David Di-Donatello: Last News

Italian production designer Paolo Comencini, whose recent credits include the box office hit There’s Still Tomorrow, will be feted with the Campari Passion for Film Award at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. 

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave and husband Franco Nero are leading cast in under-the-radar social thriller, The Estate, which has wrapped filming in the UK.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent 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.

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.

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

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sophia Loren is recovering from emergency surgery for a fractured hip following a fall on Sunday in her home in Geneva, Switzerland, according to Italian press reports. Italy’s most famous living movie star, who turned 89 on Sept. 20, suffered multiple fractures after accidentally falling at home on Sunday morning.

Iconic actress Sophia Loren was hospitalized on Sunday following a fall at her home in Geneva. The Italian star reportedly sustained fractures to her hip and femur, and underwent surgery with what has been described as a positive outcome.

Vanessa Redgrave To Be Feted At European Film Awards

Naman Ramachandran British actor Vanessa Redgrave will receive the European Lifetime Achievement award for her outstanding body of work at the European Film Awards. Hailing from an illustrious family of actors, Redgrave’s first lead in “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment” (1966), by Karel Reisz, won her best actress at Cannes and scored BAFTA and Oscar nominations.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Adriano Valerio’s documentary “Casablanca,” which will world premiere on Thursday at Venice Days, has been acquired by Salaud Morisset for world sales. Variety has been given an exclusive clip from the film.

The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the names who will join Damien Chazelle on the main Competition jury of its 80th edition, running Aug 30 — Sep 9.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor As far as history goes, you can’t get much more historical than Taormina for a film festival. The Antico Teatro (or Greek Theater) – where the latest films will be shown – dates back to 300 BC. More recently – as in a mere century or so – the Sicilian coastal town has proved an irresistible getaway for many, from Oscar Wilde to Greta Garbo. Born in 1955 as the Taormina and Messina Film Festival, the festival has frequently hosted many international stars of cinema, and intermittently distributed the Nastri Azzurri awards voted on by Italian journalists, and at others the David di Donatello, Italy’s equivalent to the Italian Oscars. Here are some key moments from its history. When Dickie fought with Liz: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor had used Taormina as a getaway right at the beginning of their romance fresh from the set of “Cleopatra.” In 1967, they returned to Taormina to attend the film festival with Franco Zefferelli’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” for which Burton received the David di Donatello as best foreign actor. According to rumors, a blazing row on the terrace of their hotel – the San Domenico Palace – ended when Taylor conked Burton on the head with a mandolin.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Acclaimed Chinese auteur filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke has set “We Shall Be All” as his next feature directing project. It is his first in the five years since his “Ash Is Purest White,” which premiered in Cannes in 2018. Describing the project as a “dismantling of dystopia,” Jia says that the new film is set across the first two decades of the 21st century and tells the story of how a Chinese woman lives to herself in silence, celebrating the prosperous Belle Epoque with songs and dance. Some 22 years in the making, the film’s first elements were shot as far back as 2001. The balance will be filmed later this year. No release schedule has been indicated.

Belgian directors Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s Italian-language drama The Eight Mountains and veteran Marco Bellocchio’s Exterior Night topped the 68th edition of Italy’s David di Donatello Awards on Wednesday evening.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “The Eight Mountains,” Belgian directors Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s Italian-language drama about friendship, mountains and growing up, scored the top prize at Italy’s 68th David di Donatello Awards. Besides winning best picture, the film also scooped statuettes for best non-original screenplay, photography and sound. Given that the directors are not Italian, it was a particularly significant victory for “Mountains,” which was praised as “quietly magnificent” by Variety critic Jessica Kiang. The film, which is currently playing well on the U.S. arthouse circuit, tracks the decades-long friendship between two Italian boys named Pietro and Bruno — one from the city, the other a shepherd boy from the Alps.

The Passion Of The Christ producer, director and co-writer Mel Gibson is mourning Christo Jivkov, one of the stars of his 2004 blockbuster, who died Friday night in Los Angeles after a long private battle with cancer. He had just turned 48.

EXCLUSIVE: VMI Releasing has picked up North American rights to the fantastical WWII drama Freaks vs. the Reich (formerly Freaks Out), which won eight awards at the Venice Film Festival in 2021, including the Grafetta d’Oro for Best Film, and went on to land six David di Donatello Awards from the Academy of Italian Cinema the following year. The second feature from director Gabriele Mainetti (They Call Me Jeeg) will bow in theaters and on digital on April 28th.

Actor-producer Christo Jivkov, known for his starring role as John in Mel Gibson’s 2004 blockbuster The Passion Of The Christ, died last night in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer. He was 48.

The Dior Spring/Summer 2023 show in Paris on Monday was wall-to-wall with A list names such as Kirsten Dunst and Karlie Kloss, but what was most impressive is all of the legends who attended.There were several familiar faces there who made their mark decades ago: movie stars, models and socialites who have all been front page news in entertainment in the 1940s to 1990s - and they all still look outstanding today.The top icons of the event were Catherine Deneuve, 79, Carla Bruni, 55, Isabelle Adjani, 67, Bianca Jagger, 77, and Marisa Berenson, 75.  The Dior show in Paris was full of legends! From left: Catherine Deneuve, 79, Carla Bruni, 55, Isabelle Adjani, 67, were all seen in France for the big eventThe event was part of the Haute-Couture Spring-Summer 2023 Fashion Week.Catherine Deneuve, 79, one of the best French actress of all time, looked ready for her closeup in a stunning maroon coat over a floral print shirt. The blonde bombshell is known for the movie The Last Metro (1980), for which she also won the David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress, and Régis Wargnier's Indochine (1992).She first came to prominence in Jacques Demy's 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. And then the siren worked for Roamn Polanski in Repulsion (1965), and for Buñuel in Belle de Jour (1967) and Tristana (1970).  Lasting beauty and enduring elegance: Left to right, Bianca Jagger, 77, and Marisa Berenson, 75She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for Belle de Jour, and the Academy Award for Best Actress for Indochine. She also won the 1998 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for Place Vendôme.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s David di Donatello Awards are launching an innovative ecological initiative under which they will monitor the environmental sustainability of productions in the running for the country’s top film prizes. The move is being touted as a first of this type by Davids organizers who are hoping it can become a game changer in prompting companies in Italy and across Europe to reduce the environmental impact of their film productions. To monitor the carbon footprint and other green aspects of movies submitted to the Davids, the organisation has forged a partnership with EcoMuvi, an Italian protocol that certifies a film production’s ecological sustainability from pre-product through post.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent 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, was repealed in 1981.