Ioncinema

The full line-up will be unveiled on Tuesday, but we got a little Lido appetizer pair this morning. Opening the Horizons (aka Orrizonti) section it is Italian cinema that will be profiled with Valerio Mastandrea‘s Nonostante launching festivities. With about three decades under his belt as an actor, Mastandrea moved into feature filmmaking with Laughing (2018) – Torino Film Festival selection. Here is the synopsis:

A man spends peacefully his days in hospital without too many worries. He has been hospitalized for a while but that condition seems like the best way to live his life, safe from everything and everyone, without responsibilities and problems of any kind.… Read the rest

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The first feature films of the 2024 Venice Film Festival lineup have been unveiled through the Giornate Degli Autori section. Artistic Director Gaia Furrer’s programming team has selected sixteen films—ten competition titles and six special screenings—excluding the Venetian Nights section for Italian cinema. No surprises here – most of these films were not on our radar. A docu-filmmaker who has been on the Lido for her last two features, Federica Di Giacomo follows 2016’s Deliver Us (Winner of the Orizzonti Award) and 2021’s Il palazzo (also a Giornate Degli Autori selecrtion) with opening film of the section in The Open Couple.… Read the rest

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Pedro Paramo
Dir. Rodrigo Prieto
Prod: Rafael Ley, Stacy Perskie, Francisco Ramos

A Netflix backed project that went into production in March of last year, Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto moved into his feature directorial debut with a film that follows a dusty road to a town of death. Pedro Paramo is about time shifts from one consciousness to another in a hypnotic flow of dreams, desires, and memories, a world of ghosts dominated by the figure of Pedro Páramo lover, overlord, murderer. Manuel García-Rulfo and Tenoch Huerta topline. We see this grabbing the closing film spot a la last year’s Society of the Snow.… Read the rest

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Joker: Folie a Deux
Dir. Todd Phillips
Prod: Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Joseph Garner

It would be kind of neat if the head jury person of the 2019 Venice Film Festival who feted Todd Phillips by bestowing the the Golden Lion for Joker would somehow face off in competition with her docu. After having seen the trailer flaunting the acting (plus singing) chops of Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, this studio film has a legit shot at a second Lion. Along with Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener and Zazie Beetz, this takes us back to the moment after the murder of Murray Franklin live on television.… Read the rest

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So here we are. The programming teams headed by Artistic Directors Gaia Furrer (Giornate degli Autori), Beatrice Fiorentino (Settimana Internazionale della Critica) and Alberto Barbera (Cinema Department of La Biennale di Venezia) have viewed thousands of hours of cinema and are getting ready to drop their line-ups. This Friday we find out the selections for the Giornate degli Autori, next Monday the Venice International Critics’ Week unveils their line-up and on the second Xmas morning of the year (Tuesday) we find out which films are competing for the Golden Lion. As usual, we have compiled a list of predictions that cover all sections, based on a combination of insider information, validation from other sources, and educated guesses here they are.… Read the rest

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As usual, the folks at Cineuropa get the dibs on CNC’s advance receipt news and today we learn that The Worst Ones (Les Pires) tandem Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret are deep into pre-production and will begin shooting their sophomore feature titled Ma frère which is grammatically incorrect but is slang that means – “it’s my brother, my sister and me.” Originally titled Would You Rather, this is based on the Sundance preemed hybrid web-series of that name (aka Tu Préfères), the filmmaker teamed with Catherine Paillé to pen the project and they re-teamed with young actresses Shirel Nataf and Fanta Kebe – who both appeared in the series.… Read the rest

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We’ve got the first (really early) look at Chloé Robichaud‘s fourth feature film — which is set to drop next summer (domestic Quebec release) and we imagine might be submitted to Berlinale and/or Cannes of 2025. Following Sarah préfère la course (Cannes 2013) followed by Pays (TIFF ’16) and Les Jours heureux (TIFF ’23), Robichaud adapts from, and gives a fresh coat of paint to female desire in Deux femmes en or (Two Women in Gold) — an adaptation of the 1970 film of the same title that was part of a wave of late 60’s and early 70’s Quebecois cinema pushing libertinism and had two actresses in the lead roles.… Read the rest

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Savory wine, blissful beaches, rugged topography, and an elusive Philippe Katerine who plays Jean-Philippe — we’ve been keeping close tabs on what will be the middle part in Sophie Letourneur‘s proposed vaca-trilogy. Now comes word that (via the Cineuropa folks) that the project will be known as L’Aventura — a wordplay on Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterwork (perhaps one of the main players will disappear here too). Casting is complete (perhaps we’ll get a surprise appearance), and Letourneur will be re-teaming with cinematopgrapher Jonathan Ricquebourg (he was onboard for Voyages en Italie and more recently The Taste of Things) and the bigger news is that the producing team to come onboard are Atelier de Production’s Thomas and Mathieu Verhaeghe – who mostly produced a string of Quentin Dupieux films and other recent fest faves in Puan (last year’s San Sebastian Film Festival) and Dog on Trial and Eat the Night (both featured at this year’s Cannes Film Festival).… Read the rest

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Filming is imminent for Lynne Ramsay‘s highly anticipated fifth feature, and we just learned that a key creative member in cinematographer Seamus McGarvey from the We Need to Talk About Kevin team will reunite with the Scottish filmmaker with pre-production currently unfolding in Calgary, Alberta. McGarvey recently reteamed with Joe Wright for Cyrano and the next item we might see is in Angelina Jolie’s long-delayed Without Blood. Based on the book by Ariana Harwicz, co-written by Ramsay and Enda Walsh, Die, My Loveis described as a horror dramedy and takes place in a remote forgotten rural area, where a mother (Jennifer Lawrence) struggles to maintain her sanity as she battles with psychosis.… Read the rest

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Yann Mounir Demange quite literally blasted onto the scene back in 2014 with his feature debut about a stranded British soldier (Jack O’Connell) with nowhere to hide, but to move forward in a hostile Belfast circa 1971 (hence the provenance of the film’s title ’71). Born in Paris to a French mother and an Algerian father, the filmmaker would establish himself in the British film scene before Hollywood came knocking and yet we feel that it’s with his short, Dammi where we find the filmmaker at his most personal. Launched at 2023 Locarno Film Festival (with a trip to TIFF shortly after), this professional palette cleanser (before he sets off to make Blade) brings him back to his roots, and this is mostly due to a creative partnership formed with Rosa Attab (producer on Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here).… Read the rest

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