Italy has submitted Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano as its candidate for Best International Film at the 96th Academy Awards.
The timely drama follows the hardships of two Senegalese teenagers as they try to make it to Europe via the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea.
The film world premiered to critical acclaim in Competition in Venice winning Best Director for Garrone, Best Young Star for co-star Seydou Sarr and Best Production Director for Claudia Cravotta.
The Deadline review out of Venice describes the film as “a blisteringly topical drama” that could be Garrone’s “best” film to date, in a filmography that also includes Gomorrah, Tale of Tales and Dogman.
The selection was made by a committee overseen by Italian cinema organisation Anica. Its members comprised Alessandro Araimo, Domizia De Rosa, Esmeralda Calabria, Daniela Ciancio, Francesca Lo Schiavo, Giorgio Moroder, Cristiana Paternò, Michele Placido, Paola Randi, Riccardo Tozzi and Gianpiero Tulelli.
The timely drama follows the hardships of two Senegalese teenagers as they try to make it to Europe via the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea.
The film world premiered to critical acclaim in Competition in Venice winning Best Director for Garrone, Best Young Star for co-star Seydou Sarr and Best Production Director for Claudia Cravotta.
The Deadline review out of Venice describes the film as “a blisteringly topical drama” that could be Garrone’s “best” film to date, in a filmography that also includes Gomorrah, Tale of Tales and Dogman.
The selection was made by a committee overseen by Italian cinema organisation Anica. Its members comprised Alessandro Araimo, Domizia De Rosa, Esmeralda Calabria, Daniela Ciancio, Francesca Lo Schiavo, Giorgio Moroder, Cristiana Paternò, Michele Placido, Paola Randi, Riccardo Tozzi and Gianpiero Tulelli.
- 9/20/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Bob and Jeanne Berney’s Picturehouse will open Marco Pontecorvo’s Fatima in theaters and direct to home (PVOD) throughout North America on Aug. 28.
The pic was last scheduled for an Aug. 14, 1,000-theater-plus run. The distributor has been having sold out pop-up drive-in previews recently as part of their grassroots word-of-mouth digital marketing campaign.
Picturehouse picked up the movie in October. The movie was first scheduled for April 24 before the exhibition Covid-19 shutdown. The movie is set during the Spanish Flu, and has echoes to what’s going on now.
“The response to Fatima at our Pop-Up Drive-In Premieres has been wonderful,” says Bob Berney, CEO. “Audiences and social media reactions have convinced us that we need to get this movie out now. We held out as long as possible for a traditional theatrical release, but given the national situation, we did not want to postpone the release of this...
The pic was last scheduled for an Aug. 14, 1,000-theater-plus run. The distributor has been having sold out pop-up drive-in previews recently as part of their grassroots word-of-mouth digital marketing campaign.
Picturehouse picked up the movie in October. The movie was first scheduled for April 24 before the exhibition Covid-19 shutdown. The movie is set during the Spanish Flu, and has echoes to what’s going on now.
“The response to Fatima at our Pop-Up Drive-In Premieres has been wonderful,” says Bob Berney, CEO. “Audiences and social media reactions have convinced us that we need to get this movie out now. We held out as long as possible for a traditional theatrical release, but given the national situation, we did not want to postpone the release of this...
- 7/23/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
The Academy has announced the new class of invited members for 2014 and, as is typical, many of which are among last year's nominees, which includes Barkhad Abdi, Michael Fassbender, Sally Hawkins, Mads Mikkelsen, Lupita Nyong'o and June Squibb in the Actors branch not to mention curious additions such as Josh Hutcherson, Rob Riggle and Jason Statham, but, okay. The Directors branch adds Jay and Mark Duplass along with Jean-Marc Vallee, Denis Villeneuve and Thomas Vinterberg. I didn't do an immediate tally of male to female additions or other demographics, but at first glance it seems to be a wide spread batch of new additions on all fronts. The Academy is also clearly attempting to aggressively bump up the demographics as this is the second year in a row where they have added a large number of new members, well over the average of 133 new members from 2004 to 2012. As far as...
- 6/26/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 271 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures.
Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2014.
“This year’s class of invitees represents some of the most talented, creative and passionate filmmakers working in our industry today,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “Their contributions to film have entertained audiences around the world, and we are proud to welcome them to the Academy.”
The 2014 invitees are:
Actors
Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”
Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”
Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”
Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”
Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”
Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”
Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,...
Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2014.
“This year’s class of invitees represents some of the most talented, creative and passionate filmmakers working in our industry today,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “Their contributions to film have entertained audiences around the world, and we are proud to welcome them to the Academy.”
The 2014 invitees are:
Actors
Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”
Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”
Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”
Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”
Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”
Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”
Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,...
- 6/26/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong’o of 12 Years a Slave were two of the 271 artists and industry leaders invited to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which determines nominations and winners at the annual Oscars. The entire list of Academy membership—which numbers about 6,000—isn’t public information so the annual invitation list is often the best indication of the artists involved in the prestigious awards process. It’s worth noting that invitations need to be accepted in order for artists to become members; some artists, like two-time Best Actor winner Sean Penn, have declined membership over the years.
- 6/26/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
Pop quiz: What do Chris Rock, Claire Denis, Eddie Vedder and Josh Hutcherson all have in common? Answer: They could all be Oscar voters very soon. The annual Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences invitation list always makes for interesting reading, shedding light on just how large and far-reaching the group's membership is -- or could be, depending on who accepts their invitations. This year, 271 individuals have been asked to join AMPAS, meaning every one of them could contribute to next year's Academy Awards balloting -- and it's as diverse a list as they've ever assembled. Think the Academy consists entirely of fusty retired white dudes? Not if recent Best Original Song nominee Pharrell Williams takes them up on their offer. Think it's all just a Hollywood insiders' game? Not if French arthouse titans Chantal Akerman and Olivier Assayas join the party. It's a list that subverts expectation at every turn.
- 6/26/2014
- by Guy Lodge
- Hitfix
"The Great Beauty," Paolo Sorrentino's splashy valentine to Roman high society, was the most lauded foreign-language film of the last awards season -- it ruled the European Film Awards, and scooped Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Oscars. (At all but the last of these, it beat out its Cannes conqueror, "Blue is the Warmest Color.") So you'd think it'd be a shoo-in at Italy's own Academy Awards, right? Wrong. At yesterday's David di Donatello Awards, handed out annually by the Academy of Italian Cinema, Sorrentino's film was the night's biggest winner in terms of numbers -- taking nine awards, including Best Director and Best Actor for Toni Servillo. But its other wins were limited to below-the-line categories -- trust the Italians to have separate awards for Best Makeup and Best Hairstyling -- as Paolo Virzi's "Human Capital" took Best Picture. Virzi's film, a blend...
- 6/11/2014
- by Guy Lodge
- Hitfix
Other winners included Love Is All You Need, The Act of Killing, The Congress and The Broken Circle Breakdown.
Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty was the big winner at the 26th European Film Awards in Berlin, picking up four of the silver statuettes for European Film, European Director, European Actor for Toni Servillo, and European Editor for Cristiano Travaglioli.
The Great Beauty is Italy’s Oscar entry this year and had won the EurAsia Grand Prix at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival a matter of days before the awards ceremony in Berlin.
Sorrentino could not personally accept the two awards as he is serving on the jury at the Marrakech Film festival, but producer Nicola Giuliano brought members of the cast and crew on stage to receive the audience’s applause.
Veteran Italian composer Ennio Morricone received the European Composer statuette for his score of Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Best Offer and was given a standing...
Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty was the big winner at the 26th European Film Awards in Berlin, picking up four of the silver statuettes for European Film, European Director, European Actor for Toni Servillo, and European Editor for Cristiano Travaglioli.
The Great Beauty is Italy’s Oscar entry this year and had won the EurAsia Grand Prix at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival a matter of days before the awards ceremony in Berlin.
Sorrentino could not personally accept the two awards as he is serving on the jury at the Marrakech Film festival, but producer Nicola Giuliano brought members of the cast and crew on stage to receive the audience’s applause.
Veteran Italian composer Ennio Morricone received the European Composer statuette for his score of Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Best Offer and was given a standing...
- 12/8/2013
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Cannes, In Competition
It's well known that once-revered German auteur Wim Wenders doesn't make films like he used to. The director of such cinema classics as "Kings of the Road" (1976), "The American Friend" (1977), "Paris, Texas" (1984) and "Wings of Desire" (1987) hasn't made a decent film in years, apart from "Buena Vista Social Club", his 1998 documentary on music in Cuba.
However, Wenders has reached a new low with "Palermo Shooting", a film of startling and embarrassing banality and, yes, even silliness. One is hard-pressed to imagine any commercial future whatsoever for this film, and a pickup by a U.S. distribution company seems virtually impossible.
Finn (Campino) is a very, very handsome photographer who leads a hectic but exciting professional life. (This character seems to be lifted almost intact from Antonioni's "Blow-up", including a scene in which he enlarges a photograph to find its hidden meaning.)
One night he's almost killed in a automobile accident, and he comes face-to-face with the meaninglessness of his life. After a fashion shoot in Palermo, he decides to stay in the Sicilian city, presumably to reconnect with the reality that has been drained from his high-tech locations and to discover the meaning of life.
What he discovers instead is a fleeting monklike figure, part real and part dreamlike, who is shooting semi-imaginary arrows at him. Everyone he encounters in his mostly cliched wanderings through the city tells him Palermo is "the city of death" despite the fact that many other writers and filmmakers have long ago awarded this honor to Naples. He also meets Flavia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) , a specialist in the restoration of frescoes, who also helps to restore his spirit.
Every time the film goes philosophical on us, the resultant dialogue is sententious and banal. We learn, among other things, that people during the time of the fresco that Flavia is restoring were afraid of death, and that they still are, and that, to live life to the fullest, we should do everything as though it were for the last time. He speaks meaningfully of "absurd freedom" and "desperate futility." Finn also is repeatedly warned that doing this "fashion crap" is hurting his reputation in the art world, another not-exactly-fresh theme.
Finn also is beset by recurring nightmares in which he is reduced to a minuscule figure in a gigantic room (shades of "The Incredible Shrinking Man", but at least that guy had the excuse of atomic radiation). Another favorite is a distorted clock that he hangs on to in mid-air (shades of Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"). Wenders seems to have absolutely no idea that these images would cause audiences to laugh out loud (and not in a good way).
In his travels, Finn encounters a huge number of disparate souls that impart various nuggets of wisdom. He tells one, in one of the movie's better moments, that "I am completely lost". But all of this pales into insignificance when he comes face-to-face with Death, appropriately played by Dennis Hopper. During their verbal sparring, Death explains reasonably that "the fear of death is really a fear of life," but the best exchange comes when he peevishly complains that "I'm tired of playing the bad guy" and asks Finn, the accomplished photographer, to help him improve his image by taking a great photo, even if it has to be a digital one, which he doesn't approve of.
For most viewers, the question of the meaning of it all will come down to this: Where does Wenders find people to continue to invest in his films?
Production: Neue Road Movies. Cast: Campino, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Inga Busch. Director: Wim Wenders. Screenwriters: Wim Wenders, Norman Ohler. Producer: Gian-Piero Ringel. Director of photography: Franz Lustig. Sales: Hanway Films. No rating, 124 minutes. Production designer: Sebastian Soukup Costume designer: Daniela Ciancio Editor: Peter Przygodda, Oli Weiss Music: Irmin Schmidt...
It's well known that once-revered German auteur Wim Wenders doesn't make films like he used to. The director of such cinema classics as "Kings of the Road" (1976), "The American Friend" (1977), "Paris, Texas" (1984) and "Wings of Desire" (1987) hasn't made a decent film in years, apart from "Buena Vista Social Club", his 1998 documentary on music in Cuba.
However, Wenders has reached a new low with "Palermo Shooting", a film of startling and embarrassing banality and, yes, even silliness. One is hard-pressed to imagine any commercial future whatsoever for this film, and a pickup by a U.S. distribution company seems virtually impossible.
Finn (Campino) is a very, very handsome photographer who leads a hectic but exciting professional life. (This character seems to be lifted almost intact from Antonioni's "Blow-up", including a scene in which he enlarges a photograph to find its hidden meaning.)
One night he's almost killed in a automobile accident, and he comes face-to-face with the meaninglessness of his life. After a fashion shoot in Palermo, he decides to stay in the Sicilian city, presumably to reconnect with the reality that has been drained from his high-tech locations and to discover the meaning of life.
What he discovers instead is a fleeting monklike figure, part real and part dreamlike, who is shooting semi-imaginary arrows at him. Everyone he encounters in his mostly cliched wanderings through the city tells him Palermo is "the city of death" despite the fact that many other writers and filmmakers have long ago awarded this honor to Naples. He also meets Flavia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) , a specialist in the restoration of frescoes, who also helps to restore his spirit.
Every time the film goes philosophical on us, the resultant dialogue is sententious and banal. We learn, among other things, that people during the time of the fresco that Flavia is restoring were afraid of death, and that they still are, and that, to live life to the fullest, we should do everything as though it were for the last time. He speaks meaningfully of "absurd freedom" and "desperate futility." Finn also is repeatedly warned that doing this "fashion crap" is hurting his reputation in the art world, another not-exactly-fresh theme.
Finn also is beset by recurring nightmares in which he is reduced to a minuscule figure in a gigantic room (shades of "The Incredible Shrinking Man", but at least that guy had the excuse of atomic radiation). Another favorite is a distorted clock that he hangs on to in mid-air (shades of Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"). Wenders seems to have absolutely no idea that these images would cause audiences to laugh out loud (and not in a good way).
In his travels, Finn encounters a huge number of disparate souls that impart various nuggets of wisdom. He tells one, in one of the movie's better moments, that "I am completely lost". But all of this pales into insignificance when he comes face-to-face with Death, appropriately played by Dennis Hopper. During their verbal sparring, Death explains reasonably that "the fear of death is really a fear of life," but the best exchange comes when he peevishly complains that "I'm tired of playing the bad guy" and asks Finn, the accomplished photographer, to help him improve his image by taking a great photo, even if it has to be a digital one, which he doesn't approve of.
For most viewers, the question of the meaning of it all will come down to this: Where does Wenders find people to continue to invest in his films?
Production: Neue Road Movies. Cast: Campino, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Inga Busch. Director: Wim Wenders. Screenwriters: Wim Wenders, Norman Ohler. Producer: Gian-Piero Ringel. Director of photography: Franz Lustig. Sales: Hanway Films. No rating, 124 minutes. Production designer: Sebastian Soukup Costume designer: Daniela Ciancio Editor: Peter Przygodda, Oli Weiss Music: Irmin Schmidt...
- 5/28/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cannes, In Competition
It's well known that once-revered German auteur Wim Wenders doesn't make films like he used to. The director of such cinema classics as "Kings of the Road" (1976), "The American Friend" (1977), "Paris, Texas" (1984) and "Wings of Desire" (1987) hasn't made a decent film in years, apart from "Buena Vista Social Club", his 1998 documentary on music in Cuba.
However, Wenders has reached a new low with "Palermo Shooting", a film of startling and embarrassing banality and, yes, even silliness. One is hard-pressed to imagine any commercial future whatsoever for this film, and a pickup by a U.S. distribution company seems virtually impossible.
Finn (Campino) is a very, very handsome photographer who leads a hectic but exciting professional life. (This character seems to be lifted almost intact from Antonioni's "Blow-up", including a scene in which he enlarges a photograph to find its hidden meaning.)
One night he's almost killed in a automobile accident, and he comes face-to-face with the meaninglessness of his life. After a fashion shoot in Palermo, he decides to stay in the Sicilian city, presumably to reconnect with the reality that has been drained from his high-tech locations and to discover the meaning of life.
What he discovers instead is a fleeting monklike figure, part real and part dreamlike, who is shooting semi-imaginary arrows at him. Everyone he encounters in his mostly cliched wanderings through the city tells him Palermo is "the city of death" despite the fact that many other writers and filmmakers have long ago awarded this honor to Naples. He also meets Flavia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) , a specialist in the restoration of frescoes, who also helps to restore his spirit.
Every time the film goes philosophical on us, the resultant dialogue is sententious and banal. We learn, among other things, that people during the time of the fresco that Flavia is restoring were afraid of death, and that they still are, and that, to live life to the fullest, we should do everything as though it were for the last time. He speaks meaningfully of "absurd freedom" and "desperate futility." Finn also is repeatedly warned that doing this "fashion crap" is hurting his reputation in the art world, another not-exactly-fresh theme.
Finn also is beset by recurring nightmares in which he is reduced to a minuscule figure in a gigantic room (shades of "The Incredible Shrinking Man", but at least that guy had the excuse of atomic radiation). Another favorite is a distorted clock that he hangs on to in mid-air (shades of Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"). Wenders seems to have absolutely no idea that these images would cause audiences to laugh out loud (and not in a good way).
In his travels, Finn encounters a huge number of disparate souls that impart various nuggets of wisdom. He tells one, in one of the movie's better moments, that "I am completely lost". But all of this pales into insignificance when he comes face-to-face with Death, appropriately played by Dennis Hopper. During their verbal sparring, Death explains reasonably that "the fear of death is really a fear of life," but the best exchange comes when he peevishly complains that "I'm tired of playing the bad guy" and asks Finn, the accomplished photographer, to help him improve his image by taking a great photo, even if it has to be a digital one, which he doesn't approve of.
For most viewers, the question of the meaning of it all will come down to this: Where does Wenders find people to continue to invest in his films?
Production: Neue Road Movies. Cast: Campino, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Inga Busch. Director: Wim Wenders. Screenwriters: Wim Wenders, Norman Ohler. Producer: Gian-Piero Ringel. Director of photography: Franz Lustig. Sales: Hanway Films. No rating, 124 minutes. Production designer: Sebastian Soukup Costume designer: Daniela Ciancio Editor: Peter Przygodda, Oli Weiss Music: Irmin Schmidt...
It's well known that once-revered German auteur Wim Wenders doesn't make films like he used to. The director of such cinema classics as "Kings of the Road" (1976), "The American Friend" (1977), "Paris, Texas" (1984) and "Wings of Desire" (1987) hasn't made a decent film in years, apart from "Buena Vista Social Club", his 1998 documentary on music in Cuba.
However, Wenders has reached a new low with "Palermo Shooting", a film of startling and embarrassing banality and, yes, even silliness. One is hard-pressed to imagine any commercial future whatsoever for this film, and a pickup by a U.S. distribution company seems virtually impossible.
Finn (Campino) is a very, very handsome photographer who leads a hectic but exciting professional life. (This character seems to be lifted almost intact from Antonioni's "Blow-up", including a scene in which he enlarges a photograph to find its hidden meaning.)
One night he's almost killed in a automobile accident, and he comes face-to-face with the meaninglessness of his life. After a fashion shoot in Palermo, he decides to stay in the Sicilian city, presumably to reconnect with the reality that has been drained from his high-tech locations and to discover the meaning of life.
What he discovers instead is a fleeting monklike figure, part real and part dreamlike, who is shooting semi-imaginary arrows at him. Everyone he encounters in his mostly cliched wanderings through the city tells him Palermo is "the city of death" despite the fact that many other writers and filmmakers have long ago awarded this honor to Naples. He also meets Flavia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) , a specialist in the restoration of frescoes, who also helps to restore his spirit.
Every time the film goes philosophical on us, the resultant dialogue is sententious and banal. We learn, among other things, that people during the time of the fresco that Flavia is restoring were afraid of death, and that they still are, and that, to live life to the fullest, we should do everything as though it were for the last time. He speaks meaningfully of "absurd freedom" and "desperate futility." Finn also is repeatedly warned that doing this "fashion crap" is hurting his reputation in the art world, another not-exactly-fresh theme.
Finn also is beset by recurring nightmares in which he is reduced to a minuscule figure in a gigantic room (shades of "The Incredible Shrinking Man", but at least that guy had the excuse of atomic radiation). Another favorite is a distorted clock that he hangs on to in mid-air (shades of Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"). Wenders seems to have absolutely no idea that these images would cause audiences to laugh out loud (and not in a good way).
In his travels, Finn encounters a huge number of disparate souls that impart various nuggets of wisdom. He tells one, in one of the movie's better moments, that "I am completely lost". But all of this pales into insignificance when he comes face-to-face with Death, appropriately played by Dennis Hopper. During their verbal sparring, Death explains reasonably that "the fear of death is really a fear of life," but the best exchange comes when he peevishly complains that "I'm tired of playing the bad guy" and asks Finn, the accomplished photographer, to help him improve his image by taking a great photo, even if it has to be a digital one, which he doesn't approve of.
For most viewers, the question of the meaning of it all will come down to this: Where does Wenders find people to continue to invest in his films?
Production: Neue Road Movies. Cast: Campino, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Inga Busch. Director: Wim Wenders. Screenwriters: Wim Wenders, Norman Ohler. Producer: Gian-Piero Ringel. Director of photography: Franz Lustig. Sales: Hanway Films. No rating, 124 minutes. Production designer: Sebastian Soukup Costume designer: Daniela Ciancio Editor: Peter Przygodda, Oli Weiss Music: Irmin Schmidt...
- 5/27/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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