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All articles by Melanie Rodier – Page 34
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Olmi's Arms embraced by Italy's Oscars
Ermanno Olmi's 16th century war epic The Profession Of Arms swept the board at the David di Donatello awards - Italy's Oscars - scooping nine prizes last night (April 10), including best film, best director and best screenplay. The Profession Of Arms won a prize in every category it was ...
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RAI to handle sales on Bellocchio's Cannes contender
RAI Trade, the film sales division of Italy's state-owned broadcast giant RAI, has picked up international distribution rights to Marco Bellocchio's Hour Of Religion. Organisers at the David di Donatello awards ceremony held on April 10, announced that the Italian auteur's film will receive its international premiere at Cannes, where ...
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Medusa acquires Pinocchio as part of Cecchi Gori package
Italy's leading distribution outfit, Medusa Film, has grabbed theatrical rights to six films including Roberto Benigni's eagerly-anticipated Pinocchio (right) from beleaguered former powerhouse Cecchi Gori group.Pinocchio producer Elda Ferri and Medusa were unwilling to reveal financial details of the deal. However, sources close to the production believe the amount to ...
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Italian publisher buys into Mikado Film
Italian publishing giant De Agostini has taken a majority stake in local arthouse production and distribution outfit Mikado Film, which recently co-produced Otar Iosseliani's Lundi Matin and released Jill Sprecher's 13 Conversations About One Thing. The move, which represents De Agostini's third major venture in the Italian film industry in ...
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Italian filmmaking veteran Tonino Cervi dies
Tonino Cervi, the Italian director, screenwriter and producer of films by Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Bernardo Bertolucci, has died in Siena of a heart attack aged 72.Cervi, who was born in Rome, produced one of Bertolucci's first features, 1962's Grim Reaper (La Commare Secca) and gained widespread recognition for ...
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From Berlinale to Biennale - De Hadeln gets Venice
After weeks of political machinations, intrigue and rumour, the Venice Film Festival has named former Berlin head Moritz De Hadeln (pictured)as artistic director of the next edition of the Biennale. De Hadeln replaces Alberto Barbera, who has been in charge of Venice since 1999.Initial reaction to the last-minute, stop-gap appointment, ...
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Profession Of Arms leads Donatello nominations
Ermanno Olmi's 16th century war picture The Profession Of Arms, Silvio Soldini's tortured drama Burning In The Wind and Giuseppe Piccioni's film about urban misfits, Light of My Eyes led the nominations for the 2002 David di Donatello Awards, Italy's Oscar equivalents.Veteran auteur Olmi's picture, which scored well with local ...
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The clock is ticking for Venice film festival
The clock is ticking and the Venice Film Festival is still without an artistic director following the sudden withdrawal of Pierluigi Celli and Piera Detassis, who were both reportedly offered the top job last week. Although Celli had initially indicated his willingness to accept the position, he has since emerged ...
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Venice Int'l TV festival to launch this week
While Venice's Film Festival still awaits the official appointment of a new artistic director, the Lido is about to see the first Venice International Television Festival kick off in high style.The TV festival will open its doors to the industry and the public from March 21 to 25, in the ...
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Venice fest set to unveil joint artistic directors
Franco Bernabe, president of the Biennale Venice film festival is believed to be close to naming Piera Detassis, editor of the film magazine Ciak (owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi), and Pierluigi Celli, former CEO of RAI, as joint artistic directors of the Venice film festival. According to Italian press ...
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Italian cinema admissions plummet yet again
Cinema admissions in Italy tumbled a sharp 29.4% in February 2002 compared to last year, marking the third consecutive monthly drop during what is traditionally one of the busiest periods at the box office. According to data released by national data body Cinetel, 6,849,000 tickets were sold in February 2002, ...
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Italian producers threaten Venice festival boycott
With just fivemonths to go before the start of the next Venice Film Festival and still no newartistic director to run it, Aurelio De Laurentiis, the head of Italy's producers union, has threatened not to present any Italian films in the upcoming festival unless Venice Biennale president Franco Bernabe appoints ...
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Italian government passes conflict of interest law
The Italian Parliament has passed Silvio Berlusconi's controversial law on conflict of interest. Although the centre-left opposition stormed out of Parliament before the vote in a sign of protest, votes from Berlusconi's centre-right coalition were sufficient in number for the law to be passed.The main points that the new law ...
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Antitrust authority blocks Stream/Telepiu sale
Italy's Antitrust Authority has frozen the deal which would have seen Rupert Murdoch's News Corp sell Italian pay-tv platform Stream to Vivendi Universal. The two media giants reached an agreement last month after News Corp bought Telecom Italia's 50% share of Stream for Euros 48m. The move enabled News Corp, ...
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Italy's Eagle swoops on two-picture Mandalay deal
Eagle Pictures, the fast-expanding film and TV outfit based in Rome and Milan, has struck a two picture deal with Mandalay Pictures, the Paramount-based independent headed by Peter Guber. Mandalay had previously licensed movies in Italy through Cecchi Gori Pictures and more recently Medusa Film. Under the deal, Eagle has ...
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Michael Kuhn co's first picture rolls in Rome
Shooting has started inRome's Cinecitta Studios on 20th Century Fox's Sin Eater, the first project to go into production throughformer PolyGram Filmed Entertainment chief Michael Kuhn's new productionoutfit.Directed by Brian Helgeland(A Knight's Tale), Sin Eater is the story of a mysterious character who exorcisesthe sins of dead people and stars ...
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Italy's state-backed film fund is cut by 50%
The Italian film industry has lost almost 50% of its state funding for local production, following an announcement by cultural minister Giuliano Urbani. The cut, from Euros 97.5m in 2001 to this year's budget of Euros 55.5m, is part of a widespread reduction in government funding for entertainment.Urbani said the ...
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Berlusconi controversy builds to a climax
The controversial debate over Silvio Berlusconi's conflict of interest law, to be held in the Italian parliament this week, is set to co-incide with a 100,000-strong mass protest against the government in Rome. Justice Minister Roberto Castelli has expressed fears that the event could develop into violence. Last weekend, 40,000 ...
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Senior Rai appointments delayed
As tensions over conflict of interest in Italy continue to escalate, parliament leader Pierferdinando Casini has announced that state broadcaster Rai's new management will not be appointed until next week. The contracts of the current management, headed by Roberto Zaccaria, expire on Friday.The leading contender for the top position at ...
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Buskin ties up sales on Mother Viper
Italy's Buskin Film has closed a host of sales on Vipera, veteran Italian director Sergio Citti's movie starring Harvey Keitel and Giancarlo Giannini.The movie, which is set in post-World War II Sicily and tells the tragic story of a woman's betrayal of her young daughter and her husband, played by ...