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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...

Timothée Chalamet will receive the David for Cinematic Excellence during the 70th edition of the David di Donatello Awards, Italy’s leading film prizes.

The honor will be conferred on May 7 during the awards ceremony, aired live in primetime on national broadcaster Rai 1 from the Cinecittà Studios in Rome. The event will be hosted by actor Elena Sofia Ricci and singer Mika. It will also be live on Rai Radio2, hosted by Carolina Di Domenico and Claudio Santamaria.

“Timothée Chalamet’s European origins and American background make him one of the most unpredictable and talented protagonists of international cinema today, capable of being both an auteur performer and a star generating trends and styles,” said Piera Detassis, president and artistic director of the Academy of Italian Cinema.

“The academy is delighted to award him the David for Cinematic Excellence, which is meant to be an acknowledgement of the great...

A collection of this year’s David-nominated short films will be available on Mubi starting May 8.Italian cinema never changes. Italian cinema speaks to no one. Italian cinema is dead. But are we sure about that?For the new season of the Mubi Podcast Italian Voices of today, created in collaboration with the David di Donatello Awards, we want to explore five key moments that marked a clear “before” and “after” in our cinema, moments that prove change is happening.We do this through conversations with the 2025 David nominees for Best Short Film, alongside five figures who have already made their mark on Italian cinema.In this episode, we meet Romana Maggiora Vergano, one of the most talented actresses of her generation, nominated last year for a David di Donatello award as Best Supporting Actress for There’s Still Tomorrow (2023) by Paola Cortellesi, and this year as Best Leading Actress for...

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...

Growing up surrounded by cinema and immersed in her father’s celebrated film career, Francesca Comencini found her early passion for the craft. In her adulthood, the acclaimed director has now crafted The Time It Takes, an intimate film reflecting on the profound influence of her renowned father, Luigi Comencini.

We meet Francesca as a young girl fascinated by the bustling energy of her father’s film sets. With natural ease, Luigi involves his daughter in the creative process, sharing his joy of storytelling. For Francesca, these early experiences ignite a lifelong love of cinema.

As she comes of age in turbulent times, Francesca struggles with finding purpose amid political unrest and social changes. She drifts away from the magic of film and into rebellion, until confronting personal demons with help from her stern yet compassionate father.

Crafted from a place of raw sincerity, The Time It Takes offers glimpses...

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.

Argentinian director, screenwriter and producer Pablo Trapero is to chair the jury of the Progressive Cinema Competition, the competition section of the Rome Film Festival.

Trapero will be joined on the Rome jury by editor Francesca Calvelli, French actress Laetitia Casta, UK producer Gail Egan, and writer and screenwriter Dennis Lehane.

Trapero won the Silver Lion for dest director at the 2015 Venice Film Festival for The Clan. His other directing credits include crime series ZeroZeroZero.

Meanwhile, a jury chaired by Italian director and screenwriter Francesca Comencini, will award Rome’s best first feature prize to a fiction feature film in...

Italy has selected Maura Delpero’s Venice Silver Lion winner Vermiglio as its entry for the best international feature Oscar.

Vermiglio won the Grand Jury Prize in Competition at Venice earlier this month. Set in 1944 in the Italian alpine village after which the film is named, it sees the arrival of a deserter soldier disrupt the life of the village teacher and his family, as the eldest daughter falls in love with him.

Producers on the film are Francesca Andreoli, Santiago Fondevila, Leonardo Guerra Seragnoli and Delpero, for Italy’s Cinedora with Rai Cinema, in co-production with France’s Charades...

Italy has selected Maura Delpero’s Venice Silver Lion winner Vermiglio as its entry for the best international feature Oscar.

Vermiglio won the Grand Jury Prize in Competition at Venice earlier this month. Set in 1944 in the Italian alpine village after which the film is named, it sees the arrival of a deserter soldier disrupt the life of the village teacher and his family, as the eldest daughter falls in love with him.

Producers on the film are Francesca Andreoli, Santiago Fondevila, Leonardo Guerra Seragnoli and Delpero, for Italy’s Cinedora with Rai Cinema, in co-production with France’s Charades...

Italy has selected Vermiglio to represent it in the Best International Feature Film category of the 97th Academy Awards.

The second feature from Maura Delpero, Vermiglio premiered in Competition at the Venice Film Festival, winning the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize.

At the time of the win, Delpero said she hoped the prize would put her in the frame to represent Italy in the Oscars, and now her wish has come true.

The picture takes its title from a mountain village in the Italian Alps, which was home to the director’s family for generations.

The drama opens in the village in 1944. Largely cut off from the war across Europe, the arrival of a deserted soldier will disrupt the life of the village teacher and his family as the eldest daughter falls for him, leading to an unexpected turn of fate.

Related: Best International Feature Film Oscar Winners Through The...

Charades has taken international sales rights to “Il tempo che ci vuole” (The Time It Takes), directed by Francesca Comencini. The film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the out of competition section.

“The Time It Takes” will be released in Italian theaters on Sept. 26 through 01 Distribution.

The film centers on a devoted father working in the film industry, who shares a deep bond with his young daughter. Together, they discover the magical world of childhood through the daughter’s eyes and the “Pinocchio” set he’s working on, “where chaos meets fantasy.”

The child becomes a young woman, and the state of enchanted limbo between father and daughter vanishes. She realizes that her childhood is slipping away, giving way to adolescence. The young woman starts taking drugs while hiding the truth from her father. Refusing to ignore the situation, the father confronts his daughter and decides to...

The Venice Film Festival will celebrate Italian production designer Paola Comencini with its Campari Passion for Film Award dedicated to film industry figures who, along with the director, contribute to excellence in creating cinematic art.

The long list of feature films and TV series on which Paola Comencini has served as production designer comprises Italy’s smash hit “There’s Still Tomorrow” directed by Paola Cortellesi, groundbreaking TV series “Romanzo Criminale,” and drama “Il tempo che ci vuole,” directed by her sister Francesca Comencini, that will launch from Venice out-of-competition.

The Venice statement described “Il tempo che ci vuole,” which pays homage to their father Luigi Comencini – the Italian master who made Oscar-nominated Cinema Italiano classic “Bread, Love and Dreams,” with Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio De Sica – as “a film in which the set design is not only a creative and accurate work but an incredible emotional journey.”

“Throughout her lengthy career as an architect,...

We’re just about five weeks away from the opening of the 81st Venice International Film Festival, the oldest such celebration of international cinema and the official kickoff to awards season in earnest. A gondola loaded with news about this year’s titles washed up on our shores this morning, and this year’s competition slate is packed.

It’s no surprise that Todd Phillips will bring his “Joker” sequel, “Joker: Folie à Deux,” back to the late-summer Italian event. The first dark comic book film won the top prize there in 2019, slapping a huge international halo on it released to the public, eventually netting Joaquin Phoenix the Best Actor Oscar, as well as a Best Original Score trophy for Hildur Guðnadóttir and nine other nominations, including Best Picture. The sequel, which was not a foregone conclusion when the first movie was made, but a Mack truck of Warner Bros....

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,...

Company is readying theatrical feature ’Everything We Ever Wanted’ directed by Francesca Comencini.

Cattleya, the Italian film and TV outfit company backed by ITV Studios, has teamed with writers Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli to launch a new outfit called Dedalus.

Cattleya has previously worked with Fasoli and Ravagli on series such as Gomorrah, ZeroZeroZero, The Immortal and Django.

Dedalus, which will develop and produce films and television series, is working on Francesca Comencini’s feature Everything We Ever Wanted, billed as a a story of love and friendship within the Neapolitan mob, set during two different time periods.

Comencini...

Company is readying theatrical feature ’Everything We Ever Wanted’ directed by Francesca Comencini.

ITV Studios-backed Italian production outfit Cattleya has teamed with writers Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli to co-found Dedalus.

Rome-based Cattleya has previously worked with Fasoli and Ravagli on shows such as Gomorrah, ZeroZeroZero, The Immortal and Django.

Dedalus, which will develop and produce films and television series, is working on theatrical feature Everything We Ever Wanted, billed as a a story of love and friendship amidst a mid-seventies Neapolitan mob, set during two different time periods and directed by Francesca Comencini, whose credits include 2012 Venice competition...

Gomorrah writers Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli have launched an ITV Studios-backed Italian indie with Cattleya, as ITV Studios unveils a second season of My Mum, Your Dad UK with Mipcom Cannes kicking off.

The new outfit, Dedalus, is aiming to develop and produce films and television series by building on the approach already seen in the collaboration between Cattleya and Fasoli – Ravagli to date. It said it will “foreground the role of research and innovation alongside that of the writers’ full engagement throughout the creative process.”

Dedalus is already working on two projects: Everything We Ever Wanted, a theatrical feature about a story of love and friendship amidst a mid-seventies Neapolitan mob, set during two different time periods and directed by Francesca Comencini. The second project, Erba, a television series based on one of Italy’s most disturbing crime stories, will look carefully at the context in which...

ITV Studios-owned Italian production company Cattleya is joining forces with Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli, Italian writers whose credits include such cross-over TV series as Gomorrah, ZeroZeroZero and Django to launch Dedalus, a new production company which will develop drama projects for the big and small screens.

Dedalus has two projects far along in the pipeline: Everything We Ever Wanted, a theatrical feature about love and friendship set against the world of the 1970s Neopolitan mafia, which Francesca Comencini (Django) will direct; and Erba, a TV series inspired by a horrific crime — the brutal murders of a family of four by their seemingly-ordinary middle-aged neighbors — that shocked Italy in December 2006.

“Over the years we have formed a special bond with Leonardo and Maddalena, based on a unique way of working together which actively involves them at every stage of our shared projects,” said Cattleya founder Riccardo Tozzi, who announced...

New projects from Cherien Dabis, Anders Thomas Jensen and Ameer Fakher Eldin have also been awarded

Ariane Labed’s feature-directing debut Sisters is among the 33 projects to receive funding from Eurimages second wave of 2023 co-production funding.

The French-Greek actor’s feature directing debut received €350,000 from the €9.7m pot. The Ireland, UK, Germany and Greece co-production is produced by Ireland’s Element Pictures. An English-language adaptation of Daisy Johnson’s gothic novel of the same name it follows two sisters who move to the countryside with their maniac depressive mother. Labed previously directed short film Olla which won three awards at...

Arte France Cinéma have come onboard in a co-producer capacity for upcoming projects by Jonathan Millet, veteran Italian filmmaker Francesca Comencini and the Larrieu Bros. All of these projects should premiere on the film fest circuit in 2024.

Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu are working on a book to film project titled Le roman de Jim. A 25 year spanning film, production has already begun with the likes of Sara Forestier, Bertrand Belin, Karim Leklou and Sara Giraudeau. Millet’s Les Fantômes (which we reported on back in November) will be the first film to move into production – and it has actors Adam Bessa and Tawfeek Barhom signed on for a July to September film production.…...

Italian writer, journalist and political commentator Roberto Saviano is due to head to court in Rome on Tuesday (November 15) for the first hearing in a defamation trial brought against him by Italy’s newly installed, right-wing prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

The case is related to an incident that took place prior to Meloni taking the reins of power in Italy in October.

Meloni is suing Saviano over comments he made on the current affairs show Piazza Pulita in December 2020, during a discussion about the phenomenon of asylum seekers arriving on Italian shores via small boats or charity ships that rescue them from the sea, in which he referred to her as a “bastard” for her hard-line, anti-immigrant stance.

The judge charged with a preliminary investigation into the case ruled that the “epithet bastard” had gone “beyond the rights of political criticism” and gave the green light for the trial.

The...

Click here to read the full article.

Django is back.

The coffin-dragging, quick-draw gunslinger character introduced in Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 Spaghetti Western classic, which inspired dozens of sequels, spinoffs and tributes, most famously Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, has finally arrived on the small screen.

Sky’s 10-episode Django, which has its world premiere at the Rome Film Festival on Sunday, Oct. 16, is billed as a reimagining not just of Django, but of the Western genre itself.

Set, like the original film, in the period after the American Civil War, the series combines plot elements from both Django and its official 1987 sequel Django Strikes Again, themes from Tarantino’s film — particularly the role of Black people and freed slaves in old West — as well as adding several original ideas of its own. Even Django’s famous weapons-packed coffin makes an appearance, though in a very different setting than the original.

Matthias Schoenaerts has been cast opposite Kate Winslet in HBO’s limited series The Palace, from Succession duo Will Tracy and Frank Rich and The Queen director Stephen Frears.

The Palace tells the story of one year within the walls of the palace of an authoritarian regime as it begins to unravel.

Tracy, a writer and producer on the Brian Cox-fronted HBO drama, will serve as showrunner, writer and exec producer. Frears will direct and executive produce. Winslet also executive produces with Frank Rich and Tracey Seaward.

The Palace will include a writing team of Seth Reiss, a writer on Late Night with Seth Meyers and former head writer for The Onion, Juli Weiner, who has written on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Jen Spyra, a writer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Gary Shteyngart, who has written for The New Yorker and is the author of...

‘Power Of The Dog’ Producer Tanya Seghatchian To Lead London Film Festival Jury

Film producer Tanya Seghatchian has been announced as the jury president for the Official Competition of the 66th BFI London Film Festival, running from October 5 – 16. Seghatchian will be joined by British actor Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), filmmaker and playwright Kemp Powers (One Night in Miami), filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane (The Disciple), and journalist Charles Gant. The jury will award the festival’s Best Film Award.

Luc Besson, James Gray, Gabe Polsky Booked For Rome’s Talks Program

Luc Besson, Gabe Polsky, James Gray, Stephen Frears and Mario Martone will be among the filmmakers setting down at the Rome Film Festival (Oct 13-23) for its two new talk sections Paso Doble and Absolute Beginners.

French filmmaker Besson will kick off the new Absolute Beginners devoted to directors speaking about their experiences on their first features.

An English-language reimagining of the world of Sergio Corbucci’s cult 1966 spaghetti western “Django,” which launched the career of Italian icon Franco Nero, is set to launch from the Rome Film Festival in October.

The high–concept TV series, titled “Django,” will play in 2023 exclusively on Sky and its streaming service Now in all countries where Sky operates, including the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria. It will also air on Canal+ in France, Switzerland, Benelux and Africa. The Rome Film Festival runs from Oct. 13-23.

The 10-episode “Django” show stars Matthias Schoenaerts as the iconic gunman who is the title character, alongside Nicholas Pinnock (“For Life”) as John Ellis, described as the “visionary founder” of the town of New Babylon. Lisa Vicari (“Dark”) plays Django’s daughter Sarah and Noomi Rapace (Millennium Trilogy) has the adversarial role of John’s powerful and ruthless enemy Elizabeth Thurman.

In a...

Italian actor and director Valeria Golino is set to make her debut as a TV series director with “The Art of Joy,” an erotically charged female empowerment drama set in early 20th-century Sicily and produced by Sky Studios.

Golino’s high-end period skein about a Sicilian young woman named Modesta, born into an impoverished family in early 1900 and driven by a strong belief that she’s destined for a better life, was announced during a Sky Italy presentation in Rome where the pay-tv operator unveiled its upcoming lineup of 60 Italian originals – series and films – for 2022, most of which have been already announced.

The presentation’s standout, revealed for the first time, is “The Art of Joy,” which is based on an epic, and highly erotic, feminist novel by the late Italian author and actor Goliarda Sapienza.

“Art of Joy” has been a longtime passion project for Golino, who was very...

The latest batch of Italian TV series for the international market is a mix of genres spanning from a new Elena Ferrante adaptation made for Netflix, to two Rai reconstructions of the country’s terrorism-plagued past and Sky’s spaghetti Western “Django.”

Django

This English-language reimagining of the world of “Django,” the cult 1966 Sergio Corbucci spaghetti Western that launched the career of Italian icon Franco Nero, is a Sky Studios and Canal Plus original. The show’s cast includes Noomi Rapace, Nicholas Pinnock and Matthias Schoenaerts. Director Francesca Comencini has called it “a universal story with a narrative that celebrates diversity and minorities.”

Esterno Notte

Marco Bellocchi is in post on this limited TV series from Rai Fiction about the 1978 kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by Red Brigades terrorists. The veteran helmer previously recounted Moro’s still-mysterious abduction from the viewpoint of one of his...

The Italian TV industry is chugging along seemingly undeterred by the pandemic’s impact, with local producers expected to churn out an estimated €500 million ($585 million) worth of scripted content in 2021 compared with $409 million in 2018.

Italy’s mini-boom, which is largely due to a rise in commissions from streamers, is happening just as the country’s production companies are snapped up by larger non-Italian groups amid a wave of media and entertainment industry consolidation in Europe.

In September, production and distribution giant Fremantle, owned by German group Rtl, entered exclusive negotiations to gain control of Italy’s Lux Vide, the TV production company behind the “Medici,” “Devils” and “Leonardo” skeins, which have travelled widely. Fremantle already owns two other top Italian production companies: Wildside and the Apartment, which are behind Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Young Pope” skein and Luca Guadagnino’s “We Are Who We Are.”

Lux is now poised to...

An awaited English-language reimagining of Sergio Corbucci’s classic 1966 Western, a favorite of Quentin Tarantino, major European series “Django” has released first-look images as its six-month shoot continues in Romania.

Studiocanal, which has worldwide distribution rights, has also drilled down on key creative talent, announcing Friday that David Evans (“Downton Abbey”) and Enrico Maria Artale (“Romulus”) are joining Francesca Comencini (“Gomorrah The Series”) in the directors’ team, with Comencini helming first episodes.

First look images show Matthias Schoenaerts – who has sparked consistently strong notices for his performances in “The Danish Girl,” “The Mustang,” “Bullhead” and “Rust and Bone” – as the eponymous Django.

Famed for “Prometheus” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Noomi Rapace, seen mounted on a horse, plays Elizabeth who is described as a “powerful and merciless enemy” of John Ellis (Nicholas Pinnock), caught in a Wild West bar, who founds with fiancee Sarah New Babylon, a city of outcasts which welcomes everyone,...

Prolific Italian director Francesca Comencini is set to make a personal feature film that will pay homage to her father Luigi Comencini, the Italian master who made Oscar-nominated Cinema Italiano classic “Bread, Love and Dreams,” with Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio De Sica.

Francesca’s film, with the working title “First Life, Then Cinema,” is being developed by Kavac Film, the Rome-based shingle of veteran Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio. Bellocchio is being honored in Cannes with a Lifetime Achievement honorary Palme d’Or on July 17.

Bellocchio’s partner in Kavac, producer Simone Gattoni, will be shopping the Comencini project in Cannes.

Best-known for a slew of post-war Commedia all’Italiana hit comedies — including 1972’s “Lo Scopone Scientifico” in which Bette Davis plays an aging millionaire opposite Alberto Sordi — Luigi also ventured into neorealism with, among other titles, “Misunderstood,” which screened in the 1967 Cannes competition, one of the director’s many films concerning the plight of children.

Monte-Carlo TV Festival Unveils Competition Lineup

The Monte-Carlo Television Festival has signaled its intention to host an in-person event on June 18-22 by announcing its competition lineup. Some 27 programs from 14 countries have been officially selected to compete, with winners announced at the Golden Nymph Awards Ceremony on June 22 at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco. The nominees include Keshet series Line In The Sand and HBO Max/Channel 4’s AIDS crisis drama It’s A Sin. The full lineup can be found here. Laurent Puons, CEO of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, said: “We have wide-ranging and exceptional global content nominated for Golden Nymph Awards. The number of programs participating in the competition, shows the ever-growing interest of productions and talent to claim this trophy, a timeless symbol of internationally recognized quality. This enthusiasm confirms that our event remains the pre-eminent Festival in Europe.”

‘Outlander’s Lauren Lyle Joins ITV’s ‘Karen Pirie...

Noomi Rapace and Nicholas Pinnock are joining Matthias Schoenaerts in the star cast of “Django,” an English-language reimagining of Sergio Corbucci’s classic 1966 Western. Set in the Wild West of the 1860s and ’70s, the project marks one of the biggest high-end European series of 2021.

Star of “Prometheus,” “Sherlock Holmes” and “What Happened to Monday,” Sweden’s Rapace will play Elizabeth, who is described as a powerful and merciless enemy of John Ellis. Along with his fiancee Sarah, John Ellis is the founder of New Babylon, a city of outcasts which welcomes everyone from any background, race or creed.

British actor Pinnock — whose credits include movies such as “The Last Tree” and “Dark Encounter” as well as popular TV dramas “Counterpart,”“Fortitude,” “Marcella and “For Life” — takes the key role of John Ellis. Schoenaerts (“Bullhead”) plays the titular role of Django.

German on-the-rise star Lisa Vicari, Martha Nielsen in “Dark,...

The fourth season of HBO Max’s “Gomorrah” will premiere in the United States on Thursday, May 20. IndieWire is exclusively revealing the trailer for the upcoming season, which can be viewed below.

The Season 4 synopsis reads:

The new season clearly turns the spotlight on Genny (Salvatore Esposito), the lone Savastano dynasty survivor: a character who has shed countless skins in the process of morphing from Don Pietro’s spoiled brat into family boss, husband, and father. In fact, the new season sees him on his best behavior precisely for the sake of Azzurra (Ivana Lotito) and little Pietro: with his own family to protect and an activity to reboot, he feels the need for a major life change, committing to legit business while sneaking out, as best he can, from the world his father had him grow up in.

His interests in Naples are now entrusted to Patrizia (Cristiana Dell’Anna) who,...

HBO Max released a trailer for Season 4 of “Gomorrah,” which launches on May 20.

The new season focuses on Genny, who, in order to protect his family, commits to legit business and tries to escape the world in which his father raised him.

“Gomorrah” stars Salvatore Esposito, Ivana Lotito, Cristiana Dell’Anna, Arturo Muselli and Loris De Luna.

Based on the book by Roberto Saviano, “Gomorrah” is executive produced by Riccardo Tozzi, Gina Gardini, Giovanni Stabilini, Marco Chimenz, Nils Hartman and Sonia Rovai. The series is developed by Saviano and Stefano Bises, alongside Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli, who also serve as writers with Enrico Audenino and Monica Zapelli. The fourth season is directed by Claudio Cupellini, Marco D’Amore, Enrico Rosati, Ciro Visco and Francesca Comencini, who is also the artistic supervisor.

Also in today’s TV news roundup:

First Looks

PBS released a trailer for “Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten,...

The 10-part series will begin production in May.

Matthias Schoenaerts will take on the title role in Django, a new Western series from Canal+ and Sky that will head into production in May 2021.

The 10 x one-hour episode English-language series will be produced by Italian independent company Cattleya and France’s Atlantique Productions, as a Canal+ Création Originale and Sky Original title.

It will be broadcast on Canal+ channels in France, Benelux and Africa and on Sky services in Italy, the UK, Ireland, Austria and Germany. Studiocanal holds worldwide distribution rights.

The series was created and written by Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli,...

Canal Plus and Sky Studios have teamed up on Spaghetti Western TV series “Django” with production set to start in May and Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts (“Bullhead”) in the title role.

Co-produced by Italy’s Cattleya, which is controlled by ITV, and France’s Atlantique Productions, “Django” is being described as a high-concept English-language reimagining of the world of “Django,” the cult 1966 Sergio Corbucci Western that launched the career of Italian icon Franco Nero, but with the grit and edginess of today’s premium TV.

The series’ executive producers include Riccardo Tozzi for Cattleya and Olivier Bibas for Atlantique.

The ten-episode show is set in the Wild West in the 1860s and 1870s. “Sarah and John have founded New Babylon, a city of outcasts, full of men and women of all backgrounds, races and creeds, that welcomes everyone with open arms,” reads the synopsis.

“Haunted by the murder of his family eight years earlier,...

The Danish Girl and Bullhead actor Matthias Schoenaerts has been cast in the title role of an ambitious Sky and Canal+ reimagining of classic Italian spaghetti western, Django.

The high-concept English-language series is loosely based on Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 feature, and is being made by Cattleya, the ITV Studios-backed company behind Gomorrah. France’s Atlantique Productions is also producing.

The story is set in the Wild West in the 1860s and 1870s. Sarah and John have founded New Babylon, a city of outcasts, full of men and women of all backgrounds, races and creeds, that welcomes everyone with open arms.

Haunted by the murder of his family eight years earlier, Django is still looking for his daughter, believing she may have survived the killing. He is shocked to find her in New Babylon, about to marry John.

But Sarah, now a grown woman, wants Django to leave, as she...

The Venice Film Festival, which reinvigorated the fall festival season with a physical event that began on September 2 in Italy, concluded on Saturday with its annual awards ceremony. See the full list of winners and watch the live stream below.

Led by president Cate Blanchett, the jurors for the main competition included Austrian director Veronika Franz, British filmmaker Joanna Hogg (“The Souvenir”), Italian writer and novelist Nicola Lagioia, German filmmaker Christian Petzold, actor Matt Dillon (“Crash”), and French actress Ludivine Sagnier.

Together, they awarded the festival’s top prizes, including the Golden Lion, which last year went to “Joker” under jury president Lucrecia Martel. This year’s Golden Lion went to “Nomadland,” which received a rapturous reception out of the Toronto International Film Festival as well this week, and looks to be headed straight for Oscar contention.

Meanwhile, in the Orizzonti, or Horizons, section running parallel to the main competition,...

As the Venice Film Festival ramps up for its 77th (and in-person!) run on September 2, now’s the time to peruse the lineup for the discoveries that will pop, especially in a festival season without many new major movies. One such discovery is the film from Kazakhstan “Yellow Cat,” set for the Horizons section dedicated to edgier fare looking to break out. IndieWire shares the exclusive first trailer for the film, which is directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov. Check it out below.

It’s no coincidence that the music in the trailer sounds a lot like Carl Orff’s “Gassenhauer,” the theme for Terrence Malick’s debut “Badlands.” Like that film, “Yellow Cat” follows lovers on the lam, running from a criminal background but still entangled in all sorts of misadventures. The story centers on ex-con Kermek (Azamat Nigmanov) and his beloved Eva (Kamila Nugmanova), who want to give up their...

In a fraught years for film festivals, some good news: the Venice Film Festival, one of the world’s starriest annual film events — and one that has previously resisted pressure to program more female filmmakers — has nearly reached gender parity with its competition lineup. This year’s festival will host eight films directed by women in its highest-profile section, where they will compete for the Golden Lion. Only four women have won the prize since the festival started in 1932, with Sofia Coppola as the most recent winner for “Somewhere” in 2010. The other past winners were Mira Nair, Margarethe von Trotta, and Agnès Varda.

The 2020 festival will play home to new films from a variety of the industry’s top female directors, including Chloe Zhao, Mona Fastvold (“The World to Come”), Emma Dante (“Le Sorelle Macaluso”), Nicole Garcia (“Lovers”), Susanna Nicchiarelli (“Miss Marx”), Malgorzata Szumowska (“Never Gonna Snow Again”), Julia Von Heinz...

While the coronavirus pandemic has canceled major festivals such as Cannes and Telluride, the 2020 Venice Film Festival is moving ahead as planned and will be the world’s first major film festival since Sundance and Berlin at the start of the year. Venice 2020’s main selection will be split into three sections: Venezia 77 (aka the main competition), Out of Competition, and Horizons. The titles selected for the main competition will compete for the Golden Lion, which was awarded last year to Todd Phillips’ “Joker.”

As previously announced, Daniele Luchetti’s drama “Lacci” will open the 77th Venice Film Festival on September 2. The movie is the first Italian title to open Venice in 11 years. The last Italian opener was Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Baarìa” at the 2009 festival. “Lacci” is included in this year’s Out of Competition section. Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider” follow-up “Nomadland” was also confirmed for a world premiere...

Cate Blanchett will preside over this year’s Venice competition jury.

UK filmmaker Joanna Hogg, Austria’s Veronika Franz, Germany’s Christian Petzold, Romanian director Cristi Puiu, French actress Ludivine Sagnier and Italian writer Nicola Lagioia will comprise the main competition jury for this year’s Venice International Film Festival (September 2-12)

They join previously announced jury president Cate Blanchett.

French filmmaker Claire Denis will preside over the Orizzonti jury, which also includes Spanish directors Oskar Alegria and Italy’s Francesca Comencini; US producer Christine Vachon and Israeli producer Katriel Schory, the former executive director of the Israel Film Fund...

The Venice Film Festival is setting up quite the internationally starry jury this year. Running September 2-12, the festival has revealed all its jury members as led by president Cate Blanchett. Joining her will be Austrian director Veronika Franz, British filmmaker Joanna Hogg (“The Souvenir”), Italian writer and novelist Nicola Lagioia, German filmmaker Christian Petzold, Romanian director Cristi Puiu, and French actress Ludivine Sagnier.

Together, they will award the festival’s top prizes, including the Golden Lion, which last year went to “Joker” under jury president Lucrecia Martel.

Meaning, in the Orizzonti, or Horizons, section running parallel to the main competition, French favorite Claire Denis will lead the jury comprised of Oskar Alegria (Spain), Francesca Comencini (Italy), Katriel Schory (Israel), and Christine Vachon (USA).

Heading the jury for the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film are Claudio Giovannesi (Italy) as president, Remi Bonhomme (France), and Dora Bouchoucha...

The 77th Venice Film Festival (September 2 – 12) has revealed all jury members, with Competition jury president Cate Blanchett joined by Austrian director Veronika Franz (Goodnight Mommy), Brit filmmaker Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir), Italian writer Nicola Lagioia, German filmmaker Christian Petzold (Barbara), Romanian director Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu) and French actress Ludivine Sagnier (La Vérité).

The Orizzonti jury will be presided over by French director Claire Denis (High Life), and comprise Oskar Alegria (Spain), Francesca Comencini (Italy), Katriel Schory (Israel) and Christine Vachon (USA).

The selectors of the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film are Claudio Giovannesi (Italy) as president, Remi Bonhomme (France) and Dora Bouchoucha (Tunisia).

The festival’s Venice Virtual Reality jury will be headed by Celine Tricart as president (USA), and also include Asif Kapadia (Great Britain) and Hideo Kojima (Japan).

The festival, the first major physical film get-together since the pandemic struck earlier this year,...

The Venice Film Festival has revealed the rosters of its main juries — a move that indicates organizers expect a robust contingent of top international talent and industry executives to make the trek to the Lido for the fest’s planned physical edition in September.

The U.K.’s Joanna Hogg (“The Souvenir”), Germany’s Christian Petzold (“Undine”) and Romania’s Cristi Puiu (“Sieranevada”) are among the directors who will join the fest’s main jury, over which Cate Blanchett will preside, as previously announced.

Austrian auteur Veronika Franz (“The Lodge”), Italian writer Nicola Lagioia and French actor Ludivine Sagnier round out the Europe-centric main competition jury.

Meanwhile, French director, screenwriter and actor Claire Denis, whose “White Material” premiered in Venice in 2018, will oversee the jury for Venice’s more cutting-edge Horizons section.

Joining Denis on the Horizons jury are U.S. producer Christine Vachon, best known for shepherding Todd Haynes’ “Far From Heaven,...

Netflix and Un Women have launched the “Because She Watched” collection of series, documentaries, and films created for the upcoming International Women’s Day.

The collection, which will be available all year, is curated by female creators from behind and in front of the camera, including Sophia Loren, Salma Hayek, Yalitza Aparicio, Millie Bobby Brown, Laurie Nunn, Lana Condor, Petra Costa and Ava DuVernay. It includes “Orange Is the New Black,” “Marriage Story,” “Bird Box,” “Silence of the Lambs,” “House of Cards,” “Queer Eye,” “The Crown,” “Gravity,” “Roma” and “Paris Is Burning.”

“This collaboration is about taking on the challenge of telling women’s stories and showing women in all their diversity. It’s about making visible the invisible, and proving that only by fully representing and including women on screen, behind-the-camera and in our narratives overall, society will truly flourish,” said Anita Bhatia, Un Women Deputy Executive Director.

International...

The Berlinale in recent years has been a prime launching pad for Italian films directed by women, which though fewer in number to their male counterparts, make up a considerable portion of the country’s representation on the festival circuit — Alice Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro”) at Cannes, Susanna Nicchiarelli (“Nico”) at Venice, and Berlin regular Laura Bispuri (“Daughter of Mine”) are all festival faves.

Here is a compendium of new and upcoming Italian films and TV series directed by women including two (out of nine Italian titles overall) in Berlin this year.

“Ordinary Justice”

This first feature by Chiara Bellosi, who previously made several docs, looks at a day in a Turin courthouse where the lives of two women and a young girl on opposite sides of a murder case intersect. In Berlin, Generation 14Plus.

“Faith”

An observational doc by Valentina Pedicini is about a reclusive spiritual sect of kung...

Produced by Fandango, the new six-part series is directed by Francesca Comencini, Susanna Nicchiarelli and Paola Randi and is set to be released in early 2020. Shooting wrapped yesterday, 15 July, on Black Moon, the new, original Italian series bearing the name of Netflix and revolving around the witchhunts unleased in Italy in the seventeenth century. Directed by a trio of talented directors: Francesca Comencini (Stories of Love That Cannot Belong to this World and director of the TV series Gomorrah), Susanna Nicchiarelli and Paola Randi (Little Tito and the Aliens), and produced by Fandango, the fantasy genre series consists of six episodes which will be available to view on Netflix - in the 190 countries where the platform operates - from the beginning of 2020. Based on Tiziana Triana’s novel intitled “Le città perdute. Luna nera” [The Lost Cities. Black Moon], the first volume in a trilogy,...