city Venice, county Day: Last News

Thanks to interviews with Olivia Wilde about her upcoming sophomore feature “Don’t Worry Darling,” actor Shia LeBeouf is back in the news.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor MPM Premium has picked up Cláudia Varejão’s queer coming-of-age drama “Wolf and Dog” (Lobo e cão), which has its world premiere in Venice Days, a sidebar to the Venice Film Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer. The film centers on Ana, who was born in São Miguel, an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, ruled by religion and traditions. She is the middle child of a family of three, growing up with her mother and grandmother. As she grew up, Ana realized that girls and boys were given different tasks. Through her friendship with Luis, her queer best friend who loves dresses as much as pants, Ana questions the world that is promised to her. When her friend Cloé arrives from Canada, Ana embarks on a journey that will take her beyond her limited horizons.

Abel Ferrara has had several premieres of his films at the Venice Film Festival over the years. Now, Variety reports that Ferrara is back again this year with “Padre Pio,” one of the highlights of the Venice Days lineup announced today.

Abel Ferrera has had several premieres of his films at the Venice Film Festival over the years. Now, Variety reports that Ferrera is back again this year with “Padre Pio,” one of the highlights of the Venice Days lineup announced today.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAbel Ferrara’s “Padre Pio,” starring Shia LaBeouf as an Italian monk who gained rock-star status among the Catholic faithful, is among the titles set to launch from the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Giornate Degli Autori.The section, also known as Venice Days, will see LaBeouf back on the big screen after the actor — best known for his roles in the Transformers and Indiana Jones franchises — took a break from acting in 2020 following allegations made by his ex-girlfriend Tahliah Debrett Barnett. The singer, known as FKA twigs, sued the actor for sexual battery, assault and emotional distress.It is not yet known whether LaBeouf will be on the Lido to promote “Padre Pio.” In the latest film by Ferrara, who is known for cult classics such as “Bad Lieutenant,” LaBeouf puts in what Giornate chief Gaia Furrer called an “extraordinary” performance as the “mystic and feverish” Capuchin monk born in the late 19th century in a small Southern Italian town.

Christopher Vourlias Bogdan George Apetri’s “Miracle” took home the top prize in the Romanian Days competition at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, which saw nine first-time directors among the 12 filmmakers competing in the annual showcase of domestic cinema.It’s the first time such a formidable number of debuts have featured in the competition, offering a snapshot of what the fest’s artistic director Mihai Chirilov describes as a “balanced landscape” of new and established voices in Romania’s celebrated film industry.It’s been nearly two decades since Cristi Puiu’s “The Death of Mr.

UK LGBTQ+-focused distributor Peccadillo Pictures has claimed that Amazon Prime Video UK is refusing to make Canadian artist and filmmaker Bruce LaBruce’s provocative dark comedy Saint-Narcisse available on its online store.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentSpecialty U.S. distributors Uncork’d Entertainment and Dark Star Pictures have acquired Italian director Pasquale Marrazzo’s LGBTQ drama “The Neighbor” for release in North America from Rome-based Coccinelle Film Sales.“The Neighbor” (which is titled “Hotel Milano” in Italy) is about two young men who are in love but get bullied by a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads that makes their life impossible as hatred and intolerance seeps into the rapport between their respective families.It’s the fifth feature written and directed by Marrazzo whose debut “South of the Sun” launched from Toronto’s Discovery section in 2001.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAlmost two weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s film industry continues to parse the complexities of a boycott on Russian cinema in order to express solidarity with the Ukrainian film community.While some film festivals, such as Stockholm and Glasgow, haven’t hesitated in boycotting Russian state-funded films outright, others like Cannes and Venice are taking a more nuanced approach, banning official delegations, but not necessarily Russian films and directors.The war’s more immediate effect, however, is that Ukrainian cinema is set to gain an increased visibility in the festival arena and beyond.On Monday evening, Rome’s Cinema Troisi hosted a free screening in collaboration with the Venice Film Festival of Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasynovych’s “Reflection” (pictured), set during the war in Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, in 2014. The film, which premiered in competition on the Lido last September, “asks, with brutal austerity, what happens to the soul of a man — and a nation — at war,” as critic Jessica Kiang put it in her Variety review.The Rome event, introduced by Venice Biennale president Roberto Cicutto, is being followed by other screenings of “Reflection,” organized by the fest in Italy.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe trailer for Gu∂mundur Arnar Gu∂mundsson’s teen drama “Beautiful Beings” has debuted ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday. The film, which plays in Panorama, is being sold by Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales.

Naman Ramachandran “Drive My Car” filmmaker Hamaguchi Ryusuke, director Karim Ainouz (Berlin-winner “Central Airport THF”) and actor Connie Nielsen (“Wonder Woman”) will join president M. Night Shyamalan on the international jury of the Berlin Film Festival.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired U.S. and Canadian  distribution rights to Aly Muritiba’s “Private Desert” (“Deserto Particular”) Brazil’s International Feature Oscar submission and a love story hailed for its large sensibility as well as political point.The deal was negotiated with the film’s world sale agent, Rome-based Intramovies.

Jeffrey Sipe Every now and then, a country emerges from decades of oppression and a film industry, once squashed lest it tell truths uncomfortable for the powers that be, begins to blossom with new, unfettered voices.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Madeleine Collins,” a psychological thriller with “Benedetta” star Virginie Efira, has been sold by Charades in major territories. The movie world premiered at Venice Days and played at San Sebastian.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentIn Italian director Francesco Lettieri’s “Lovely Boy,” which is the closing film of Venice’s independently run Venice Days section, a rising star of Rome’s never before depicted trap music scene gets sucked into a spiral of self-destruction.“Lovely Boy” is the sophomore feature by Lettieri, who made his debut with “Ultras,” a drama about Neapolitan soccer hooligans that plays worldwide on Netflix.Both “Ultras” and “Lovely Boy” were lead produced by Rome’s Indigo Film, best known as the shingle behind Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty.”The Rome-set pic tells the story of Nic, aka Lovely Boy, a talented trapper who has a tattoo on his face and performs in tandem with his friend

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentDina Amer, an Egyptian-American filmmaker and award-winning journalist, explores the roots of radicalization through a contemporary coming-of-age story in her bold feature debut “You Resemble Me,” which world premieres today at the Venice Film Festival.“You Resemble Me” delivers a nuanced character study of Hasna Aït Boulahcen, the troubled young woman who became connected to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris and was erroneously believed to be Europe’s first female suicide bomber.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a first clip from You Resemble Me, the debut feature of NY-based Egyptian-American director Dina Amer which has its world premiere in the Venice Days section of the Venice Film Festival this week.

Naman Ramachandran Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s debut feature, “Labour of Love,” bowed at Venice Days in 2014 where it won the Fedeora Award for best director of a debut film, en route to winning several international awards and at home in India. He’s back on the Lido with “Once Upon a Time in Calcutta,” his third feature, which screens in the Horizons strand.“Labour of Love,” a lyrical look at a relationship, was set in Sengupta’s native city, Kolkata, the Eastern Indian metropolis formerly known as Calcutta, which is crumbling on the one hand and rapidly modernizing on the other.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Madeleine Collins,” a psychological thriller headlined by “Benedetta” star and Venice jury member Virginie Efira, has been sold by Charades to a raft of buyers. The movie had world premiere in the Venice Days section on Saturday and was warmly received by critics across the board.Helmed by Antoine Barraud, “Madeleine Collins” stars Efira as Judith, a successful translator who leads a double life between Switzerland and France with two different men with whom she has children.

Naman Ramachandran Indian filmmaker Aditya Vikram Sengupta is back on the Lido with his third feature “Once Upon a Time in Calcutta,” which screens in the Horizons strand. His debut, “Labour of Love” (2014) bowed at Venice Days where it won the Fedeora Award for best director of a debut film.

Benedetta star Virginie Efira plays a woman leading a double life in drama Madeleine Collins which premiered in the Venice Days section of the Venice Film Festival today. Also doubling up in Venice by serving on the competition jury, Efira puts in a terrific performance in Antoine Barraud’s taut relationship pic that veers into thriller territory.