Veteran Italian auteur Gianni Amelio rose to prominence with Oscar-nominated “Open Doors” (1990) and also “Stolen Children,” which won the 1992 Cannes Grand Prix. He won the Venice Golden Lion in 1998 with period drama “The Way We Laughed” and competed again in Venice with “A Lonely Hero” in 2013. Amelio’s more recent work comprises “Hammamet,” a portrait of disgraced late Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi’s final years in Tunisia.
Amelio is back in Venice with “Lord of the Ants” a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968, after a four-year trial due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law. Pic, which is produced by Simone Gattoni and Marco Bellocchio, stars Luigi Lo Cascio (“The Ties”) as Braibanti, who was convicted after a complaint from his younger partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality.
Amelio is back in Venice with “Lord of the Ants” a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968, after a four-year trial due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law. Pic, which is produced by Simone Gattoni and Marco Bellocchio, stars Luigi Lo Cascio (“The Ties”) as Braibanti, who was convicted after a complaint from his younger partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality.
- 9/10/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Prominent arthouse sales company The Match Factory has closed multiple sales on Italian auteur Gianni Amelio’s Venice competition title “Lord of the Ants” ahead of its Venice premiere on Tuesday.
The Match Factory has sealed deals on Amelio’s latest work – which is a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law – that will ensure the film’s theatrical release in Australia/New Zealand (Palace Films); Japan (Zazie Films); Spain (Surtsey Films); Sweden (TriArt Film) and Greece (Ama Films). Further deals are in negotiation, the company said.
Braibanti was convicted after a complaint from his partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality. The Fascist-era law that punished Braibanti, which made it a crime to lead innocent or unwary people “morally” astray,...
The Match Factory has sealed deals on Amelio’s latest work – which is a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law – that will ensure the film’s theatrical release in Australia/New Zealand (Palace Films); Japan (Zazie Films); Spain (Surtsey Films); Sweden (TriArt Film) and Greece (Ama Films). Further deals are in negotiation, the company said.
Braibanti was convicted after a complaint from his partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality. The Fascist-era law that punished Braibanti, which made it a crime to lead innocent or unwary people “morally” astray,...
- 9/6/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Leading Italian theatrical distribution and production house Eagle Pictures has acquired a 100 stake in emerging independent film and TV production start-up 302 Original Content.
Giuseppe Saccà launched 302 Original Content in July 2021 and will stay on as its managing director.
Saccà previously produced alongside his father Agostino Sacca under the banner of Pepito Produzioni, the Rome-based company behind films such as Gianni Amelio’s Hammamet and Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo’s Bad Tales.
302 Original Content’s credits to date include Calabria-set romantic comedy My Brother And I about a brother and sister fighting for the love of the same woman, and the Marta & Eva teen series produced with Rai Ragazzi for Rai Gulp/RaiPlay.
“The acquisition of 302 further expands Eagle Pictures’ business in a constantly evolving audiovisual market,” said Eagle Pictures president and owner Tarak Ben Ammar.
Eagle Pictures was Italy’s top performing distributor in the second quarter of 2022 with a 22.5 share of the market,...
Giuseppe Saccà launched 302 Original Content in July 2021 and will stay on as its managing director.
Saccà previously produced alongside his father Agostino Sacca under the banner of Pepito Produzioni, the Rome-based company behind films such as Gianni Amelio’s Hammamet and Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo’s Bad Tales.
302 Original Content’s credits to date include Calabria-set romantic comedy My Brother And I about a brother and sister fighting for the love of the same woman, and the Marta & Eva teen series produced with Rai Ragazzi for Rai Gulp/RaiPlay.
“The acquisition of 302 further expands Eagle Pictures’ business in a constantly evolving audiovisual market,” said Eagle Pictures president and owner Tarak Ben Ammar.
Eagle Pictures was Italy’s top performing distributor in the second quarter of 2022 with a 22.5 share of the market,...
- 8/4/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Italy’s 66th David di Donatello Awards are set to celebrate on May 11 a year of resilience for Cinema Italiano that also looks likely to germinate some creative renewal, just as Italian movie theaters start to reopen and production is booming.
Giorgio Diritti’s biopic “Hidden Away,” about crazed primitivist painter Antonio Ligabue, Gianni Amelio’s wistful “Hammamet,” which reconstructs the Tunisian self-exile of scandal-plagued Italian leader Bettino Craxi, and dark drama “Bad Tales” by the D’Innocenzo Brothers lead the crowded field for Italy’s equivalent of the Oscars, with no clear frontrunner.
Significantly, “Hidden Away,” which scooped 15 nominations, and “Bad Tales,” which scored 13, both star actor Elio Germano. And Germano also plays the lead in another standout title in the Davids race, Netflix Italian Original “The Incredible Story of Rose Island,” which landed 11 noms, including one for the pic’s producer, multihyphenate Matteo Rovere, whose Groenlandia Group is having a banner year.
Giorgio Diritti’s biopic “Hidden Away,” about crazed primitivist painter Antonio Ligabue, Gianni Amelio’s wistful “Hammamet,” which reconstructs the Tunisian self-exile of scandal-plagued Italian leader Bettino Craxi, and dark drama “Bad Tales” by the D’Innocenzo Brothers lead the crowded field for Italy’s equivalent of the Oscars, with no clear frontrunner.
Significantly, “Hidden Away,” which scooped 15 nominations, and “Bad Tales,” which scored 13, both star actor Elio Germano. And Germano also plays the lead in another standout title in the Davids race, Netflix Italian Original “The Incredible Story of Rose Island,” which landed 11 noms, including one for the pic’s producer, multihyphenate Matteo Rovere, whose Groenlandia Group is having a banner year.
- 5/6/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italy’s 3zero2 shingle, which is a co-producer of Brendan Foley’s pan-European noir “Body of Water,” is ramping up and expanding into film after bringing on board producer Giuseppe Saccà who shepherded Berlin prizewinning drama “Bad Tales.”
The Milan-based outfit founded and headed by veteran TV exec Piero Crispino has been quietly gaining prominence in Italy in the kids’ space by producing shows for Disney that have travelled internationally, such as “Alex & Co” and “Penny on M.A.R.S.,” but also various types of content for local broadcasters Rai, Mediaset, Sky, Viacom and Discovery.
Now, 3zero2 is looking to grow and broaden its scope with the arrival of Saccà who in March was appointed director of content after he exited Pepito Production, the Rome-based company headed by his father, former Rai head of drama Agostino Saccà, which will be collaborating closely with 3zero2, Crispino said. Besides “Bad Tales,” by Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo,...
The Milan-based outfit founded and headed by veteran TV exec Piero Crispino has been quietly gaining prominence in Italy in the kids’ space by producing shows for Disney that have travelled internationally, such as “Alex & Co” and “Penny on M.A.R.S.,” but also various types of content for local broadcasters Rai, Mediaset, Sky, Viacom and Discovery.
Now, 3zero2 is looking to grow and broaden its scope with the arrival of Saccà who in March was appointed director of content after he exited Pepito Production, the Rome-based company headed by his father, former Rai head of drama Agostino Saccà, which will be collaborating closely with 3zero2, Crispino said. Besides “Bad Tales,” by Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo,...
- 4/13/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio, recently the big winner at Italy’s David di Donatello awards with elegant mob drama “The Traitor,” is busy with a trio of projects involving personal and also national history, all shepherded by his now regular producer Simone Gattoni.
Gattoni, partner with Bellocchio in Rome’s Kavac Film, and among Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch last year, is riding high after the Davids — “The Traitor” having won six statuettes including best picture and director — and ramping up a robust slate of film and TV projects in various stages, to be directed by a mix of veteran names such as Bellocchio and Gianni Amelio (“Open Doors”), as well as younger, emerging Italian helmers. Most of these projects are being mounted by Kavac in tandem with other prominent Italian and European producers.
The most advanced project on the Kavac slate is Bellocchio’s “L’Urlo” (“The Scream”), a very...
Gattoni, partner with Bellocchio in Rome’s Kavac Film, and among Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch last year, is riding high after the Davids — “The Traitor” having won six statuettes including best picture and director — and ramping up a robust slate of film and TV projects in various stages, to be directed by a mix of veteran names such as Bellocchio and Gianni Amelio (“Open Doors”), as well as younger, emerging Italian helmers. Most of these projects are being mounted by Kavac in tandem with other prominent Italian and European producers.
The most advanced project on the Kavac slate is Bellocchio’s “L’Urlo” (“The Scream”), a very...
- 5/22/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italy’s Pepito Prods., at Berlin with competition drama “Bad Tales” by Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, is emerging as a new home for the country’s auteurs.
The company, headed by former Rai head of drama Agostino Saccà in January, scored more than $6 million in Italian cinemas with veteran Gianni Amelio’s “Hammamet,” a biopic of disgraced late Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi that marks Amelio’s best box office result in a decade.
“Bad Tales,” which world premieres Feb. 25, is the D’Innocenzo brothers’ followup to their debut, “Boy’s Cry.” That bowed in Berlin’s Panorama in 2018.
Giuseppe Saccà, who is a partner in the family-run indie along with his father and sister Maria Grazia, said they were approached by the self-taught directorial duo, now aged 30, with the screenplay for “Boy’s Cry” and were awed by the writing. They decided to take the plunge “even though they had never directed anything before,...
The company, headed by former Rai head of drama Agostino Saccà in January, scored more than $6 million in Italian cinemas with veteran Gianni Amelio’s “Hammamet,” a biopic of disgraced late Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi that marks Amelio’s best box office result in a decade.
“Bad Tales,” which world premieres Feb. 25, is the D’Innocenzo brothers’ followup to their debut, “Boy’s Cry.” That bowed in Berlin’s Panorama in 2018.
Giuseppe Saccà, who is a partner in the family-run indie along with his father and sister Maria Grazia, said they were approached by the self-taught directorial duo, now aged 30, with the screenplay for “Boy’s Cry” and were awed by the writing. They decided to take the plunge “even though they had never directed anything before,...
- 2/25/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
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