilian Letters, a very handsomely presented game of cop cats and mafioso mice flying the Rai quality-drama banner. On the one hand, there is the mob movie’s requisite number of murders, betrayals, overnight widows and irredeemably corrupt public officials. There is the expected childhood flashback showing the nastiest honcho in the Cosa Nostra learning his trade by doing something horrible to an animal. All this, and yet Sicilian Letters, directed by Favio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, is more of a romp than a revengers’ tragedy.

In part, this can be shored home to the central presence of the great Tony Servillo, whose resting expression of ironic amusement gives everything around him a touch of levity. Servillo plays Catello Palumbo, who has just emerged from six years behind bars. Given to quoting the classics, Palumbo was, until his incarceration, the headmaster of the...

Letters to Daddy: Grassadonia & Piazza Continue Their Cosa Nostra Sagas

Italian directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza reimagine the circumstances surrounding yet another mafioso tale with their third feature, Sicilian Letters. Freely inspired by events in Sicily from the 2000s, their introductory title cards reveal this tale is one where “reality is a point of departure, not a destination.” The Italian title, Iddu, is the nickname of a straggling mafia boss still being sought by law enforcement who have devised a circuitous plan to draw him out of his hideout. Starring two of Italian cinema’s most notable contemporary actors, Toni Servillo and Elio Germano, it is the directors’ most mainstream offering to date.…...

Though doubtless a crucial aspect of many of the most dramatic occurrences in human history, letter-writing is not the most cinematic of activities. And so it unfortunately proves once again in Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s “Sicilian Letters,” a heavily fictionalized riff on a real-life mafia tale, which sets up a battle of wits between a ruthless mob boss and the family friend working with the authorities to bring him down, but struggles to maintain any kind of momentum when the duel is merely a case of epistles-at-dawn.

Elio Germano plays Matteo, a character based on notorious Sicilian mafioso Matteo Messina Denaro who was the subject of a 30-year manhunt which only ended in 2023 when he was finally caught. Toni Servillo plays the more heavily fictionalized Catello Polumbo, whose 2004 correspondence with Matteo gets the authorities closer to his apprehension than ever before. As the film begins, Catello, a well-read,...

Italy’s Fandango Film Sales has taken world rights outside Italy on Andrea Segre’s “The Great Ambition,” a biopic of late Italian political leader Enrico Berlinguer, who during the 1970s was secretary of Western Europe’s largest Communist Party.

The film, which is lead-produced by Rome-based indie Vivo film has been set as the Rome Film Festival opener, as previously announced.

Elio Germano, who won the actor top honors in Cannes with Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life,” plays Berlinguer, who led the Italian Communist Party (Pci) from 1972 until his death in 1984. Berlinguer nearly brought the Pci to power in the Italian parliamentary elections of 1976.

Germano is currently at Venice Film Festival with the Mafia drama “Sicilian Letters.” Segre was last at Venice with the 2021 drama “Welcome Venice,” which played in Venice Days.

“When a way forward seems impossible to everyone, do you have to stop? Enrico Berlinguer did not,...

Zurich Film Festival has revealed a second wave of Gala titles, which includes films starring Tilda Swinton, Sebastian Stan, Nicole Kidman, Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson.

Among the 10 added titles are four world premieres, two international premieres and one European premiere.

Zurich will screen, among others, Ali Abbas’ “The Apprentice,” starring Stan, Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” starring Swinton, and Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl,” starring Kidman.

Richard Gray’s Western “The Unholy Trinity,” starring Brosnan and Jackson, has its world premiere.

The other world premieres are “Frieda’s Case” by Maria Brendle, “Aiming High – A Race Against the Limits” by Flavio Gerber and Alun Meyerhans, and German epic adventure “Hagen.”

“The fact that we have the opportunity to present so many world and European premieres goes to show that the Zff holds a strong position in the international calendar,” Christian Jungen, artistic director of the festival, said.

Directorial duo Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”) tell the true tale of Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro – who was dubbed “the last godfather” – in their new drama “Sicilian Letters,” launching on Thursday from the Venice Film Festival.

“Sicilian Letters” pairs two top Italian actors — Elio Germano, who plays Messina, and Toni Servillo as his antagonist Catello, a shady secret services operative who is trying to catch him — working in tandem for the first time. The title refers to a surreptitious correspondence between them using “pizzini,” small slips of paper that the Sicilian Mafia used for high-level communications.

The film looks at a time during Denaro’s three decades as a fugitive from Italian justice, when he was at the peak of his nefarious powers. After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January 2023 outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo, where...

Screen can unveil the first trailer for Mafia drama Sicilian Letters ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival.

It is the third film from directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (after Salvo in 2013 and Sicilian Ghost Story in 2017), and the duo’s first at Venice.

Titled Iddu at home (‘Him’ in Sicilian dialect), their latest feature is inspired by the story of fugitive Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

Elio Germano plays the godfather in hiding, with Toni Servillo as the smalltime local politician who became his pen pal.

The Italy-France co-production pairs Indigo Film and...

Screen can unveil the first trailer for Mafia drama Sicilian Letters ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival.

It is the third film from directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (after Salvo in 2013 and Sicilian Ghost Story in 2017), and the duo’s first at Venice.

Titled Iddu at home (‘God’ in Sicilian dialect), their latest feature is inspired by a cache of letters discovered after the 2023 arrest of fugitive Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

Elio Germano plays the godfather in hiding, with Toni Servillo as the smalltime local politician who became his pen pal.

The...

France’s Les Films du Losange is taking international sales outside Italy on “Sicilian Letters” (“Iddu”), the hotly anticipated drama about Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro – who was dubbed “the last godfather” – directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”).

“Sicilian Letters” pairs two top Italian actors — Elio Germano, who plays Messina (see first-look image above) and Toni Servillo (first-look image below) as his antagonist Catello, a shady secret services operative — working in tandem for the first time. The title refers to a surreptitious correspondence between them using “pizzini,” the small slips of paper that the Sicilian Mafia uses for high-level communications.

The film – which is expected to launch on the fall festival circuit – looks at a time during Denaro’s three decades as a fugitive from Italian justice, when he was at the peak of his nefarious powers. After being on the run for three decades,...

Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated drama “Io Capitano,” about the odyssey of two young African men who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe, and Paola Cortellesi’s feminist dramedy “There’s Still Tomorrow” were both the big winners at Italy’s 69th David di Donatello Awards.

“Io Capitano” won Davids for best picture, director, producers, editor, and cinematographer, among other prizes, while “Still Tomorrow,” which is about the plight of an abused housewife in post-war Rome and had 19 nominations scored six statuettes, including best directorial debut, actress, non supporting actress, screenplay, and audience award.

“Still Tomorrow,” which marks the directorial debut of popular Italian actor Paola Cortellesi, who also stars, is shot in black-and-white and riffs on Italy’s neorealist past, albeit with a contemporary female empowerment angle.

“I made this debut at the brink of menopause,” Cortellesi, who is 50, said while accepting the statuette for best debuting director. “I hope...

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,...

Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated drama Io Capitano triumphed in Italy’s David di Donatello film awards on Friday evening, winning best film and best director.

The film about the trials and tribulations of two Senegalese teenagers as they try to make it to Europe via the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea, also won best producer for companies Archimede, Rai cinema, Pathé and Tarantula as well as best sound, special effects, cinematography and editing.

Io Capitano premiered at the Venice Film Festival last September, where it won best director for Garrone and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor for Seydou Sarr.

The movie went on to enjoy a buzzy awards season, securing a Golden Globe nomination for best non-English language film and an Academy Award nomination for best international film.

“This film tells the stories of those who are not listened to,” said Garrone, on receiving the best director award.

It’s only fitting that on the day the score drops for Challengers, composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Thom Yorke’s first score since Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria would arrive. The Radiohead and Smile frontman’s latest work is the 12-track score for Daniele Luchetti’s Confidenza aka Trust, the Italian director adaptation of Domenico Starnone’s novel.

A collaboration with producer Sam Petts-Davies, the London Contemporary Orchestra, and a jazz ensemble featuring Tom Skinner and Robert Stillman, as reported by Stereogum, it’s not just an instrumental production as Yorke provides vocals throughout.

The film, which premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier this year and opens in Italy this week, stars Elio Germano as a teacher in his forties named Pietro Vella who works in a rundown Roman high school. He strongly believes he can help students strive for a better future and Teresa, and bright and rebellious student,...

“If I were you, I’d run away/Get out while you still can,” Thom Yorke sings on his new song “Knife Edge.” “‘Cause this to me is life or death/And all I think about.” The pensive song, which ambles along slowly with piano and sparse strings, comes off the soundtrack to Confidenza, a new film by director Daniele Luchetti (My Brilliant Friend).

The music video for the tune shows footage from the movie, which is based on author Domenico Starnone’s novel of the same title about a doomed couple.

Thom Yorke, frontman of Radiohead and The Smile, has composed the original score for Daniele Luchetti’s new film Confidenza.

Confidenza marks Yorke’s second film score, following his contributions to Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Suspiria. As a preview of his latest effort, Yorke has shared the visual for “Knife Edge” and its B-side, “Prize Giving.” Check out both songs below.

Spanning a total of 12 tracks, Yorke’s score for Confidenza will recorded with the London Contemporary Orchestra alongside a jazz ensemble which included Robert Stillman and Yorke’s bandmate in The Smile, Tom Skinner. It will be released digitally this Friday, April 26th via Xl Recordings, with a physical release following on July 12th.

Confidenza is an adaptation of Domenico Starnone’s 2019 novel of the same name. Starring Elio Germano, Vittoria Puccini, and Isabella Ferrari, the Italian drama centers around an affair between a teacher named Pietro and his former student Teresa.

Thom Yorke, frontman of Radiohead and The Smile, has composed the original score for Daniele Luchetti’s new film Confidenza.

Confidenza marks Yorke’s second film score, following his contributions to Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Suspiria. As a preview of his latest effort, Yorke has shared the visual for “Knife Edge” and its B-side, “Prize Giving.” Check out both songs below.

Spanning a total of 12 tracks, Yorke’s score for Confidenza will recorded with the London Contemporary Orchestra alongside a jazz ensemble which included Robert Stillman and Yorke’s bandmate in The Smile, Tom Skinner. It will be released digitally this Friday, April 26th via Xl Recordings, with a physical release following on July 12th.

Confidenza is an adaptation of Domenico Starnone’s 2019 novel of the same name. Starring Elio Germano, Vittoria Puccini, and Isabella Ferrari, the Italian drama centers around an affair between a teacher named Pietro and his former student Teresa.

Update: Italian collecting company Artisti 7607, which represents thousands of local acting and dubbing talents, has announced it is suing Netflix in a Rome court “to obtain adequate and proportionate compensation due by law to its mandated artists.”

Netflix disputes they are doing anything wrong.

Artisti 7607, which was founded as a co-op more than a decade ago by a group of Italian A-list actors including Elio Germano — who in 2015 won top acting honors in Cannes with Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” — has long been doing battle with Netflix over residual rights.

“After more than eight years of sterile negotiations to obtain the data necessary to determine the compensation for artists in observance of European and national legislation, Artisti 7607 is forced to appeal to an ordinary court to request compliance with the law,” the indie collecting company said in a statement.

Artisti 7607 is suing Netflix in court after taking similar action...

Roll up, roll up for Part 2 of our Cannes Film Festival preview, this time with a focus on international, mainly non-English-language fare. If you didn’t catch Andreas’ English-language-focused Part 1, check it out.

As the fest basks in the warm glow of the Oscar wins for 2023 Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Grand Jury Prize winner The Zone of Interest, delegate general Thierry Frémaux and his team are furiously tying up the 2024 Official Selection.

With less than four weeks to go until the bulk of the 77th edition (running May 14-25) is revealed at the press conference in Paris on April 11, we’ve rounded up a host of the titles ready and in the running for a splash in either Official Selection or the main parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.

The registration deadline was March 15, with March 22 the official cut-off for submissions to arrive...

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...

Thom Yorke has composed the soundtrack for Italian director Daniele Luchetti’s relationship drama “Trust,” which will soon launch in competition from the Rotterdam Film Festival.

Yorke’s work with Luchetti on “Trust” marks the second feature fully scored by the Radiohead and the Smile frontman since working on Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 “Suspiria” remake. The following year, in 2019, Yorke contributed to Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn.”

“Trust,” which is based on the novel “Confidenza” by Neapolitan writer Domenico Starnone, centers on a teacher in his 40s named Pietro Vella – played by A-list Italian actor Elio Germano – who works in a rundown Roman high school. He becomes romantically entangled with a former student years after they intersect in class. Their affair triggers some deep-seated fears in Pietro.

“It’s the story of a man who, for his entire life, finds himself trapped between a fear of love and a love of fear,...

Thom Yorke has announced he composed the score for Italian filmmaker Daniele Luchetti’s new film, Confidenza.

Confidenza, which translates to Trust in English, is adapted from Domenico Starnone’s 2019 novel of the same name. Starring Elio Germano, Vittoria Puccini, and Isabella Ferrari, the movie centers around an affair between a teacher named Pietro and his former student Teresa.

Luchetti is best known for his work on acclaimed films like The Yes Man and The Ties. He also directed Season 3 of the Italian HBO drama My Brilliant Friend. Confidenza is set to premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam later this week, but a theatrical release date has not been revealed. Watch a teaser clip below.

In 2018, Yorke unveiled his first original film score for Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake. One year later, he contributed the song “Daily Battles” to the soundtrack for Edward Norton’s crime drama Motherless Brooklyn.

Thom Yorke has announced he composed the score for Italian filmmaker Daniele Luchetti’s new film, Confidenza.

Confidenza, which translates to Trust in English, is adapted from Domenico Starnone’s 2019 novel of the same name. Starring Elio Germano, Vittoria Puccini, and Isabella Ferrari, the movie centers around an affair between a teacher named Pietro and his former student Teresa.

Luchetti is best known for his work on acclaimed films like The Yes Man and The Ties. He also directed Season 3 of the Italian HBO drama My Brilliant Friend. Confidenza is set to premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam later this week, but a theatrical release date has not been revealed. Watch a teaser clip below.

In 2018, Yorke unveiled his first original film score for Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake. One year later, he contributed the song “Daily Battles” to the soundtrack for Edward Norton’s crime drama Motherless Brooklyn.

Toni Servillo, who played Roman socialite Jep Gambardella in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty,” will star in a drama about Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro, dubbed “the last godfather” directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”).

Also starring in the hotly-anticipated drama titled “Iddu” – which means “Him” in Sicilian dialect – is Italian A-list actor Elio Germano, winner of a Cannes best actor prize for Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” in 2010 and more recently of Italy’s 2021 David di Donatello Award for Giorgio Diritti’s “Hidden Away.”

The roles respectively being played by Servillo and Elio Germano are being kept under wraps.

After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January 2023 outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo, where he had been undergoing cancer treatment for a year under false identity. The top mafioso, convicted of masterminding some of Italy...

Beta Film has announced a half-dozen sales to European public broadcasters on high-end period drama “La Storia,” which is Italian pubcaster Rai’s biggest event show of the year and is world premiering at the Rome Film Fest.

The sweeping eight-episode saga, set in Italy during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath, is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante, whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference.

Set mostly in Rome between 1940 and 1948, “La Storia” looks at fascism and Italy’s early postwar period through a female prism. Ida, a half Jewish widow with a teenage son named Nino, is raped by a drunken German soldier and gets pregnant with Useppe. The tale is centered on how she survives her predicament.

Ahead of the Rome Film Fest premiere of its first two episodes on Friday,...

Italy’s Indiana Production – which has just become part of pan-European studio Vuelta Group – is staying true to its roots with production kicking off this month on gender swap movie “Romeo is Juliet,” directed by quality comedy specialist Giovanni Veronesi, just as the company expands its horizons.

This latest title in Indiana’s slate stars A-lister Sergio Castellitto and Pilar Fogliati (“Romantiche”) who plays an actress named Vittoria who after being brutally rejected by a cynical stage director when she auditions to play Juliet in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” decides to reinvent herself as a man to audition for Romeo and gets the part. The film’s lead actors and director are pictured above.

“Romeo is Juliet” is being produced by Indiana, co-produced by Capri Entertainment, and will be distributed in Italian theatres by Vision Distribution. The movie will start production in September.

Founded in 2005, Indiana over the ensuing...

Production in Italy has boomed in recent years, and so too have budgets and international investment.

Cast an eye over the titles vying for a Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival and one thing stands out – the number of Italian films in the main competition.

Six of the 23 films in the main competition are Italian, an increase from the usual three Italian titles that are programmed in the section. While the step change could be a result of the writers and actors’ strikes leading to fewer US productions making the trip to Venice, each of the selected...

Beta at MipTV has unveiled a visually dazzling first trailer for period drama “La Storia” that will be Italian pubcaster Rai’s biggest event show this year.

The sweeping eight-episode saga is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante – whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference – set during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath in Italy.

Dierected by Francesca Archibugi (“The Hummingbird”), the high-end show stars Italian A-list actor Jasmine Trinca – who last year was a member of the Cannes jury – as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution. The cast also comprises Asia Argento (“xXx – Triple X”), Elio Germano (“Leopardi”) and Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”).

Set mostly in Rome between 1940 and 1948 “La Storia” looks at fascism, World War II and Italy...

Italian director Daniele Luchetti, who most recently helmed the third season of Rai/HBO’s Elena Ferrante series “My Brilliant Friend,” is working on a new film titled “Confidenza” (“Trust”) toplining Elio Germano.

Luchetti previously directed Germano in the drama “Our Life” in a role that in 2015 won the actor top honors in Cannes.

Vision Distribution is launching sales on “Trust” at the European Film Market.

In “Trust” Germano plays a teacher in his forties named Pietro Vella who works in a rundown Roman high school. He strongly believes he can help students strive for a better future and Teresa, and bright and rebellious student, is totally taken with him and his lessons. Then, a few years later, they meet up again and get romantically entangled. Teresa insists they must share their deepest secrets to bond for life. But as soon as Pietro really opens up, the relationship ends.

“Trust...

Franz Rogowski stars in the film which is based on real events.

Italy’s True Colours is launching pre-sales at the EFM of Giorgio Diritti’s Italian-Swiss co-production Lubo, starring Franz Rogowski, for which it has acquired worldwide rights.

Now in post, Lubo is set on the eve of Second World War. Rogowski stars as a young Caucasian man of nomadic ethnicity called to serve in the Swiss army to defend the border with Austria from the threat of the Nazi army who hears his children have been taken away by the authorities and his wife killed in the scuffle.

Franz Rogowski stars in the film which is based on real events.

Italy’s True Colours is launching pre-sales at the EFM of Giorgio Diritti’s Italian-Swiss production Lubo, starring Franz Rogowski, for which it has acquired worldwide rights.

Now in post, Lubo is set on the eve of Second World War, Rogowski stars as a young Caucasian man of nomadic ethnicity called to serve in the Swiss army to defend the border with Austria from the threat of the Nazi army who hears his children have been taken away by the authorities and his wife killed in the scuffle.

The Film Circuit begins with Telluride, a small but perfect film festival in the mountains of Colorado as simultaneously Venice unfurls the films that will soon be released in the wonderful arthouse cinemas of Europe, followed closely by Toronto whose films foretell the coming year’s Oscars nominees. It is a very exciting time to be on the festival circuit.

And simultaneously with these great screenings are sidebars, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and all around great networking for filmmakers around the world.

Venezia 79 Competition

Il Signore Delle Formiche

Director Gianni Amelio

Main Cast Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardo Maltese, Sara Serraiocco / Italy / 134’

The Whale

Director Darren Aronofsky

Main Cast Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins / USA / 117’

White Noise

Director Noah Baumbach

Main Cast Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L. Benjamin and Lars Eidinger / USA / 136’

L’IMMENSITÀ

Director Emanuele Crialese

Main Cast Penélope Cruz, Luana Giuliani, Vincenzo Amato, Patrizio Francioni / Italy, France / 97’

Saint Omer

Director Alice Diop

Main Cast Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit / France / 123’

Blonde

Director Andrew Dominik

Main Cast Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher / USA / 166’

TÁR

Director Todd Field

Main Cast Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong / USA / 158’

Love Life

Director Kôji Fukada

Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’

Bardo, Falsa CRÓNICA De Unas Cuantas Verdades

Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Main Cast Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio / Mexico / 174’

Athena

Director Romain Gavras

Main Cast Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti / France / 97’

Bones And All

Director Luca Guadagnino

Main Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz / USA / 130’

The Eternal Daughter

Director Joanna Hogg

Main Cast Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies / UK, USA / 96’

Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)

Director Vahid Jalilvand

Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee / Iran / 126’

The Banshees Of Inisherin

Director Martin McDonagh

Main Cast Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan / Ireland, UK, USA / 109’

Argentina, 1985

Director Santiago Mitre

Main Cast Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski / Argentina, USA / 140’

Chiara

Director Susanna Nicchiarelli

Main Cast Margherita Mazzucco, Andrea Carpenzano, Carlotta Natoli, Paola Tiziana Cruciani, Luigi Lo Cascio / Italy, Belgium / 106’

Monica

Director Andrea Pallaoro

Main Cast Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Joshua Close / USA, Italy / 113’

Khers Nist (No Bears)

Director Jafar Panahi

Main Cast Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjeei, Mina Kavani, Reza Heydari / Iran / 107’

All The Beauty And The Bloodshed

Director Laura Poitras

USA / 117’

Un Couple

Director Frederick Wiseman

Main Cast Nathalie Boutefeu / France, USA / 64’

The Son

Director Florian Zeller

Main Cast Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Quarshie / UK / 124’

Les Miens

Director Roschdy Zem

Main Cast Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maïwenn, Rachid Bouchareb, Abel Jafrei, Nina Zem / France / 85’

Les Enfants Des Autres

Director Rebecca Zlotowski

Main Cast Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Callie Ferreira / France / 104’

Toronto is in spite of itself in a civilized sort of way in competition for the premieres with Venice, though the sequential festivals are serving different constituencies. Still, The Whale, for example is premiering in Venice and then traveling to TIFF.

TIFF Gala Presentations:

The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, produced and to be distributed in U.S. and actng as international sales agent A24.

TIFF says: “Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in Darren Aronofsky’s arrestingly intimate drama about a reclusive English professor struggling with personal relationships and self-acceptance, adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter.”

Alice, Darling by Mary Nighy

Also playing are Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy) in which Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway.

Black Ice(Hubert Davis) about Black hockey players facing systemic racism in the sport.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly) about man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. An Apple TV+ production.

Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky) is a frontier epic about an Ivy League drop-out as he travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams. Isa Altitude

The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories (Alice Winocour)Prisoner’s Daughter (Catherine Hardwicke)Raymond & Ray (Rodrigo García)Roost (Amy Redford)Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)The Son (Florian Zeller)The Swimmers (Sally El Hosaini)What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur)The Woman King(Gina Prince-Bythewood)

Special PRESENTATIONSAllelujah (Sir Richard Eyre)All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Blueback (Robert Connolly)The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Brother (Clement Virgo)Bros (Nicholas Stoller)Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham)Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)Chevalier (Stephen Williams)Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)Devotion (Jd Dillard)Driving (Madeleine Christian Carion)El Suplente (Diego Lerman)Empire of Light...

Oscar Wilde may be the most famous person to face imprisonment for being gay, but he wasn’t the only one to suffer under an archaic legal system. Set in 1960s Italy, Gianni Amelio’s expansive historical drama “Lord of The Ants” uncovers the story of Aldo Braibanti, an Italian playwright, poet, and director who faced imprisonment for a consensual relationship with a younger student. “Lord of The Ants” holds a mirror to this shameful chapter in Italian history, painting

The film opens on an intimate moment between the handsome and dignified Aldo (Luigi Lo Cascio) and beautiful Ettore (Leonardo Maltese). Glowing with adoration, Aldo and Ettore recite poetry to each other in an outdoor Roman movie theater, ensconced in each other’s brilliance. At another table a kind journalist named Ennio (Elio Germano) observes them with sensitivity. “Braibanti, the myrmecologist,” he points out to his cousin Grazie (Sara Serraiocco...

With Italy not being a nation typically associated with progressive views and attitudes regarding sexuality, it was reassuring to hear the largely local crowd at the “Lord of the Ants” press screening of the Venice Film Festival laugh at the preposterous words of an ultra-religious woman on screen talking about how she “cured” her son from homosexuality by sending him to a saint. Whether the scene was intended to provoke that reaction is another story.

Continue reading ‘Lord Of The Ants’ Review: Even Elio Germano Cannot Save This Plodding Historical Drama [Venice] at The Playlist.

Click here to read the full article.

Gianni Amelio’s chronicle of the persecution of Aldo Braibanti, Lord of the Ants (Il Signore delle Formiche), doesn’t avoid the propensity of many Italian period dramas for dense verbosity, with characters spouting great gobs of manicured prose. That’s perhaps especially the case since the protagonist was a poet, playwright and philosopher. But Amelio’s classical approach, and the dignified refusal of martyrdom in Luigi Lo Cascio’s lead performance, make this account of Braibanti’s controversial imprisonment for homosexuality in 1968 after a four-year trial a quietly stirring portrait of institutional intolerance.

The Braibanti case drew international attention in the wake of his conviction due to the number of influential public figures who spoke out against the travesty of justice — Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante, Marco Bellocchio and Umberto Eco among them.

What’s striking now about the courtroom...

Myrmecology is a study of science that looks at the life, society and hierarchy of ants. Early Myrmecologists believed that ant culture was utopian and thought by studying them in encased ant farms, they could find solutions to human problems. However, Gianni Amelio’s Italian post-wwii drama The Lord of the Ants (Il Signore Delle Formiche) flips this idea around. It examines why strict societies foster cultures of oppression where everyone must play their role or be punished.

The screenplay by Amelio, Federico Fava and Edoardo Petti chooses its dialogue with precision. They want us to know they resent post-Mussolini Europe and how not just homosexuals but anyone on the margins is oppressed under fascist rule.

Venice Film Festival: Deadline’s Full Coverage

In 1965 Rome, Aldo Braibanti (Luigi Lo Cascio) is caught sleeping with his young lover Ettore (Leonardo Maltese). Their relationship started a year earlier in small-town Italy, where Aldo was directing a play.

Gianni Amelio was in his late sixties when he came out as gay a few years ago. The announcement preceded the release of his documentary “Happy to Be Different,” which worked toward an overriding sunniness in contemplating the trials and challenges of being gay in Italy at various points in the 20th century. In turning to a gay-themed narrative project, Amelio narrows the focus and dims the mood: “Lord of the Ants” takes as its subject the gay Italian author Aldo Braibanti, and the social and legal opposition he faced over his sexuality in mid-1960s Rome. Solemn, stately and perhaps a little stifled, it’s the kind of queer statement you might expect from a veteran filmmaker who wasn’t until relatively recently out and proud, and is rather poignant for that.

In a key scene, the middle-aged Braibanti (played with urbane grace by Luigi Lo Cascio) takes his...

Prominent arthouse sales company The Match Factory has closed multiple sales on Italian auteur Gianni Amelio’s Venice competition title “Lord of the Ants” ahead of its Venice premiere on Tuesday.

The Match Factory has sealed deals on Amelio’s latest work – which is a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law – that will ensure the film’s theatrical release in Australia/New Zealand (Palace Films); Japan (Zazie Films); Spain (Surtsey Films); Sweden (TriArt Film) and Greece (Ama Films). Further deals are in negotiation, the company said.

Braibanti was convicted after a complaint from his partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality. The Fascist-era law that punished Braibanti, which made it a crime to lead innocent or unwary people “morally” astray,...

As Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera continues to see films and tinker with his selection before announcing the Lido lineup next week, several high-profile titles have emerged as either locked in or highly likely to be launching from the Lido.

As previously anticipated by Variety, U.S. studios and streamers are set to be disembarking at the fest in full force. Warner Bros. will be launching steamy psychological thriller “Don’t Worry Darling,” which is Olivia Wilde’s second directorial effort and stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. The pic is one of two movies starring the latter pop star to come out this fall (the other being Amazon Studios’ “My Policeman”).

Focus Features will be on the Lido with Todd Field’s “Tár,” which teams the “In the Bedroom” director with Cate Blanchett as the fictional Lydia Tár, one of the world’s greatest conductors and the first female...