Shaking things up and making names for themselves.
Directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, who impressed everybody with their last film, Salvo, have just gotten some good news. It was announced that their upcoming film, Sicilian Ghost Story, was selected to receive funding from the CNC and MIBACT (the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities).
I don’t know what’s going on with this one yet, but the two directors are just crazy creative, and the location photos they are putting up on FB and instagram are very intriguing.
Director Laura Bispuri is an international sensation with her film, Sworn Virgin (Vergine Giurata); she won the Nora Ephron prize at the Tribeca Film Festival and with a US distribution deal with Strand Releasing so all of America will be able to see it.
Sworn Virgin is the story of Hana, whose life is dictated by the tradition of her northern Albanian homeland. There, women can’t hold a man’s job, smoke, drink, or carry firearms, UNLESS, they give up their femininity. For a variety of different reasons (and I am guessing homosexuality is one of them) women can renounce their gender, and live as men, but they must swear to remain a virgin.
Ivan Cotroneo’s making his book, Un Bacio, about adolescent love, homophobia, bullying, and violence into a movie. I loved the book and can’t wait to see it on the screen.
Ivan is a wonderful storyteller, and his film Kryptonite Nella Borsa was one that I was really hoping would be distributed in the United States.
Actress Greta Scarano is the real deal, pretty, talented, and hard-working. We absolutely adored her in Senza Nessuna Pietà, with Pierfrancesco Favino, and now we’re looking forward to Suburra, starring Elio Germano, Pier Francesco Favino, and Claudio Amendola. Two old enemies, an outlaw and a police officer engage in their final challenge.
Would the Italian film industry be able to function without cinematographer Vladan Radovic? I don’t think so! The DP of Vergine Giurata, Anime Nere, Smetto Quando Voglio, Tutti i Santi Giorni, and more, is unbelievably creative, hard-working, and talented (and good-looking), and he needs to come out from behind the camera and bask in the glory of his success!
We all need to keep an eye on director Antonello Faretta, whose film Montedoro is making the rounds at film festival and will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival Market. After meeting a woman named Pia Mann, he took her story of an adopted American child who grows up looking for her roots in Italy.
I Love Italian Everything 