8 Italian Films (And One TV Show) To Watch For In 2016

I’m watching for these 2015 films to hit US theaters, on demand, and streaming in 2016

Laura Bispuri’s Vergine Giurata (Sworn Virgin) was the most awarded Italian film of 2015 and stars one of Italy’s biggest stars, Alba Rohrwacher. The movie is about a young woman in northern Albania who opts for the little known and archaic practice of living as a man so that she can do all the stuff men can do there but women can’t, like drinking, shooting, and holding jobs. Laura says that it will be in our theaters in March 2016.

I’m looking for Alberto Caviglia’s hilarious Pecore In Erba (Burning Love) in 2016 but no word yet as to a date. This mockumentary skewers antisemitism in a gleefully raucous way that appears to be offending people before they even see it but NO FAIR. Give it a chance; it’s one of the funniest in recent years.

More great news: Matteo Garrone’s Racconto Dei Racconti (Tale of Tales) will be available in theaters and on demand from IFC films on April 22! This collection of fairy tales, told in the way that is definitely not for children, was one of my favorites of the year.

No idea when, but I’ll be very surprised (and disappointed) if we don’t get Marco Bellocchio’s latest Sangue Del Mio Sangue (Blood Of My Blood) at least on demand here in the US and very soon. This film is spectacular in its ambiguity; it’s creepy, gorgeous, horrifying and funny all at once in both of the stories that Bellocchio tells in it.

Piero Messina’s L’Attesa (The Wait) stars Juliette Binoche and Messina says it will hit our shores around Easter.

Though it technically did play in a couple of US movie theaters late 2015, Nanni Moretti’s sweet, sad tribute to his own mother Mia Madre (My Mother) is too good to stop there. We’ll be looking for it on demand in 2016

Cristina Comencini’s Latin Lover played at the American Film Institute’s film festival in November and I can’t wait for the rest of the country to see it. This is one of the best ensemble comedies I have seen in years, and Comencini’s dialogue is spot on. Virna Lisi (in her last performance before her death in December 2014), Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Human Capital), Candela Peña (All About My Mother) and Angela Finocchiaro (Benvenuto al Sud) couldn’t be more natural as mother and sisters airing old slights, and though their family dynamics are unconventional, they seem real.

Paolo Sorrentino’s The Young Pope, an 8 episode mini-series stars Jude Law, Diane Keaton, and Silvio Orlando and will debut on HBO in 2016.