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Jane Campion, Laura Poitras, Martin McDonagh and Mia Hansen-Løve have joined the main jury of the upcoming Venice Film Festival.

The prominent directors, most of whom are Venice regulars – Poitras last year scored the Golden Lion with documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” – will be joined by fellow jury members including Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“Wajib”); Chinese star Shu Qi (“The Assassin”); Italian director Gabriele Mainetti, who was at Venice last year with “Freaks Out”; and Argentinian auteur Santiago Mitre, whose “Argentina, 1985” also launched from the Lido last year.

They will join Damien Chazelle who, as previously announced, will serve as president of the Venice competition jury.

Venice revealed its jury just hours after talks broke down without a deal between actors union SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance for Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). A strike is expected to be called on Thursday morning, Pacific time, which could have...

“Creatura,” the feature debut of Elena Martín, exploring female sexual desire and repression, has won this year’s 20th Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European Film at the 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Announced Thursday by Europa Cinemas, ahead of the closing ceremony this afternoon, the prize is one of two at Directors’ Fortnight, and awarded by one of the sidebar’s partners, given the section is non-competitive.

A second partner plaudit, the Sacd Prize, handed out by France’s Writers’ Guild, will be announced simultaneously to the Europa Cinemas Label.

“Creature” hit Cannes will multiple tailwinds. Like last year’s Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” it’s made by an emerging woman director associated by the so-called Catalan New Wave of helmers and producers making films twinning a strong sense of place and universal issues.

The second feature from 2021 Málaga best director Martín (“Júlia ist”) and a “Veneno” writer and “Perfect Life” director,...

Updated with Sacd prize details: Spanish director Elena Martín Gimeno’s Creatura won the Europa Cinemas prize as Best European Film, while Pierre Caton’s Le Prince scooped the Sacd for best French film at Directors’ Fortnight on Thursday.

The prizes were announced ahead of the evening closing ceremony for the non-competitive parallel Directors Fortnight section.

The Europa Cinema label and Sacd prizes are the key collateral prizes awarded to films world premiering in the section.

Under the Europa Cinema prize, the release of Creatura will receive the support of cinemas belonging to the independent exhibitor network representing 3,060 screens in 38 countries. The jury consists of four exhibitor members of the network.

Creatura revolves around a seemingly perfect couple who no longer manage to have sex, prompting one partner to probe her past and her sexual sexual awakening, from adolescence back to early childhood.

French writers guild Sacd’s prize is...

La La Land, Babylon, and Whiplash director Damien Chazelle will head up the international jury for the 80th Venice International Film Festival, Venice unveiled on Friday.

A regular on the Lido, Chazelle premiered both La La Land and the Neil Armstrong biopic First Man in competition in Venice.

“For 10 days each year this city of the arts, of Tintoretto and Titian and Veronese, becomes a city of cinema, and I am humbled and delighted to be invited to lead this year’s jury,” Chazelle said in a statement. “I can’t wait to discover a new crop of great films at the 80th Venice Film Festival.”

French director Alice Diop (Saint Omer, We) will head up the Luigi De Laurentiis jury judging the best first film at this year’s festival, while Italy’s Jonas Carpignano (A Chiara, A Ciambra), will be president of the jury for Venice’s main sidebar,...

‘La La Land’ director Chazelle will chair the Competition jury.

La La Land director Damien Chazelle will be president of the Competition jury for the 80th Venice Film Festival (August 30-September 9).

Saint Omer director Alice Diop will chair the Luigi De Laurentiis debut film award jury; with A Chiara filmmaker Jonas Carpignano chairing the Horizons jury.

Chazelle has opened the festival on two previous occasions, with La La Land in 2016 and with First Man in 2018, both in Competition. Emma Stone won the Volpi Cup for best actress for La La Land, and went on to take the best actress Oscar...

Damien Chazelle will preside over the competition jury of the upcoming Venice Film Festival.

The U.S. director is a Venice regular, having opened the Lido event on two occasions, in 2016 with “La La Land” and in 2018 with “First Man.”

Damien Chazelle, welcoming Venice’s proposal, stated: “For 10 days each year this city of the arts, of Tintoretto and Titian and Veronese, becomes a city of cinema, and I am humbled and delighted to be invited to lead this year’s jury. I can’t wait to discover a new crop of great films at the 80th Venice Film Festival.”

Venice also also announced that French director Alice Diop will head the jury panel of the fest’s Luigi De Laurentiis Award for best debut film, while Italy’s Jonas Carpignano will be president of the jury of the Horizons section for more cutting-edge works.

Diop with “Saint Omer,” which was her first feature,...

Damien Chazelle has been announced as the international jury president for the main competition of the 80th Venice International Film Festival, running Aug 30 — Sep 9.

“For ten days each year this city of the arts, of Tintoretto and Titian and Veronese, becomes a city of cinema, and I am humbled and delighted to be invited to lead this year’s jury. I can’t wait to discover a new crop of great films at the 80th Venice Film Festival,” Chazelle said.

Chazelle has opened Venice twice. First, with 2016’s La La Land and in 2018 with First Man. La La Land received 14 Academy Awards nominations, winning six including Best Director. Damien Chazelle was the youngest director ever to win the award. First Man, starring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy, picked up four Academy Awards.

French filmmaker Alice Diop will serve as the President of the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for Debut Features.

Exclusive: Producer Daniela Taplin Lundberg’s Stay Gold Features has announced the launch of Hollywood Gold, a new talk show podcast that will pull back the curtain on the making of some of the industry’s most iconic movies, through interviews with notable producers and filmmakers.

The series will profile a wide range of films and feature conversations with such producers as Fred Roos (The Outsiders), Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise), Ron Shelton (Bull Durham), Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa (Election), and Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks (American Beauty). From stories of how the Weinsteins refused to approve the infamous Scream mask, to how The Princess Diaries inspired Julie Andrews’ return to film after a 10 year hiatus and launched Anne Hathaway’s career, to unknown filmmaker Martin Scorcese discovering Robert De Niro in the casting process for Mean Streets, the podcast will shine a light on the often unseen and...

Shia Labeouf is crediting partner Mia Goth for bringing light back into his life.

During an interview on the “Real Ones with Jon Bernthal” podcast, Labeouf praised “Pearl” actress Goth for reaching out when he was in rehab after two years of not speaking. The duo reconciled in 2021 and welcomed daughter Isabel earlier this year.

“She saved my fucking life,” Labeouf said of Goth, admitting she “took hits” from the media for getting back with him amid abuse allegations and upcoming lawsuit from “Honey Boy” co-star, ex FKA Twigs. Goth appeared for Labeouf’s family week program at his rehabilitation center two months after he entered treatment.

Despite Labeouf having “nothing to offer her,” Goth was “present for me at a time when I didn’t deserve to have nobody in my life, especially her,” the “Padre Pio” actor said. “She gave me hope when I was really running on fumes.

Jonas Carpignano's A Chiara is exclusively showing on Mubi in many countries starting August 26, 2022, in the series The New Auteurs and Jonas Carpignano: The Calabrian Trilogy.A Chiara (2021).Her sister’s birthday party is still in full swing when fifteen-year-old Chiara (Swamy Rotolo) sees her dad leave the celebrations, rush to his car, and drive away. There have been other times in Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara when the teen’s father seemed to know more than he let on, but this is the first he radiates a sinister energy, something Chiara has never sensed before and doesn’t know how to decipher. Stunned, she looks on. The whole scene lasts a handful of seconds, most of which Carpignano spends on the girl’s face as she takes it all in: her dad sneaking out of the restaurant where the whole family’s dancing, his last words to her,...

“It’s been the great mystery in political history of the past 50 years,” said Slamdance Film Festival founder, writer and director Dan Mirvish of the eighteen-and-a-half minutes famously missing from the Nixon Tapes. His campy political thriller out this weekend takes a stab at what might have happened.

Adventure Entertainment opens 18 1/2 today on four screens in NY, LA, and Fort Lauderdale, expanding next week to about 60 including a special screening Wednesday at the Landmark Theatres E Street Cinema in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Watergate. The National Archives is screening CNN documentary series Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal the same night at a dueling event with John Dean, who was President Richard Nixon’s counsel from July, 1970 to April, 1973. The mother of U.S. political scandals exploded in June of 1972 when five men broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel and office complex.

Jonas Carpignano’s third feature film, “A Chiara,” the third film in his loosely networked Calabrian trilogy, is an ambitious genre-melter rendered in his observational, lyrical style.

At once a coming-of-age story and a mafia thriller, “A Chiara” takes a look at organized crime in Southern Italy from the unique perspective of a teenage girl, Chiara (Swamy Rotolo). Her world is turned upside down after her father disappears and she tumbles down the rabbit hole after him, discovering he’s a member of the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate.

Carpignano’s previous two films in the trilogy are 2015’s “Mediterranea,” which followed the experiences of African immigrants in Calabria, and 2017’s “A Ciambra,” executive produced by Martin Scorsese, about a Romani boy growing up too fast. All three films in the trilogy debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and have raked in a slew of awards and nominations for the filmmaker, including...

Starring Léa Seydoux, Mia Hansen-Løve’s “One Fine Morning” won this year’s Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European film at the 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Announced Thursday by Europa Cinemas, ahead of the closing ceremony this evening, the prize is one of two at Directors Fortnight, and awarded by one of the sidebar’s partners given the section is non-competitive.

A second partner plaudit, the Sacd Prize, handed out by France’s Writers’ Guild, will be announced later today at an awards ceremony.

“One Fine Morning” was always a frontrunner for a prize at Directors’ Fortnight, though never a shoo-in. The award comes just three days after Sony Pictures Classics announced it had acquired North American, Latin American and Middle East rights to the film.

Marking Hansen-Løve’s return to Directors’ Fortnight after Cannes competition player “Bergman Island,” “One Fine Morning” stars Séydoux as a woman stretched between long-time single motherhood,...

Writer, director, and producer Jonas Carpignano cast the lead actress for the conclusion of his Calabrian trilogy when she was just 10 years old. That’s how memorable Swamy Rotolo and her entire real-life family were to Carpignano, and key to rounding out his Calabrian trilogy.

“A Chiara” stars Rotolo as a teenager who soon discovers her father has organized crime ties in their small town of Gioia Tauro. As Chiara (Rotolo) pieces together the depths to which her family is intoxicated by the larger mafia familial ties, her father (Claudio Rotolo) goes missing, forcing her into foster care. Chiara eventually confronts her absent dad for his sins and is forced to reckon with her own. The film concludes Carpignano’s trilogy after 2015’s “Mediterranea” and 2017’s “A Ciambra.”

“A Chiara” premiered in the 2021 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and won the Europa Labels Prize for Best European Film. The film went on...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated autobiographical drama “The Hand of God” took top honors at Italy’s 67th David di Donatello Awards, winning best picture, director, supporting actress and tying for the best cinematography statuette.

Sorrentino’s Naples-set film about the personal tragedy and other vicissitudes that drove him to become a top notch film director had been the frontrunner along with young helmer Gabriele Mainetti’s second feature, the elegant effects-laden historical fantasy “Freaks Out.”

“Freaks Out” won six prizes, including for its producer, Andrea Occhipinti, as well as cinematographer, set design, and effects.

The cinematography prize, which was a tie, was split between “Hand of God” Dp Daria D’Antonio, marking the first time this David goes to a woman, and Michele Attanasio for “Freaks Out.”

The Davids were held as a fully in-person ceremony at Rome’s Cinecittà studios just as the famed facilities undergo a radical renewal being...

"Are we in trouble?" Neon has revealed an official US trailer for an Italian drama titled A Chiara, the third feature from acclaimed filmmaker Jonas Carpignano, following his first two films: Mediterranea and A Ciambra. This one follows the story of 15-year-old Chiara whose close-knit family falls apart after her father abandons them in Calabria. As she gets closer to the difficult truth about her mysteriously missing father—and the crime syndicates that control her region— Chiara is forced to decide what kind of future she wants for herself. They add: "A coming-of-age chronicle like no other, A Chiara is both an intimate and universal family story." Featuring a local cast with Swamy Rotolo as Chiara, plus Claudio Rotolo, Grecia Rotolo, Antonina Fumo, Antonio Rotolo Uno, Carmela Fumo, Concetta Grillo, and Giorgia Rotolo. This won an award at last year's Directors' Fortnight sidebar during the Cannes Film Festival, and opens in the US this May.

Following Mediterranea and A Ciambra, writer-director Jonas Carpignano has completed his Calabrian trilogy with A Chiara, which picked up the Europa Cinema Label at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight last year and follows a teenage girl’s reckoning with her father’s participation in the mafia. Ahead of a May 27 theatrical release via Neon, the new U.S. trailer has now arrived.

Ed Frankl said in his Cannes review, “With a documentary-like authenticity, this is a touching, powerful film with a lyrical visual palette and a superb sense of time and place. As in Mediterranea and A Ciambra, which told stories about immigration and the Roma community, respectively, Carpignano takes us to Gioia Tauro at the southern tip of the Italian mainland. For ten years the director has embedded himself here, a place infamous for the penetration in all walks of life of the ‘Ndrangheta, the secretive mafia clan that by some...

While our recently published summer movie preview was a fairly comprehensive look at what we’re most anticipating over the next few months, some surprises still await. Case in point: the release date of our #1 pick to see this month was only unveiled a few days ago. Featuring long-awaited festival favorites, genre delights, medium-length work, and even—yes!—a blockbuster, check out our picks below.

13. Men (Alex Garland; May 20 in theaters)

Alex Garland’s Men is a curious creation, oddly misshapen and thematically simplistic, yet this contained psychological horror-thriller has a go-for-broke finale worth the price of admission simply for the confounding glances one will have with fellow moviegoers exiting the theater. Telling the story of Jessie Buckley’s character as she contends with recent trauma and the various shades of misogynistic demons that intend to interrupt her healing, the build-up is an impressive tightrope walk of horror and humor...

FireFollowing a successful but necessarily impersonal virtual edition in 2021, the Berlin International Film Festival returned to in-person activities this year, drawing skepticism in some quarters but ultimately quieting the naysayers with a safe and efficient event that put the movies back where they belong: on the big screen. With mandatory daily Covid tests, 2G plus vaccination protocols, ticket reservations, assigned seating, and half-capacity venues, the Berlinale’s typically convivial vibe was sterilized and regimented in a way that’s already become familiar in an era of masks and social distancing. But no matter: the program, overseen by Carlo Chatrian in his third year as artistic director, while never quite reaching the skyscraping heights of recent editions (in which films like Days and What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? confirmed the new regime’s dedication to auteur-driven art cinema), provided a deep and rewarding wellspring of work...

Southern Spain’s annual showcase of standout recent European auteur cinema, the Seville European Film Festival, wrapped its 18th edition Saturday, Nov. 13 with a slew of prizes scattered among its various contenders, with the top prize, the Giraldillo de Oro, going to Sebastian Meise’s “Great Freedom” and its lead, Franz Rogowski, nabbing the best actor award. The Andalusian screenwriters association, Asecan, also chose the drama as the best film in the festival’s official selection.

Set in post-war Germany, “Great Freedom” has been racking up rave reviews and prizes across the festival circuit, starting with its Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize and most recently in Athens and Sarajevo where it topped their awards. In it, Hans, played by Rogowski, is imprisoned repeatedly for being gay. The only constant in his life is his cellmate, Viktor, a convicted murderer, with whom his initial repulsion turns to something akin to love.

Each of the bracingly intimate films that comprise Jonas Carpignano’s loose-knit Calabrian trilogy are self-contained to a certain degree; like “Mediterranea” and “A Ciambra” before it, “A Chiara” is meant to be understood on its own. But the small handful of overlapping characters between them link their respective stories together on a macroeconomic level in a way that deepens and belies the myopia of their neorealist construction.

The triptych begins with two refugees making the perilous trek from Africa to the Italian port city of Gioia Tauro, only to find themselves exploited by the people who got there first. The next chapter takes a half-step up the local hierarchy by focusing on a young Romani boy who idolizes his racist older brother, but struggles to reconcile the hostility of that us-vs-them mindset with the warmth he feels toward his foreign new friends, and his family’s own history of...

Talk to the people behind the Zff Academy, and it quickly becomes clear that this Zurich Film Festival talent program is close to their hearts.

Launched back in 2006, just a year after the festival itself, the aim of the Zff Academy is to promote exchange between notable filmmakers and aspiring directors, writers and producers. It’s there to help up and coming creatives and execs to learn from film industry experts, connect with each other and to exchange ideas.

In many ways, it’s like the well-known Berlinale Talents program – only more intimate. Just 19 talents – nine women and 10 men – have been selected from hundreds of applicants to take part in the five-day Zurich initiative.

Talent from all over the world traditionally apply to the Zff Academy, but this year the cohort is largely European – reflecting the difficulties that many people are having travelling due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Head of Zff...

Last year, the pandemic forced organizers to call off the full-fledged Cannes Film Festival. This year, the festival staged a comeback and welcomed industry players, including distributors looking for completed films at the buzzy festival, back to the Croisette July 6-17.

There was plenty of market activity from the start. Some of the buzzy titles that scored early distribution include Leos Carax’s English-language debut and festival opener “Annette.” Amazon scooped that up four years ago. Another Cannes favorite director, Paul Verhoeven, saw his latest effort, lesbian nun drama “Benedetta,” acquired by IFC Films.

IFC announced another acquisition, Mia Hansen-Løve’s”Bergman Island,” the day after the festival lineup was announced.

Last year’s Cannes included a list of official selections that allowed films to display the festival’s laurels, including Oscar winner “Another Round.” But actual activity was limited to a very abbreviated “special edition” staged in October, plus...

Putting the discourse to test as if it sought sanctification, Abel Ferrara has revealed Shia Labeouf—whose most recent news cycle was, put one way, undesirable—will lead his next film, a biopic of Italian saint Padre Pio. This has been a years-long project for Ferrara, who explored Pio’s life in a 2015 documentary, Searching for Padre Pio, that he recently told us was a way to “film the research.” [Variety]

Per that same interview, the film will be scripted with Maurizio Braucci (Martin Eden) and, little surprise here, likely feature Willem Dafoe. Production’s expected to commence in October, its story following Padre Pio’s status as “a symbol of hope for the Italian people during the country’s difficult inter-war period” and exhibition of stigmata. Shades of Ferrara’s great, perpetually underseen Mary? There’s incredible potential, obviously—he’s in a terrific groove of late, judging just by...

Writer-director Jonas Carpignano completes his Calabrian trilogy with A Chiara, an enthralling drama about a teenage girl coming to terms with her family’s role in the mafia, which won the Europa Cinema Label at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. With a documentary-like authenticity, this is a touching, powerful film with a lyrical visual palette and a superb sense of time and place.

As in Mediterranea and A Ciambra, which told stories about immigration and the Roma community, respectively, Carpignano takes us to Gioia Tauro at the southern tip of the Italian mainland. For ten years the director has embedded himself here, a place infamous for the penetration in all walks of life of the ‘Ndrangheta, the secretive mafia clan that by some accounts controls three percent of Italy’s Gdp.

A Chiara begins, like another famous mafioso movie, with a party. To the tunes of Italian trap, Guilia (Grecia Rotolo) celebrates her 18th birthday,...

Film world premiered in Directors’ Fortnight winning top Europa Cinemas award.

Paris-based mk2 films has a sealed a raft of deals on Jonas Carpignano’s southern Italian drama A Chiara, which scooped one of the top collateral prizes in Directors’ Fortnight this year.

Mubi has done a multi-territory deal for the UK, Germany, Turkey and Latin America.

European deals include to Benelux (Imagine), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aerofilms), Greece (One From The Heart), Poland (Aurora Films), Spain (BTeam Pictures), Scandinavia and Baltics (Edge Entertainment).

For the rest of the world, it has sold to Australia and New Zealand (Palace Films...

Wrapping up a busy and fruitful Cannes film market, pioneering indie distributor Neon nabbed North American rights to Italian director Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara, winner of the Directors’ Fortnight section’s Europa Cinemas Cannes Label prize for best European film.

A Chiara is the final film in Carpignano’s Calabrian trilogy, and the follow-up to his 2017 feature A Ciambra, which likewise won Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section. The latest feature focuses on a young female protagonist, delivering what The Hollywood Reporter‘s critical called “arguably Carpignano’s most accomplished and affecting film to date.”

Written by Carpignano, A Chiara stars Carmela Fumo, Claudio Rotolo and Swamy Rotolo. The drama follows the ...

Wrapping up a busy and fruitful Cannes film market, pioneering indie distributor Neon nabbed North American rights to Italian director Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara, winner of the Directors’ Fortnight section’s Europa Cinemas Cannes Label prize for best European film.

A Chiara is the final film in Carpignano’s Calabrian trilogy, and the follow-up to his 2017 feature A Ciambra, which likewise won Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section. The latest feature focuses on a young female protagonist, delivering what The Hollywood Reporter‘s critical called “arguably Carpignano’s most accomplished and affecting film to date.”

Written by Carpignano, A Chiara stars Carmela Fumo, Claudio Rotolo and Swamy Rotolo. The drama follows the ...

Continuing its victory lap around the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, indie studio Neon has acquired the North American distribution rights to “A Chiara.”

The Jonas Carpignano film won the top prize in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section. It is a companion film to his 2017 “A Ciambra,” for which he took the same award that year. Critics raved about the film’s exploration of young female identity and Carpignano’s ability to create enduring interest in one fictional family across multiple films.

“A Chiara” follows Claudio and Carmela Guerrasio, who gather with family and friends to celebrate their eldest daughter’s 18th birthday. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 15-year-old sister Chiara, as they compete on the dance floor. A happy occasion shifts suddenly when the patriarch disappears. As Chiara investigates, she discovers truths about her family and must face decisions about the kind of life she wants to build.

Jury citation for A Chiara: 'This story of the gradual empowerment of the young female character and her relationship with her father and her extended family is brilliantly structured and built' Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Directors' Fortnight Italian writer-director Jonas Carpignano has scored with A Chiara, which has won the Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for best European film at Directors’ Fortnight, the festival’s independent parallel section.

Carpignano took the same prize in 2017 for his previous film, The Ciambra, which was executive produced by Martin Scorsese.

Magnetic Beats Photo: Courtesy of Director's Fortnight A Chiara focuses on a family’s 16-year-old daughter and her growing realisation that her beloved father may be part of the local criminal organisation. Set in the Calabrian city of Gioia Tauro, the winner was decided by a jury of four exhibitors from the pan-European network and the film will now receive the support of the Europa Cinemas Network,...

Although the Directors’ Fortnight section of Cannes is non-competitive, prizes are awarded by its partners. Revealed today, ahead of the closing ceremony this evening, the Europa Cinemas Cannes Label for Best European Film went to Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara and the Sacd Prize to Magnetic Beats (Les Magnétiques) by Vincent Maël Cardona.

A Chiara is Carpignano’s second time scooping the Europa Cinemas Label. He previously won for 2017’s A Ciambra, the second film in his Calabrian Trilogy. A Chiara will now receive the support of the Europa Cinemas Network, with additional promotion and incentives for exhibitors to extend the film’s run on screen.

Set in Gioia Tauro, Italy, the story of a 15-year-old girl who learns some hard truths about her close-knit family when her father disappears, “reflects a genre that has been extensively covered in cinema but this time from a new perspective,” the jury commented.

Writer-director Jonas Carpignano has scored at Cannes with “A Chiara,” winning the Europa Cinemas Cannes Label nod for best European film at Directors’ Fortnight, the festival’s biggest independent parallel section. Carpignano took the same prize for his previous film, “A Ciambra,” which was exec produced by Martin Scorsese, in 2017.

In the second big Directors’ Fortnight prize announcement, Vincent Maël Cardona’s feature debut “Magnetic Beats (“Les Magnétiques”) won the section’s Sacd Prize, awarded by France’s Writers’ Guild. Cardona’s short, “Anywhere Out of the World,” featured at the 2010’s Cannes Cinefondation student short competition.

“A Chiara” focuses on a family’s 16-year-old daughter and her growing realization that her beloved father may be part of the local criminal organization. Set in what the Variety review describes as the “hardscrabble underside” of the Calabrian city of Gioia Tauro, “A Chiara” delivers “a complex and ultimately realistic picture,” it said.

Sidebar winners directed by Jonas Carpignano and Vincent Maël Cardona.

Jonas Carpignano’s Italian drama A Chiara and Vincent Maël Cardona’s French feature Magnetic Beats have picked up the top awards at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes.

The independent, parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival is non-competitive but does award partner prizes.

A Chiara, in which a teenage girl’s family falls apart after her father abandons them in Calabria, won the Europa Cinemas Label award for best European Film. It marks the second time Italo-American director Carpignano has won the award after picking up the prize in 2017 with A Ciambra.

A Chiara, directed by Italy’s Jonas Carpignano, has won the Europa Cinemas Cannes Label prize for best European film as part of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section.

The win marks the second time for Carpignano after winning the Europa Cinemas Label in Cannes in 2017 with A Ciambra, which also screened as part of the Director’s Fortnight sidebar. A Chiara, starring Carmela Fumo, Claudio Rotolo and Swamy Rotolo, portrays the Guerrasio family and their friends celebrating the oldest daughter’s 18th birthday, while her 16-year-old sister Chiara goes beyond a sibling rivalry to start investigating her families ties to the local mafia.

“...

A Chiara, directed by Italy’s Jonas Carpignano, has won the Europa Cinemas Cannes Label prize for best European film as part of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section.

The win marks the second time for Carpignano after winning the Europa Cinemas Label in Cannes in 2017 with A Ciambra, which also screened as part of the Director’s Fortnight sidebar. A Chiara, starring Carmela Fumo, Claudio Rotolo and Swamy Rotolo, portrays the Guerrasio family and their friends celebrating the oldest daughter’s 18th birthday, while her 16-year-old sister Chiara goes beyond a sibling rivalry to start investigating her families ties to the local mafia.

“...

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a galvanizing cultural phenomenon for over a decade, but it doesn’t have a monopoly on world-building, or even offer the best example of its potential. Sure, there’s a giddy rush that comes from watching Spider-Man swing his way into the Avengers as the team assembles for one movie after another. The ultimate experience, however, boils down to a familiar one — a giant blockbuster spectacle is still just that, even in episodic form.

Other filmmakers working well beyond the constraints of Hollywood may not have the resources to develop sprawling multi-part epics, but they’re applying the concept in more personal and innovative ways. Several highlights from this year’s Cannes Film Festival build on previous work from their directors by either continuing stories started in earlier work, or adding new dimensions to environments they’ve explored before. As a whole, they offer...

It comes as something of a surprise to realize we still feel invested, four years on, in the characters Jonas Carpignano created in “A Ciambra” and, two years earlier, “Mediterranea.” Those two films, shot with a muscular contemporary neorealism, captured two sides of life in the hardscrabble underside of the Calabrian city Gioia Tauro, a place so associated with the province’s criminal organization the ‘Ndrangheta that most websites barely mention a more salutary history stretching back millennia. With “A Chiara,” the writer-director adds another facet to the earlier stories, one more intimately connected to the region’s mafia, but it’s perhaps too soon to call Carpignano’s three features a triptych since the panorama he’s built could easily keep extending further.

Although each film is a standalone, the recurrence of characters from the earlier stories offers a greater sense of how multiple strata of society interact, and...

In his Calabrian series that began with Mediterranea, about the North African refugee influx, and shifted to a Romani community in A Ciambra, writer-director Jonas Carpignano brought unvarnished naturalism to vivid snapshots of a place where poverty, racism and crime to a large extent shape the social fabric. He completes the trilogy with A Chiara, for the first time focusing on a young female protagonist and delivering what’s arguably his most accomplished and affecting film to date. A too-protracted final act notwithstanding, this chronicle of a keen-eyed teen’s loss of innocence builds to a shattering climax.

Again coaxing impeccably unselfconscious performances out of ...

In his Calabrian series that began with Mediterranea, about the North African refugee influx, and shifted to a Romani community in A Ciambra, writer-director Jonas Carpignano brought unvarnished naturalism to vivid snapshots of a place where poverty, racism and crime to a large extent shape the social fabric. He completes the trilogy with A Chiara, for the first time focusing on a young female protagonist and delivering what’s arguably his most accomplished and affecting film to date. A too-protracted final act notwithstanding, this chronicle of a keen-eyed teen’s loss of innocence builds to a shattering climax.

Again coaxing impeccably unselfconscious performances out of ...

It’s summer, everyone! And with its relatively sparse list of new releases for July 2021, Hulu seems to be subtlety imploring its subscribers to go outside.

Don’t get us wrong: Hulu’s library offerings get a big upgrade this month. July 1 sees the arrival of great films like Galaxy Quest, Fargo, and Caddyshack. Bill and Ted Face the Music premieres on July 2 and its followed by Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar on July 9. Not bad stuff! It’s just that, outside of the library titles, there isn’t much to go off of.

Hulu’s only major original release this month is the FX on Hulu production American Horror Stories on July 15. As its name implies, the show is a spinoff of American Horror Story and will feature self-contained horror episodes rather than a season-long arc. If you’ll allow this geriatric millennial to deploy one truly ancient meme: “Yo dawg,...

There’s a nice quote in Abel Ferrara’s 2014 film Pasolini: “The meaning of this parable is precisely the relationship of an author to the form he creates.” It’s an idea I’ve been quite taken with in the years since, and unsurprisingly Ferrara has only expanded upon it in his most recent two feature films, Tommaso and Siberia. I’ve been lucky enough to ask Mr. Ferrara about this, and while the films themselves offer a clarity that only art can provide, there are still things—not loose ends, but rather tangents and streams—one can gain a little perspective on through the nature of correspondence itself. Mr. Ferrara—a congenial, gentle, and kindly man—gives us a little insight on this relationship between art and the artist, how it’s informed what he’s doing now as opposed to what he used to do, and where he’s going next.

On the heels of yesterday’s announcement of the Cannes Critics’ Week lineup, now comes confirmation of the 25 movies that will screen in the festival’s other prestigious sidebar section, Directors’ Fortnight. The lineup includes eight debut features, including “Hit the Road” by Jafar Panahi’s son, Panah Panahi. Directors’ Fortnight 2021 opens with Emmanuel Carrère’s “Between Two Worlds,” starring Juliette Binoche as an author experiencing job insecurity. Other notable titles include “A Chiara,” the latest movie from “Mediterranea” and “A Ciambra” director Jonas Carpignano.

Perhaps the biggest draw for U.S. audiences will be the world premiere of Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir Part II,” starring Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Charlie Heaton, Harris Dickinson, and Joe Alwyn. The film is executive produced by Martin Scorsese, who is also an executive producer on Fortnight title “Murina” (directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović). Hogg’s original “The Souvenir” was one...

Parallel Cannes section will unveil 24 new films.

Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II will be among the 24 features world premiering in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, running July 7-17 this year.

The non-competitive Cannes parallel section, overseen by French directors guild the Société des Réalisateurs (Srf), has unveiled an eclectic 2021 line-up of new films by established directors and emerging talent at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (June 8).

Scroll down for the full selection

UK directors Barnard and Hogg were hotly tipped for Cannes 2020 until the main festival and parallel selections were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Parallel Cannes section will unveil 24 new films.

Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II will be among the 24 features world premiering in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, running July 7 to 17 this year.

The non-competitive Cannes parallel section, overseen by the French directors guild the Société des Réalisateurs (Srf), has unveiled an eclectic 2021 line-up of new films by established directors and emerging talent at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (June 8).

Scroll down for the full selection

UK directors Barnard and Hogg were hotly tipped for Cannes 2020 until the main festival and parallel selections were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Exclusive: One week after we brought you news of his app Erupt, today we can reveal that film and Broadway producer Edward Walson (Blue Jasmine) is launching Curia, a curated film streaming SVOD platform.

The idea behind the platform — which is initially only available in the U.S. — is to offer rotating monthly programming organized into niche sub-genres. Organizers say the service will be a fixture on the film festival circuit — including the upcoming Cannes Film Festival and market — with an appetite for new, exclusive acquisitions, including shorts.

The lineup will include auteur-driven cinema, movie classics and some commercially-minded fare. The first month’s programming in June will include sections such as Lol (comedies), Growing Pains (coming-of-age), Les Provocateurs and LGBTQ Pride.

Movies at launch will include Some Like It Hot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, In The Loop, Capote, Birdman Of Alcatraz, Paths Of Glory, A Ciambra, Boyhood, The Selfish Giant,...

MK2 Films has boarded Italian-American filmmaker Jonas Carpignano’s anticipated movie “A Chiara” which recently wrapped shooting in Calabria, in Southern Italy.

Carpignano’s third feature, “A Chiara” is now in post and will be ready this summer. Carpignano made his feature debut in 2015 with “Mediterranea,” which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week. His sophomore outing, “A Ciambra,” played at Directors’ Fortnight in 2017, was submitted as Italy’s Oscar candidate, and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best director.

“A Chiara” tells the story of 15-year-old Chiara whose close-knit family falls apart after her father abandons them in Calabria. Chiara starts to investigate to understand why her father disappeared and as she gets closer to the truth, she is forced to decide what kind of future she wants for herself.

“A Chiara” was lensed by Tim Curtin, the cinematographer of “A Ciambra,” with an original score composed by Benh Zeitlin...

The first clapperboard is set to slam in March on Christian Duguay’s new film, a Nolita Cinema production sold by TF1 Studio whose SVOD rights have reportedly been bought by Disney+. 8 March will see shooting begin on Ride Above by Canadian director Christian Duguay who is embarking upon his 4th feature film following on the heels of Jappeloup (1.8 million admissions in France in 2013 and a nomination for the Best Actor Lumières award as well as the Best New Female Hope César), Belle and Sebastian, The Adventure Continues (1.8 million French viewers in 2015) and A Bag of Marbles (1.3 million admissions in France in 2017). The cast comprises Pio Marmaï,...

On paper, “The Life Ahead” sounds like sentimental mush — orphaned immigrant kid gets rescued from a tortuous life of crime by the maternal Holocaust survivor and former prostitute who takes him in. And make no mistake: Director Edoardo Ponti, who directs his mother Sophia Loren as said survivor opposite newcomer Ibrahima Gueye as the immigrant child in question, certainly has made that kind of movie. But with its formidable odd couple at the center and Ponti’s alternately slick and sensitive direction,

While “The Life Ahead” draws from the same Romain Gary novel that inspired the 1977 Oscar-winner “Madame Rosa,” Ponti and co-writer Ugo Chiti have transplanted the setting from France to inner-city Italy and set the drama in the present day. That means cinematic grand dame Loren, returning to the screen for the first time in a decade, can play a role that fits her 86-year-old visage, and she brings a sturdy,...

In an unusual move, German and Swiss indie Dcm Film International has snapped up German-language remake rights to Italian dramedy “Andrà Tutto Bene” (“Everything’s Gonna Be Alright”) directed by Francesco Bruni, even before the film’s theatrical release in Italy.

While one could be forgiven for thinking the title pertains to the coronavirus pandemic, this pic is instead about a down-and-out film director who discovers he has a form of leukemia for which he needs a stem cell transplant from a matching donor. The deal for German remake rights was inked during lockdown by Italy’s Vision Distribution and Dcm. Bruni’s latest work had screened in still unfinished form at Berlin’s European Film Market in February. Dcm is currently looking at various German directors and talents to attach to the project.

Since the film’s planned March release in Italy was postponed due the pandemic, Vision Distribution...

Exclusive: Producer Daniela Taplin Lundberg’s Stay Gold Features (Harriet) says it has secured $10 million in funding from undisclosed private investors for film and TV projects.

Stay Gold Film Fund II will back in-house development and production and be managed by New York-based Taplin Lundberg, who with head of development Rebecca Cammarata oversees Stay Gold Features’ slate of film and TV projects. Partners in Stay Gold Features include Bill and Laurie Benenson and Nnamdi Asomugha.

Stay Gold is currently in post-production on Good Joe Bell, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and starring Mark Wahlberg and Connie Britton. Films currently in development include The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Edmund Morris; Black Lion, which the company is developing with Andrew Garfield; and previously unannounced project The Mysterious Tadpole, based on the children’s book by Steven Kellogg.

Launched in 2016, the company has produced or co-produced eight features.