Italy, a country to watch at this year’s European Film Market in Berlin, is seeing a boom in production activity as well as box office revenues starting to pick up. However, there is room for improvement in terms of the number of titles that can break out internationally.
Cinema Italiano’s production volume now reaches more than 350 films per year, including co-productions, an increase compared to pre-pandemic levels. Still, while exports are growing, Italy has only a handful of directors whose films regularly tour the world, including Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino, Matteo Garrone and Alice Rohrwacher.
That said, a new generation of Italian writers is emerging. Case in point are his two titles from this country that were submitted to competition at the Berlin Film Festival, his star-studded sci-fi film “Another End” and the musical comedy “Gloria!”.
“Another End” is director Piero Messina’s second film, the first of which, “The Weight,” was released in Venice in 2015 to great acclaim. “The End” stars Gael García Bernal and Renate Reinsve (“The Baddest Man in the World”). As lovers caught in an abnormal bondage.
Directed by first-time director Margherita Vicario, Gloria! is set in an 18th century Venice boarding school for girls. The film follows a young rebel who leads a group of performers who challenge classical norms and invent the precursors of pop music.
Another feature debut, the drama “There’s Still Tomorrow” marks the directorial debut of popular Italian actor Paola Cortellesi (who also plays the lead role) and has recently achieved phenomenal success. Colteledge’s black-and-white film, which depicts the plight of an abused housewife in post-war Rome, grossed a staggering $36 million at the local box office late last year and is poised to take the number one spot on the charts for 2023. Obtained. In Italy, “Still Tomorrow” surpassed “Barbie” to take second place with approximately $35 million.
There’s Still Tomorrow has been released theatrically in many international territories through Vision Distribution, but sales in the United States are still pending.
Overall, Italian theatrical revenues in 2023 will increase by around 60% to €495 million ($542 million), with the country’s attendance reaching 70.5 million, an increase of around 60% compared to 2022. Increased by 60%. The benchmark for a good year was considered his 100 million enrollment.
In terms of film exports, Italy’s current best-selling film is Garrone’s international Oscar-nominated drama “Io Capitano,” about two Africans who decide to leave Senegal and reach Europe. It depicts the Homeric journey of young men Seydoux and Musa. Pathé has secured deals for the film around the world, including with Cohen Media Group in the US. “Io Capitano” realistically portrays the protagonists’ journey through the desert, the horrors of the Libyan concentration camps, and the dangers of crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.
Other Italian films currently gaining worldwide attention include Rohrwacher’s “The Crown” star Josh O’Connor plays a British archaeologist involved in an international network of stolen Etruscan antiquities. There is “La Chimera”. Neon acquired North American rights to “La Chimera” during the film’s production, and it was distributed worldwide by Match Factory after its Cannes premiere last year.
Match Factory also had strong global business, including the US sale to Cohen Media of veteran author Marco Verrocchio’s Cannes-titled Kidnapping. This work is a reconstruction of the true story of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy who was kidnapped and forcibly raised as a Christian. Italy in the 19th century.
And another title in Italy’s 2023 Cannes competition, Nanni Moretti’s “Il sol dell’avvenire” (“Bright Tomorrow”), a multi-layered love letter to filmmaking in the age of streaming giants, is the French It sold well through Kinology and received contracts throughout Europe and Latin. America.
New Italian films set to appear on this year’s festival circuit
“Another End” – Gael García Bernal and Renate Reinsve (“The Worst Man in the World”) are in an unusual bind in Italian director Piero Messina’s sci-fi film “Another End,” which is currently showing in Berlin. She plays the role of a lover who falls into a relationship. This second feature by Messina, whose first, The Wait, made waves at his 2015 Venice competition, is set in the near future, where new technology exists to bring the consciousness of the dead back to life. is. He destroys his body in an attempt to ease the pain of separation.Sales: New En Connect
Untitled Paolo Sorrentino movie
The as-yet-untitled 10th film from the Oscar-winning director of The Great Beauty is, as Sorrentino cryptically put it, “named after a city, but neither a siren nor a myth. ” This is a story about a woman named Partenope. In Greek mythology, Partenope, as she is known in English, is the name of a siren who failed to seduce Odysseus with her song, and she threw herself into the sea and drowned. Her body washed up on the iconic foundation rock on which Naples is located. Neapolitans in Italy are also called “Parthenopians”. The film’s main cast consists of Luisa Ranieri, who played her mentally troubled aunt Patrizia in “The Hand of God.” Gary Oldman. and Silvio Orlando, who played Cardinal Voiello in The Young Pope. Sales: UTA and Fremantle.
“Queer” – Luca Guadagnino’s original William S. Burroughs story stars Daniel Craig as the alter ego of the famous counterculture writer, a drug-addicted American exile living in Mexico, alongside “Outer Banks” star Drew – Starkey plays the role of a young man who has been discharged from the military. He is a soldier in the US Navy and he is madly infatuated with him.Sales undecided
“Idu” – Toni Servillo, who played Roman socialite Jep Gambardella in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning film “The Great Beauty,” and fellow Italian A player Elio Germano will be starring in “The Last Godfather.” He will star in this drama about Cosa Nostra director Matteo Messina Denaro. Directed by Fabio Grasadonia and Antonio Piazza (A Sicilian Ghost Story). The roles played by Servillo and Elio Germano are kept secret.Sales undecided
Untitled Gabriele Mainetti Film – Internationally known for genre-bending titles “They Call Me Jeeg” and “Freaks vs. the Reich,” Mainetti brings us a kung fu film set in Rome’s multi-ethnic Piazza Vittorio. I shot a movie. His as-yet-untitled third feature will feature a fresh take on the 1970 Japanese manga series “Giegue,” followed by a fresh take on the Nazi hunter film genre with “Freaks,” and a take on the martial arts film genre. It uses metaphors. The Rome-set kung fu film stars Chinese martial artist Liu Yaxi, who was Liu Yifei’s stunt double in Disney’s Mulan, and stars Enrico Borrello (The Lovely Boy) and Sabrina from Italy. – Ferilli (“The Great Beauty”), Marco Giallini (“Perfect Strangers”) and Luca Zingaretti (“Montalbano”).Sales: Vision Distribution
“Gloria!” – Singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario makes her directorial debut with this musical comedy set in an 18th-century Venice girls’ boarding school, in which a young rebel leads a group of performers to a classical canon. Take on challenges and invent the vanguard of pop music.Sales: Rai Cinema International
“My Summer With Irene” – Carlo Sironi, whose first feature “Sole” was performed in Toronto and Berlin in 2020, returns. This time in Berlin’s Generation division, it’s a romantic drama starring up-and-coming French indie stars Noe Abita (Slalom) and Maria Camila Barandenburg (Slam Italia), both of whom are struggling with health issues. They play two troubled 17-year-olds named Clara and Irene. Shortly after meeting, the two escape together to an island, where they experience an unforgettable summer.Sales: Fandango