All articles by Sheri Jennings – Page 16

  • News

    Rome to honour Al Pacino with Gold Marco Aurelio

    2008-08-01T15:50:00Z

    Al Pacino will receive career honours at the International Film Festival of Rome when the third edition unspools this October.Career honourees at the festival's first two editions include Sean Connery and Sophia Loren.The Gold Marco Aurelio honorary award will be given to Pacino, who will be on hand to take ...

  • News

    Venice Film Festival: Italian squad takes on rest of world

    2008-08-01T00:00:00Z

    The Italian flag will fly high over the Lido this year. Following a strong showing at Cannes, four local titles will screen in competition at the 65th Venice film festival, with the Italian industry out in force with 20 films.Artistic director Marco Mueller reportedly had to make an official request ...

  • News

    Mueller digs deep withVenice's worldly offerings

    2008-07-29T14:58:00Z

    Venice is aiming widefor its 65th edition,with artistic director Marco Mueller following up 2007's heavily English-language programme with a more geographically diverse, less star-drivenline-up of films from 18 countries. Notably lighter onUS features (and with none solely from the UK), this year's Lido line-up features two Japanese animation masters and ...

  • News

    Venice Days premieres include Aprahamian's Broken Lines

    2008-07-25T14:11:00Z

    Czech director Bohdan Slama's A Country Teacher (VenkovskyUcitel) will have its international premiere at this year's Venice Dayssidebar, which is heavy on European and Eastern European films in thisyear's edition.A Country Teacher, sold by Wild Bunch, tells the story of a brilliantprofessor who moves to the Bohemian countryside in order ...

  • News

    Venice Critics' Week to screen debut of Gomorrah co-writer

    2008-07-23T14:46:00Z

    The 23rd edition of Critics' Week, at the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival, will include seven world premieres in competition.The programme, unveiled today by the Italian FIlm Critic's Union, spans the globe from Turkey, Bosnia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, France, Italy and China. All are first films.Highlights include the debut ...

  • News

    Rome changes include new name: International Film Festival of Rome

    2008-07-11T14:09:00Z

    The Rome Film Fest's recently appointed president Gian Luigi Rondi has announcedsome significant changes to the event as it heads into its third year.The changes include sweeping away elements that differentiated the young city-oriented 'festa' from the Venice Film Festival and other major international film festivals. For example, Rome's populist ...

  • News

    Abdellatif Kechiche to lead debut film jury in Venice

    2008-07-08T14:35:00Z

    Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche will preside over the International Jury for the Luigi De Laurentiis Prize for a debut film at the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival, the Biennale said.Kechiche himself won the first feature prize at Venice in 2000 for his film Blame it on Voltaire. In ...

  • News

    Mikado puts increased attention on 'original' commerical films

    2008-07-08T12:56:00Z

    Italy's Mikado Film goes into the 2008 and early 2009 distribution season with a series of titles that reflect the company's auteur tradition - but which includes an increased investment in what CEO Alessandro Usai calls 'original' commercial films, as well as select Italian films aimed at un-tested markets here.Mikado's ...

  • News

    Ischia unveils heavy hitters for co-production roundtable

    2008-07-07T16:24:00Z

    Italy's Ischia Global Film and Music Festival will host a Global Production Summit in the sixth edition of the event, which runs July 13-20 on the island of Ischia near the Southern city of Naples.The summit will take place on July 18 with Producer Mark Canton (Spiderwick Chronicles, 300) to ...

  • News

    Brizzi to shoot third feature Ex later this month

    2008-07-07T10:43:00Z

    Director Fausto Brizzi will begin shooting his third feature, Ex, on July 15, his producer Federica Lucisano of Italian International Film (IIF) confirmed.A successful screenwriter-turned director, Brizzi became a local phenomenon when his debut feature Night Before Finals (Notte prima degli esami) earned $16m and became the top-grossing Italian debut ...

  • News

    Wim Wenders to lead Venice jury

    2008-06-27T16:14:00Z

    Director Wim Wenderswill lead the jury of the 65th Venice Film Festival, the biennale's board of directors has announced.Venice's artistic director Marco Mueller selected Wenders as the president of the jury in what will be a pivotal fifth year as Venice's artistic director and the beginning of his renewed four-year ...

  • News

    Italian industry bodies threaten festival boycott over film taxes

    2008-06-25T22:20:00Z

    Leading film industrybodies in Italyare threatening to pull Italian entries to the Venice, Rome and Turin film festivals if the country's new right-wing government abolishes tax credits promised in the 2008 national budget.The threat was including in a joint statement from motion picture organisation Anica, independent producers group Api and ...

  • News

    Eye Of The Sun takes Taormina honours

    2008-06-23T14:03:00Z

    Egyptian film maker Ibrahim El Batout's Eye Of The Sun (Ein Shams) won the Golden Tauro for best film atSicily's Taormina Film Festival.The film was part of the festival's main 'Mediterranean' competition section.Eye Of The Sun, El Batout's second film focuses on a taxi driver named Ramadan whose routes through ...

  • News

    Eagle Pictures reveals first slate since Ben Ammar takeover

    2008-06-20T10:32:00Z

    Eagle Pictures has announced the first titles to make up the 2008-2009 slate of the company since its take over last year by Franco-Tunisian financier Tarak Ben Ammar.Eagle Pictures head of acquisitions Maria Grazia Vairo told Screen the titles announced will be released in Italy, and in some cases will ...

  • News

    Rondi becomes president of Rome Film Fest

    2008-06-12T17:19:00Z

    Gian Luigi Rondi has become the new President of the Rome Film Fest after his candidature was voted unanimously by the fest's board of directors yesterday.Rondi is stepping in to lead the Fest after Goffredo Bettini, the Rome Fest's former president opted to cede the role as a means to ...

  • News

    Italian comedy master Dino Risi dies at age 91

    2008-06-08T19:30:00Z

    Film director Dino Risi, one of the fathers of the 'commedia all'italiana' (Italian comedy) genre that flourished in post-war Italy has died in Rome at the age of 91 after a long period of ill health.Risi's more than fifty films endeared him to Italians and foreign audiences for his talent ...

  • News

    Taormina lauds Turkish cinema, ramps up industry plans

    2008-06-04T14:00:00Z

    Turkish cinema and an industry initiative that aims at uniting international buyers and distributors with the Sicilian Film Commission are all on the agenda of the 54th Taormina Film Festival, under the artistic direction of Deborah Young for the second year.Additionally, Young's line up reflects the 'Mediterranean and beyond' format ...

  • News

    Rome Cinema Foundation's Bettini steps down

    2008-06-04T10:56:00Z

    Rome's Cinema Foundation president Goffredo Bettini has resigned from his role presiding over the Rome Film Fest, which will be ushering in its third edition Oct 21-31.In a wave of shake-ups that are effecting the culture sector here after Silvio Berlusconi's right wing government took over from Romani Prodi's left ...

  • News

    Cecchi Gori arrested in Rome in ongoing legal battles

    2008-06-04T10:44:00Z

    Oscar-winning film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori whose credits include Life is Beautiful and Cinema Paradiso is behind bars in at Rome's Regina Coeli prison after he was arrested late in the afternoon Tuesday as he returned to his Palazzo Borghese residence in the center of Rome.A spokesperson for Cecchi Gori ...

  • News

    Cinecitta Board resigns after Berlusconi changes

    2008-06-03T16:36:00Z

    Cinecitta Holding's board of directors has said they will resign in a unanimous inside decision that exiting President Alessandro Battisti said was motivated by Italy's change in government after April's national elections put Silvio Berlusconi back in power.As part of his new government, Berlusconi appointed Sandro Bondi Culture Minister. While ...