THR puts the spotlight on the best films from the festival circuit that have yet to land a U.S. distribution deal.
La Cocina
Directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios
Sales WME Independent, Fifth Season
From Anthony Bourdain giving American readers an inside look at the rock ’n’ roll restaurant industry in Kitchen Confidential to Nancy Meyers’ citrus-dotted white marble countertops in enviable home kitchens, modern American audiences have had an infatuation with cookery. Though previously largely reserved for the nonfiction space with entries like Bourdain’s No Reservations and Netflix’s operatic Chef’s Table, the narrative possibilities of the dark underbelly of back-of-house restaurant staff have began to emerge lately. The Bear, the anxiety-inducing FX series about a Chicago Italian beef joint, swept the Emmys in January and is poised to do the same this go-around. Enter director Ruizpalacios’ La Cocina. “Think The Bear on cocaine with a Red Bull chaser...
La Cocina
Directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios
Sales WME Independent, Fifth Season
From Anthony Bourdain giving American readers an inside look at the rock ’n’ roll restaurant industry in Kitchen Confidential to Nancy Meyers’ citrus-dotted white marble countertops in enviable home kitchens, modern American audiences have had an infatuation with cookery. Though previously largely reserved for the nonfiction space with entries like Bourdain’s No Reservations and Netflix’s operatic Chef’s Table, the narrative possibilities of the dark underbelly of back-of-house restaurant staff have began to emerge lately. The Bear, the anxiety-inducing FX series about a Chicago Italian beef joint, swept the Emmys in January and is poised to do the same this go-around. Enter director Ruizpalacios’ La Cocina. “Think The Bear on cocaine with a Red Bull chaser...
- 5/19/2024
- by Scott Roxborough and Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is adamant about his decision to place six Italian movies in this year’s 23-title festival lineup. “Nobody accused the French of chauvinism because they had seven French films in competition in Cannes this year,” Barbera quipped to a snarky Italian reporter when the Venice lineup was announced in July, though he did concede, “It’s true that in the past I have not done this.” Indeed, Barbera’s previous limit on Italian movies in competition for the Golden Lion was five titles last year, which some local critics considered a stretch.
More importantly, the Venice chief pointed out that he presently sees Cinema Italiano at a particularly favorable juncture largely thanks to the fact that Italians are making movies with bigger budgets, “which means greater quality and the ability to compete in international markets, and to travel beyond our borders,” he said.
More importantly, the Venice chief pointed out that he presently sees Cinema Italiano at a particularly favorable juncture largely thanks to the fact that Italians are making movies with bigger budgets, “which means greater quality and the ability to compete in international markets, and to travel beyond our borders,” he said.
- 9/4/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
‘Finally Dawn’ Review: Lily James & A Starry Cast Can’t Save A Painfully Dull Italian Drama [Venice]
Time is a relative construct stretched to the limits of elasticity by Saverio Constanzo with the period drama “Finally Dawn.” The bloated 140-minute runtime begins at a cinema in Rome in 1953 as three women watch the final scene of a saccharine war drama, the light of the big screen coming to reveal a mother and two daughters, one donning the beauty of a Hollywood starlet and the other the beauty of a traditional Italian woman, with big blue eyes framed by thick curly hair.
Venice Film Festival 2023: The 17 Most Anticipated Movies To Watch
The curly-haired girl is Mimosa (Rebecca Antonaci), a shy 21-year-old used to inhabiting the uncomfortable but familiar shadow of her daintier sister, Iris (Sofia Panizzi).
Continue reading ‘Finally Dawn’ Review: Lily James & A Starry Cast Can’t Save A Painfully Dull Italian Drama [Venice] at The Playlist.
Venice Film Festival 2023: The 17 Most Anticipated Movies To Watch
The curly-haired girl is Mimosa (Rebecca Antonaci), a shy 21-year-old used to inhabiting the uncomfortable but familiar shadow of her daintier sister, Iris (Sofia Panizzi).
Continue reading ‘Finally Dawn’ Review: Lily James & A Starry Cast Can’t Save A Painfully Dull Italian Drama [Venice] at The Playlist.
- 9/2/2023
- by Rafaela Sales Ross
- The Playlist
The glory days of Cinecitta are evoked in Finally Dawn (Finalmente l’Alba), a sprawling story of uncertain tone – sometimes thrilled, sometimes appalled and sometimes as generally bewildered as nervous ingenue Mimosa (Rebecca Antonaci), an ordinary young woman of Rome who finds herself leading the way through this warren of a Wonderland. Cinecitta has recently revived its fortunes after a long slump, with a slow build of refurbishment and expansion, but director Saverio Costanzo leans heavily into nostalgia for times past, setting his story in the ‘50s when there were still legions of centurions marching around the studio lot and live animals awaiting their close-ups. A lion features here, roaring at passers-by. It may well be the film’s most sympathetic character.
Mimosa is not the least bit leonine. She is only at Cinecitta because her sister Iris (Sofia Panizzi) was approached at the local cinema by someone from the studio...
Mimosa is not the least bit leonine. She is only at Cinecitta because her sister Iris (Sofia Panizzi) was approached at the local cinema by someone from the studio...
- 9/2/2023
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
Venice film festival: James is the Liz Taylor-ish diva claiming a young star-struck girl as her new best friend in Saverio Constanzo’s tale set in 1950s Rome
The Italian writer-director Saverio Constanzo has offered the Venice film festival some unpretentious calorific fun with this enjoyable film: a tasty, showbizzy crowd-pleaser and romantic melodrama with a vivid streak of surreal absurdity in the tradition of Federico Fellini’s The White Sheik or Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo.
It is the tale of an unconventionally beautiful duckling who becomes more of a swan than the glamorous people she idolises; her dreams come true – or sort of true – in 1950s Rome in the heyday of the giant Cinecittà film studio. There are seductive performances from Lily James as the Liz Taylor-ish American movie diva, Willem Dafoe as her elegant, kindly confidant, Rachel Sennott as the disaffected up-and-coming actor...
The Italian writer-director Saverio Constanzo has offered the Venice film festival some unpretentious calorific fun with this enjoyable film: a tasty, showbizzy crowd-pleaser and romantic melodrama with a vivid streak of surreal absurdity in the tradition of Federico Fellini’s The White Sheik or Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo.
It is the tale of an unconventionally beautiful duckling who becomes more of a swan than the glamorous people she idolises; her dreams come true – or sort of true – in 1950s Rome in the heyday of the giant Cinecittà film studio. There are seductive performances from Lily James as the Liz Taylor-ish American movie diva, Willem Dafoe as her elegant, kindly confidant, Rachel Sennott as the disaffected up-and-coming actor...
- 9/1/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Many native critics have bemoaned the invasion of English-speaking actors turning their hand to the Italian tongue at this year’s Venice Film Festival, easy to spot not, this time, by their proclivity for adding both onion and garlic to a sugo or cream to a carbonara. In this case, it’s Joe Keery, Willem Dafoe, and Lily James in the baffling competition title “Finalmente l’alba,” (“Finally Dawn”), which mixes Italian and American actors in Rome’s booming “Hollywood on the Tiber” era, during which the Cinecittà Studios was a breeding ground for large-scale productions of the 1950s and ’60s such as “Ben Hur” and “Cleopatra.”
Beginning as a “Babylon”-esque tale about the unmitigated heft and mania of epic filmmaking in Rome before becoming a quasi-murder mystery, and then, ultimately, a loss-of-innocence bildungsroman for one of cinema’s least memorable protagonists, Saverio Costanzo’s driverless feature seems to constantly...
Beginning as a “Babylon”-esque tale about the unmitigated heft and mania of epic filmmaking in Rome before becoming a quasi-murder mystery, and then, ultimately, a loss-of-innocence bildungsroman for one of cinema’s least memorable protagonists, Saverio Costanzo’s driverless feature seems to constantly...
- 9/1/2023
- by Steph Green
- Indiewire
Italian producer and Lido habitué Mario Gianani is at the Venice Film Festival this year with Saverio Costanzo’s drama Finally Dawn which world premieres in Competition on Friday.
The head of Fremantle-owned film and TV production company Wildside has worked with Costanzo for two decades, producing all his work, from feature directorial debut Private to his more recent series In Treatment and the HBO hit My Brilliant Friend.
They are back together for a new period piece set against the backdrop of the 1950s heydays of Rome’s Cinecittà studios.
Italian newcomer Rebecca Antonaci plays a young extra on a swords and sandals production who is swept up by its stars and taken on a memorable, life-changing night across Rome’s high society hotspots.
Antonaci is joined in the cast by Lily James as a capricious, magnetic and self-obsessed acting diva, Willem Dafoe, as a U.S. expat Rome art gallerist,...
The head of Fremantle-owned film and TV production company Wildside has worked with Costanzo for two decades, producing all his work, from feature directorial debut Private to his more recent series In Treatment and the HBO hit My Brilliant Friend.
They are back together for a new period piece set against the backdrop of the 1950s heydays of Rome’s Cinecittà studios.
Italian newcomer Rebecca Antonaci plays a young extra on a swords and sandals production who is swept up by its stars and taken on a memorable, life-changing night across Rome’s high society hotspots.
Antonaci is joined in the cast by Lily James as a capricious, magnetic and self-obsessed acting diva, Willem Dafoe, as a U.S. expat Rome art gallerist,...
- 9/1/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Saverio Costanzo, who was last in the Venice competition in 2014 with Adam Driver-starrer “Hungry Hearts,” is back on the Lido with “Finally Dawn.”
The 1950s-set film stars Lily James plays a slightly fading American diva named Josephine Esperanto, who’s shooting a swords and sandals epic at Cinecittà when the famed filmmaking facilities were known as Hollywood on the Tiber. At the studios, Esperanto intersects with a young Roman woman named Mimosa, who is auditioning as an extra and takes a shine to her innocence. A “Dolce Vita” night follows in which Esperanto, Mimosa and the Hollywood epic’s other U.S. actors — played by Joe Keery and Rachel Sennott, plus an art dealer played by Willem Dafoe — spend some memorable hours.
Written and directed by Costanzo — who saw global success with Rai and HBO’s multi-season “My Brilliant Friend” — the picture is produced by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside,...
The 1950s-set film stars Lily James plays a slightly fading American diva named Josephine Esperanto, who’s shooting a swords and sandals epic at Cinecittà when the famed filmmaking facilities were known as Hollywood on the Tiber. At the studios, Esperanto intersects with a young Roman woman named Mimosa, who is auditioning as an extra and takes a shine to her innocence. A “Dolce Vita” night follows in which Esperanto, Mimosa and the Hollywood epic’s other U.S. actors — played by Joe Keery and Rachel Sennott, plus an art dealer played by Willem Dafoe — spend some memorable hours.
Written and directed by Costanzo — who saw global success with Rai and HBO’s multi-season “My Brilliant Friend” — the picture is produced by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
With no official film market and a more laid-back attitude than Cannes, Berlin or Toronto, Venice has never been the go-to festival for movie deals.
But opportunistic buyers could spot a bargain this year, as many of the hottest titles arrive at the Lido without major distribution in place.
Just ahead of Venice, Sideshow and Janus Films picked up domestic rights to Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car follow-up Evil Does Not Exist, and Mubi snatched up Sophia Coppola’s Priscilla, an A24 release in the U.S., for several markets, including the U.K., Germany, Latin America and Turkey.
Here are some of the other prime targets for dealmakers in the 2023 Venice Film Festival lineup.
Aggro Dr1ft
Director Harmony Korine
Stars Travis Scott, Jordi Molla
Buzz Another slice of extreme avant-guard from Spring Beakers and Trash Humpers director Harmony Korine, this experimental action film — shot entirely in infrared...
But opportunistic buyers could spot a bargain this year, as many of the hottest titles arrive at the Lido without major distribution in place.
Just ahead of Venice, Sideshow and Janus Films picked up domestic rights to Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car follow-up Evil Does Not Exist, and Mubi snatched up Sophia Coppola’s Priscilla, an A24 release in the U.S., for several markets, including the U.K., Germany, Latin America and Turkey.
Here are some of the other prime targets for dealmakers in the 2023 Venice Film Festival lineup.
Aggro Dr1ft
Director Harmony Korine
Stars Travis Scott, Jordi Molla
Buzz Another slice of extreme avant-guard from Spring Beakers and Trash Humpers director Harmony Korine, this experimental action film — shot entirely in infrared...
- 8/30/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Being an independent producer was never easy. But these days, it’s near impossible. Even before the dual writers and actors strikes, changes in the international film and TV market had made life tough for the indies. Old models of art house moviemaking have been ravaged by a combination of decline in the specialty box office, the collapse of ancillary revenue for home entertainment and TV licensing, and the more recent pullback by streaming companies, who have begun to back fewer, and more mainstream, movies.
But one indie production company has gone from making just a handful of movies a year to dozens, finding a way to turn the turbulent new reality into a business model for making cutting-edge art house cinema that, shockingly, can actually turn a profit. It’s the company behind five of the most hotly anticipated titles at the Venice Film Festival this year: Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things,...
But one indie production company has gone from making just a handful of movies a year to dozens, finding a way to turn the turbulent new reality into a business model for making cutting-edge art house cinema that, shockingly, can actually turn a profit. It’s the company behind five of the most hotly anticipated titles at the Venice Film Festival this year: Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things,...
- 8/25/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Hollywood Reporter has picked Fremantle as the winner of the inaugural International Producer of the Year award.
The award will be presented annually to an independent producer from outside the U.S. that THR judges to be the most exciting and innovative company of the year.
THR will present the 2023 Producer of the Year award to Andrea Scrosati, Group COO and CEO of Continental Europe, and Christian Vesper, CEO of Global Drama, at a gala event at the Venice Film Festival on September 3.
With a global network of nearly 50 companies — ranging from German giant UFA (Deutschland ’83) and Italian TV group Lux Vide (Netflix’s Medici) to Israel’s Abot Hameiri (Shtisel) and Richard Brown’s Passenger (True Detective) — and revenues of more than $2.5 billion (€2.3 billion) last year, Fremantle is clearly one of the biggest international indies out there.
But what put it over the top as International Producer of...
The award will be presented annually to an independent producer from outside the U.S. that THR judges to be the most exciting and innovative company of the year.
THR will present the 2023 Producer of the Year award to Andrea Scrosati, Group COO and CEO of Continental Europe, and Christian Vesper, CEO of Global Drama, at a gala event at the Venice Film Festival on September 3.
With a global network of nearly 50 companies — ranging from German giant UFA (Deutschland ’83) and Italian TV group Lux Vide (Netflix’s Medici) to Israel’s Abot Hameiri (Shtisel) and Richard Brown’s Passenger (True Detective) — and revenues of more than $2.5 billion (€2.3 billion) last year, Fremantle is clearly one of the biggest international indies out there.
But what put it over the top as International Producer of...
- 8/23/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Deadline can reveal a first clip for Italian director Saverio Costanzo’s new film Finally Dawn (Finalemente L’Alba) following the announcement on Tuesday of its world premiere in Competition at the 80th Venice Film Festival.
Set in the golden age of Rome’s historic Cinecittà in the 1950s, the cast features newcomer Rebecca Antonaci alongside international cast Lily James, Joe Keery (Stranger Things), Rachel Sennott (The Idol), Alba Rohrwacher and Willem Dafoe.
Antonaci plays teenage ingenue Mimosa who undergoes a coming-of age adventure over the course of one night after she is hired as an extra on a classic swords and sandals drama.
In the backdrop to her personal voyage is the mysterious death of Wilma Montesi, a real-life young woman from Rome with acting aspirations, whose semi-naked body was found on a beach in 1953, on the nearby Lazio coastline.
Finalmente L’Alba is Costanzo’s first directorial credit...
Set in the golden age of Rome’s historic Cinecittà in the 1950s, the cast features newcomer Rebecca Antonaci alongside international cast Lily James, Joe Keery (Stranger Things), Rachel Sennott (The Idol), Alba Rohrwacher and Willem Dafoe.
Antonaci plays teenage ingenue Mimosa who undergoes a coming-of age adventure over the course of one night after she is hired as an extra on a classic swords and sandals drama.
In the backdrop to her personal voyage is the mysterious death of Wilma Montesi, a real-life young woman from Rome with acting aspirations, whose semi-naked body was found on a beach in 1953, on the nearby Lazio coastline.
Finalmente L’Alba is Costanzo’s first directorial credit...
- 7/25/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Finalemente L’alba
After directing a whopping 70 episodes of “In Treatment” and just over a dozen episodes of “My Brilliant Friend,” 2014’s Hungry Hearts (five-time winner at the Venice Film Festival) filmmaker Saverio Costanzo finally makes a return to film with Finalemente l’alba. Production began in September at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios with a cast comprised of Rebecca Antonaci, Lily James, Joe Keery, Willem Dafoe and Rachel Sennott. Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me By Your Name) worked on 35mm for the project. Wildside’s Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa (Le otto montagne) produced the project. Set in the golden age of Rome’s historic Cinecittà in the 1950s, the feature follows teenage ingenue Mimosa (Antonaci) over the course of one night after she is hired as an extra.…...
After directing a whopping 70 episodes of “In Treatment” and just over a dozen episodes of “My Brilliant Friend,” 2014’s Hungry Hearts (five-time winner at the Venice Film Festival) filmmaker Saverio Costanzo finally makes a return to film with Finalemente l’alba. Production began in September at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios with a cast comprised of Rebecca Antonaci, Lily James, Joe Keery, Willem Dafoe and Rachel Sennott. Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me By Your Name) worked on 35mm for the project. Wildside’s Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa (Le otto montagne) produced the project. Set in the golden age of Rome’s historic Cinecittà in the 1950s, the feature follows teenage ingenue Mimosa (Antonaci) over the course of one night after she is hired as an extra.…...
- 1/11/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Production has just started at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios on “Finalmente L’alba” the new film by “My Brilliant Friend” director Saverio Costanzo. It is set during the 1950s when the famed filmmaking facilities were known as Hollywood on the Tiber.
This high-end costume drama – the title of which translates as “Finally, Dawn Has Come” – features a stellar cast comprising Lily James (“Pam & Tommy”), Joe Keery (“Stranger Things”), Rachel Sennott (“Shiva Baby”), Willem Dafoe, and Italian newcomer Rebecca Antonaci.
Saverio Costanzo
“Finally, Dawn” is the journey over the course of a long and intense night of an aspiring young Italian actress, played by Antonaci. In the Cinecittà studios of the 1950s, she experiences some memorable hours that will mark her transition to full blown womanhood.
Written and directed by Costanzo, whose previous films include “Private” and Adam Driver-starring “Hungry Hearts,” the picture is produced by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside,...
This high-end costume drama – the title of which translates as “Finally, Dawn Has Come” – features a stellar cast comprising Lily James (“Pam & Tommy”), Joe Keery (“Stranger Things”), Rachel Sennott (“Shiva Baby”), Willem Dafoe, and Italian newcomer Rebecca Antonaci.
Saverio Costanzo
“Finally, Dawn” is the journey over the course of a long and intense night of an aspiring young Italian actress, played by Antonaci. In the Cinecittà studios of the 1950s, she experiences some memorable hours that will mark her transition to full blown womanhood.
Written and directed by Costanzo, whose previous films include “Private” and Adam Driver-starring “Hungry Hearts,” the picture is produced by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside,...
- 8/29/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
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