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Netflix pulled out all the stops as it unveiled its hotly anticipated limited series “The Leopard,” based on the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, which marks the streamer’s biggest splash in Italy thus far.

On Tuesday, Netflix held a packed press conference in the frescoed ballroom of Rome’s central Hotel Plaza, which was also used to film one of the show’s key scenes. “The Leopard” will formally premiere in Rome on March 3 with a black-tie gala held in the Eternal City’s Opera Theatre before dropping globally on March 5.

The lavish historical tapestry — with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown” and potential to make a global mark — is a modern take on the sensual Sicilian saga famously adapted into a film by Luchino Visconti starring Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon and Burt Lancaster. The film, now an Italian cinema classic, won the 1963 Palme...

Exclusive: Deva Cassel (Netflix’s The Leopard), Julien De Saint Jean (The Count Of Monte Cristo) and Romain Duris (Heartbreaker) are set to co-star in a contemporary, French-language version of Gaston Leroux’s classic Paris-set novel The Phantom of the Opera, aimed at a young adult audience and taking its cue from the Twilight franchise.

Snd, the film production, distribution and sales arm of French commercial free-to-air broadcaster M6, is co-producing and selling the ambitious project and will launch pre-sales at the EFM with a sizzle.

Alexandre Castagnetti is set to direct from a screenplay co-written with Camille Fontaine ( Coco Before Chanel).

Opéra Garnier

Filming will begin this summer at the world famous Palais Garnier opera house, or Opéra Garnier, in Paris, against the backdrop of its theatre, backstage areas, domed roof and subterranean vaulted cistern, sometimes referred to as its lake.

Italy’s True Colours has unveiled key sales across its slate, including deals for Toronto title U Are The Universe, Venice Horizons feature Familia and Locarno premiere Death Will Come.

Ukrainian director Pavlo Ostrikov’s sci-fi U Are The Universe, which played in Toronto’s Discovery section, has sold to France (The Jokers Films), German speaking territories (Pandastorm Pictures), Poland (Aurora Film), Brazil (Imovision) and Indonesia (Falcon Pictures).

Set after the explosion of Earth, the film follows a lonely Ukrainian astronaut who believes he is the only survivor – until he hears a French scientist on the radio, and decides to find her.

Exclusive: Sound of Freedom and Cabrini filmmaker Alejandro Monteverde will reteam for a third time with Angel Studios on the epic Bethlehem, which re-imagines one of the most infamous stories in history, Herod’s slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem as a profound spiritual thriller.

In the movie, which is currently shooting in Morocco and eyeing a 2025 theatrical release, an extraordinary woman will do anything to protect her newborn son from the murderous King Herod, who is obsessed with finding and killing the child.

Avatar franchise star Sam Worthington is playing Herod’s son Antipater, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s Ben Mendelsohn is portraying the devil Nahash, Mozart in the Jungle‘s Gael García Bernal is Joachim, and Deva Cassel will play Mary.

Cassel starred in Laura Luchetti’s movie Beautiful Summer and can be seen in the upcoming Netflix miniseries The Leopard.

For creative reasons, the producers...

Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer transports viewers to 1930s Turin, a backdrop alive with the promise and perils of a fateful season. We meet two young women on the cusp of change: Ginia, a gifted seamstress yearning to stretch her wings, and Amelia, a carefree artist’s model whose allure both entices and unsettles.

As Ginia falls under Amelia’s spell and is swept up in bohemian circles far from her stable family life, she begins a journey of self-exploration that brings new feelings and freedoms but also tensions with the world she came from.

Meanwhile, fascist ideals tighten their grip on Italy, casting shadows over private moments of passion and progress. Through vivid imagery and magnetic performances, Luchetti’s 2023 drama breathes life into a timeless coming-of-age narrative and examination of individual hearts navigating society’s constraints.

A Summer Awakening

The film introduces us to Ginia, a young seamstress...

Monica Bellucci is one of the most gorgeous actresses in the world and has often ranked among the sexiest women alive by various publications. Bellucci met French actor Vincent Cassel on the set of their film The Apartment in 1995 and married in 1999. The ex-couple had two daughters—Deva Cassel and Léonie Cassel.

Deva Cassel | Credits: @DevaCassel/Instagram

Deva Cassel is a name that’s becoming increasingly popular in the modeling world. Cassel was born in Rome, Italy but grew up mostly in Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Inheriting genes from Bellucci, Cassel partnered with some world-famous brands at the age of 19.

Monica Bellucci’s Daughter Deva Cassel Is Sending Shockwaves In The Modeling Industry Deva Cassel in The Beautiful Summer | Credits: Kino Produzioni

Deva Cassel grew up surrounded by cameras that followed her mother, Monica Bellucci, around. Cassel’s first experience in front of the camera was when a photographer...

Locarno, Switzerland — Taken multiple ways, 2024’s Locarno industry days proved hot.

Attendance at Locarno Pro, the festival’s industry arm, hit over 1,743 on-site participants and 141 online accreditations, an all-time historical record of 1,884 delegates, 23% up on last year’s 1,530 total.

Business witnessed a mini feeding frenzy from sales agents as 13 of the 28 titles without an announced sales agent at the July 10 Locarno lineup announcement were picked up for international sales by festival start. Variety alone unveiled 16 sales deals, also an all-time high.

As temperatures hit a highly humid 36ºC, the big industry question at this year’s Locarno was why business – in terms at least of sales pack-ups – seemed so bullish. A few potential answers to that and other industry takes on this year’s Locarno Festival, Europe’s biggest mid-summer event.

Arthouse Crosses Over…

Maybe what makes an art film has changed. Boosted by new government funding, a new generation...

There are plenty of good reasons why the summer has emerged as a fitting backdrop for coming-of-age stories. Whereas spring suggests renewal and winter retreat, the sun-dappled long days of summer lend themselves quite nicely to tales of unbridled discovery. The sweltering heat allows for a kind of abandon that may well help you discover yourself anew, possibly for the first time. Laura Luchetti’s touching “This Beautiful Summer” may tread familiar ground in that regard, but her handsomely mounted Italian period piece brims with a such playfully coy sensibility that you cannot help but fall for its charms.

Described as “freely inspired” by Cesare Pavese’s “La bella estate,” Luchetti’s film takes place in Turin over the summer of 1938. At its center is Ginia (a transfixing Yile Yara Vianello), a young woman who has moved away from the countryside with her brother in hopes of a more exciting life.

Pierfrancesco Favino as submarine Commander Salvatore Todaro in Edoardo De Angelis’s intense and humanistic Comandante

Edoardo De Angelis’s Comandante, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, was the Opening Night selection of the 23rd edition of Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s exceptional program, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema in New York. Other highlights included Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So; Giorgio Diritti’s Lubo (Franz Rogowski); Roberta Torre’s In the Mirror (Mi Fanno Male I Capelli with Alba Rohrwacher mirroring Monica Vitti); Piero Messina’s Another End; Stefano Sollima’s Adagio; Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer; Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow (Il Sol Dell’Avvenire with Nanni, Margherita Buy,...

Pierfrancesco Favino as submarine Commander Salvatore Todaro in Edoardo De Angelis’s intense and humanistic Comandante

Edoardo De Angelis’s Comandante, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, was the Opening Night selection of the 23rd edition of Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s exceptional program, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema in New York. Other highlights included Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So; Giorgio Diritti’s Lubo (Franz Rogowski); Roberta Torre’s In the Mirror (Mi Fanno Male I Capelli with Alba Rohrwacher mirroring Monica Vitti); Piero Messina’s Another End; Stefano Sollima’s Adagio; Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer; Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow (Il Sol Dell’Avvenire with Nanni, Margherita Buy,...

"I want someone to look at me... and show me who I am." Film Movement has revealed an offiical trailer for an indie Italian coming-of-age film titled The Beautiful Summer, arriving on VOD to watch this summer. Not to be confused with this year's French indie favorite Last Summer. This Italian film premiered at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival last year, and it also played at the Chicago and Denver Film Fests. The sapphic romance focuses on Ginia, who's 17, as she experiences the ecstasy & turmoil that come with the mysterious journey into adulthood. Meeting with Amelia confronts her with new and shocking emotions. But only by recognizing this love, she can be herself... "Featuring tender performances by Yile Yara Vianello and Deva Cassel, director Laura Luchetti's latest coming-of-age drama showcases 'the intertwined complexities of first love and first sexual experiences, highlighting the inevitable messiness and poignancy of adolescence.'" The...

A favorite at the Locarno Film Festival last summer, Laura Luchetti’s pre-wwii coming-of-age drama The Beautiful Summer will now be arriving in the ideal season. Luchetti adapted the script with Cesare Pavese from his novel, featuring a cast including Yile Yara Vianello, Deva Cassel, Nicolas Maupas, and Alessandro Piavani. Ahead of the August 9 digital release from Film Movement, we’re pleased to exclusively premiere the first U.S. trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “Young Ginia has just left the countryside with her brother in search of a new life in the city. Though Turin lies in the shadow of a rising fascistic government and her brother yearns to return home, Ginia is more optimistic about the future. In a short time, she excels in her works as a seamstress at an atelier, gaining new clients with her designs and impressing her otherwise irascible employer. Restless and seeking adventure, Ginia...

Laura Luchetti on Man Ray, Lee Miller, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jacques-Henri Lartigue: “The inspiration for me was photographs and photographs and photographs.” Photo: Anne Katrin Titze

The day after Cinecittà and Film at Lincoln Center’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema opening night screening in New York of Edoardo De Angelis’s masterful The War Machine, Laura Luchetti joined me inside Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater for a conversation on her latest film, The Beautiful Summer (La Bella Estate) starring Deva Cassel (Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel’s daughter), Yile Yara Vianello, and Nicolas Maupas.

Based on the novel by Cesare Pavese, previously adapted by Michelangelo Antonioni in Le Amiche, Luchetti energetically and with flair takes us to 1938 Turin and the fashion atélier where 17-year-old Ginia (Yile Yara Vianello) works under the perceptive eye of Signora Gemma (Anna Bellato). She lives with her brother Severino (Nicolas Maupas...

Edoardo De Angelis’s The War Machine (Comandante), starring the commanding Pierfrancesco Favino, opened the 23rd edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema in New York and the Venice Film Festival. Photo: courtesy of Cinecittà

Edoardo De Angelis’s The War Machine; Roberta Torre’s In the Mirror (Mi Fanno Male I Capelli with Alba Rohrwacher mirroring Monica Vitti); Piero Messina’s Another End; Stefano Sollima’s Adagio; Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer; Nanni Moretti’s A Brighter Tomorrow; Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow; Alain Parroni’s An Endless Sunday; Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So; Giorgio Diritti’s Lubo...

Monica Bellucci with Anne-Katrin Titze on the Maria Callas Yves Saint Laurent dress she wore in Yannis Dimolitsas and Tom Volf’s Maria Callas: Letters And Memoirs: “This dress really brings me luck.”

On the afternoon before a private screening of Yannis Dimolitsas and Tom Volf’s Maria Callas: Letters And Memoirs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Monica Bellucci spoke about the connection she feels to the woman she portrayed on stage, working with women directors, including Kaouther Ben Hania (Oscar-nominated Best International Feature The Man Who Sold His Skin) and Rebecca Miller (The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee), her daughter Deva Cassel, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Medea, and the magic of the Maria Callas Yves Saint Laurent dress that brings her luck.

Monica Bellucci on Maria Callas: “The moment that is so incredible to me is when she is singing Carmen in Hamburg in 1962.” Photo:...

Italy’s True Colours has unveiled a raft of sales on its slate including a US deal for Laura Luchetti’s The Beautiful Summer and a UK and Ireland acquisition of Edoardo de Angelis’ Venice opener Comandante.

Film Movement has taken North American rights to 1938-set romance drama The Beautiful Summer, which world premiered last year in the Piazza Grande at the Locarno Film Festival. The film has also sold to Scene and Sound for South Korea and Zeta Film for Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, adding to previously announced international deals last year.

Meanwhile, Bulldog Film Distribution has taken...

Exclusive: The Sea Beyond stars Giacomo Giorgio and Serena de Ferrari are among several Italian actors who have boarded Rai’s ambitious opera drama Bel Canto, which went into production this week.

Notably, Caterina Ferioli (The Tearsmith) and Adriana Savarese have landed the key roles as teenage sisters Carolina and Antonia, whose close friendship is tested by desires to become Italian opera singers.

Vincenzo Ferrera, another The Sea Beyond actor, has also joined the cast, alongside Andrea Bosca, Nicolo Pasetti, Carmine Ricarno (Loose Cannons), and Antonio Gerardi.

The series is among the highest profile drama series coming to of Europe this year. Production on the €15M ($16.3M) budget series began yesterday, with filming set to to take place in Naples, Rome and other parts of Italy such as the town of Pavia in Lombardia. France...

Film starring Sami Bouajila and Julie Gayet started shooting this week in Northern France.

Snd, the film arm of French broadcaster M6, has teamed with prolific French production company Empreinte Cinema for Juan Carlos Medina’s upcoming race-against-the-clock cop thriller The Chase (Abime) starring Sami Bouajila and Julie Gayet.

Snd has international rights for the film and will kick off sales at AFM for the murder mystery meets action film. Snd and Empreinte produce with Paris-based Once Upon A Time on board as co-producer.

The Chase stars Bouajila as a police officer who failed to find the murderer of a young girl 11 years earlier.

Cast also includes Ellie Bamber, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham, Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema has boarded international sales on Nick Hamm’s English-language feature William Tell, based on the classic story of the crossbow warrior who shot an arrow through an apple on his son’s head and launched the struggle for Swiss independence.

Written and directed by Hamm, William Tell stars Claes Bang as Tell alongside Connor Swindells, Ellie Bamber, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham as well as Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema and production companies Free Turn Films and...

Cast also includes Connor Swindells, Ellie Bamber, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham, Jonathan Pryce and Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema has boarded international sales on Nick Hamm’s English-language feature William Tell, based on the classic story of the Swiss crossbow warrior.

Written and directed by Hamm, William Tell stars Claes Bang as Tell alongside Connor Swindells, Ellie Bamber, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonah Hauer-King, Rafe Spall, Emily Beecham as well as Oscar nominee Jonathan Pryce and Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley.

Beta Cinema and production companies Free Turn Films and Tempo Productions have also released a first look of...

Italian sales agent reports sales for summer festival slate.

Italy’s True Colours has unveiled sales on a string of its summer festival titles including Venice competition films Lubo and Comandante as well as Locarno world premiere The Beautiful Summer.

Edoardo de Angelis’s WWII drama Comandante, which opened Venice, has secured distribution in Japan with Aya Pro, in Spain with Alfa Pictures, in Portugal with Outsider Films, in former Yugoslavia with Stars Media, in Bulgaria with Beta Film and in Australia/New Zealand with Palace Films. Starring Pierfrancesco Favino, the co-production between Indigo Film, ‘O Groove and Trump Limited...

Sam Claflin, known for his role in The Hunger Games, is set to star in a new television adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, a story of revenge and betrayal. The upcoming eight-part miniseries will be directed by Bille August, and will incorporate contemporary elements to appeal to a new audience. Claflin's career has been on the rise since his breakout role in The Hunger Games, with notable projects including Love, Rosie and Me Before You, as well as his recent role in the hit series Daisy Jones & The Six.

After surprising the world with his leading role in Amazon Prime Video's hit series Daisy Jones & the Six, Sam Claflin lands his next big part. The Count of Monte Cristo is the upcoming television adaptation of the acclaimed novel by French author Alexandre Dumas, published in 1844. The story, one that has already been adapted on several occasions...

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled four new Italian originals – two feature films and two series – that confirm its continued investment in Italy as local subscribers grow. The new projects also bolster the fact that the bulk of the streamer’s Italian productions are not high end and have a primarily local focus.

During a Rome presentation Eleonora Andreatta – affectionately known as Tinny – who is Netflix’s VP of Italian originals, said that Netflix remains “committed to our investment in Italy and Italian stories with conviction, continuing our long-term commitment to the country and its creative community.”

Andreatta, who owing to having caught Covid-19 was speaking remotely to the packed room, described Netflix’s lineup as being characterised by “Authentic stories, able to speak to the present [and] about the present and [which can] emotionally touch the audience on issues closest to the lives they live.”

According to data released last month by Italy’s...

Appointed with a warmth and plushness that is reminiscent of a Merchant Ivory production, Laura Luchetti’s adaptation of Cesare Pavesi’s The Beautiful Summer is handsomely turned out, which is fitting for a film which is partially set within the world of fine tailoring. Ginia (Yile Yara Vianello) and her brother Severino (Nichoas Maupas) are recent arrivals in Turin from the countryside; he is working and studying while she is showing talent as a seamstress in one of the city’s fashion houses.

Things begin to shift for inexperienced Ginia with the arrival of the glamorous and much more worldly Amelia (Deva Cassel) into her social circle. The captivated gaze of Diego Romero’s camera immediately makes it clear that Ginia is first attracted by the look and confidence of Amelia, but soon she is also finding herself swept up in the free-spirited young woman’s social circle.

There,...

The Beautiful Summer (La Bella Estate) lives up to its title: The screen is alive with the sensual glow of balmy days and nights — and, specifically, with the youthful giddiness that the warmest season rouses. In the uneven period drama, a country girl starts to make her way in the big city and is drawn into a bohemian circle, intrigued by the impetuous painters who turn out to be cads and especially by a free-spirited, sad-eyed model. The romance at the movie’s core doesn’t deliver the intended emotional impact, but there’s a tender, potent resonance to other aspects of the story.

“Freely inspired” by the 1940 novel of the same name by Cesare Pavese, the third feature from writer-director Laura Luchetti (Twin Flower) sometimes slides into cliché or loses momentum, but it also offers some sharp coming-of-age observations and a delectable physicality, and it’s anchored by the...

Earlier this week Variety premiered the official trailer and leading up to 2023 Locarno Film Festival world premiere of The Beautiful Summer (August 4th) we’ve got your exclusive first look at the poster one-sheet featuring the film’s paired leads in Yile Yara Vianello and Deva Cassel. Filmmaker Laura Luchetti (part of our “Off Set series”) landed on our radar with the TIFF preemed 2018 Fipresci-winning Twin Flower and for her third feature film, she took on La bella estate – a loosely-based adaptation of Cesare Pavese’s award-winning and very much beloved 1949 novel. Currently filming one of the episodes for Netflix-backed “The Leopard,” Luchetti re-teamed with Cassel on this series currently in production.…...

Starring Deva Cassel, Laura Luchetti’s “The Beautiful Summer” (“La Bella Estate”) has bowed sales and a trailer, ahead of its world premiere at this week’s Locarno Festival.

In a first deal to go down for sales agent True Colours, Palace Films has swooped on distribution rights to Australia and New Zealand. Xenix Filmdistribution will release in Switzerland “The Beautiful Summer,” which is loosely based on Cesare Pavese’s novel.

“His vision is so contemporary. He speaks about adolescence, the time in your life when everything is possible. It’s a story of a simple girl trying to make it in the big city, forced into becoming a woman. It’s a story of every girl,” Luchetti told Variety.

In the film, set in Turin in 1938, hard-working Ginia (Yile Yara Vianello) is looking for an adventure. She finds Amelia (Deva Cassel), who models for painters and introduces her to a whole different world.

Netflix has released first-look images of limited series “The Leopard,” based on the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that marks the streamer’s most ambitious Italian original to date.

Production on the lavish historical tapestry with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown” – and potential to make a global mark – is currently underway in the Sicilian cities of Palermo, Syracuse and Catania. The show is a modern take on the sensual Sicilian saga famously adapted into a film by Luchino Visconti starring Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon and Burt Lancaster. The movie, now an Italian cinema classic, won the 1963 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Published posthumously in 1958, “The Leopard” chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the 19th century unification of Italy, known as the Risorgimento. It became the top-selling novel in modern Italian literature of its day and was translated into more than 40 different languages.

Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End Of The World (Radu Jude).The lineup for the 76th edition of the festival has been announced, including new films by Eduardo Williams, Leonor Teles, Lav Diaz, Radu Jude, and others.Concorso INTERNAZIONALEAnimal (Sofia Exarchou)Critical Zone (Ali Ahmadzadeh)Essential Truths of the Lake (Lav Diaz)Home (Leonor Teles)The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams)The Invisible Fight (Rainer Sarnet)Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End Of The World (Radu Jude)Lousy Carter (Bob Byington)Manga D’Terra (Basil Da Cunha)Nuit Obscure – Au Revoir Ici, N’Importe Où (Sylvain George)Patagonia (Simone Bozzelli)The Permanent Picture (Laura Ferrés)Rossosperanza (Annarita Zambrano)Stepne (Maryna Vroda)Sweet Dreams (Ena Sendijarević)The Vanishing Soldier (Dani Rosenberg)Yannick (Quentin Dupieux)Excursion (Una Gunjak).Concorso Cineasti Del PRESENTECamping du Lac (Eléonore Saintagnan)Ein Schöner Ort (Katharina Huber)Excursion (Una Gunjak)Family Portrait (Lucy Kerr)Dreaming...

For his third edition at the helm, Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro has assembled a wide spectrum of films that “do not resemble each other in terms of tone or form” while reflecting “the world in all its expressions and manifestations,” he tells Variety.

This boundless range is best exemplified by the fact that starkly surrealist Filipino arthouse star Lav Díaz’s latest work, “Essential Truths of the Lake,” will be vying for the fest’s Golden Leopard alongside fare that, at least on paper, appears much lighter. This includes U.S. director Bob Byington’s indie comedy “Lousy Carter” and Estonian helmer Rainer Sarnet’s “The Invisible Flight,” which Nazzaro says “mixes Kung Fu, hard rock and the Orthodox Church.”

There are also lots of titles at Locarno that can broadly be described as “political,” like Ukrainian director Maryna Vroda’s “Stepne” — which marks a rare...

A stellar precursor to the busy fall film festival season, Locarno Film Festival annually premieres some of the year’s most exciting cinema and 2023 looks to be no different. Taking place from August 2-12 in the Swiss town, the festival has now unveiled its lineup for the 76th edition. Highlights include Eduardo Williams’ The Human Surge 3 (brilliantly forgoing a second film), Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End Of The World, Lav Diaz’s Essential Truths of the Lake, Sylvain George’s Nuit Obscure – Au Revoir Ici, N’Importe Où, and Quentin Dupieux’s Yannick.

Speaking to its main section, Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival, said, “From Quentin Dupieux and his edgy surrealism to Lav Diaz. From the sarcastic humor of Radu Jude to the night poetry of Sylvain Georges. From the mad inventions of Rainer Sarnet to the abstract psychedelia of Eduardo Williams.

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival, Europe’s biggest mid-Summer movie event, has announced its lineup, welcoming recognizable names to its main competition, from Filipino auteur Lav Diaz (“Essential Truths of the Lake”) to Romanian powerhouse Radu Jude, who will show “Do Not Expect Too Much of the End of the World.”

As already announced, Cate Blanchett and Zar Amir Ebrahimi are set to attend the Locarno Film Festival’s closing night to promote the European launch of Iranian-Australian director Noora Niasari’s debut film “Shayda.”

Among the titles selected for Locarno’s more broad-audience-friendly Piazza Grande lineup, Justine Triet will attend with her Cannes Palme’ d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall,” along with Ken Loach and his “The Old Oak.”

The festival will also celebrate the careers of Harmony Korine, producer Marianne Slot, editor Pietro Scalia, Tsai Ming-liang and present a Lifetime Achievement Award to Italian producer Renzo Rossellini.

UK star Riz Ahmed will be feted with a career achievement award at the upcoming 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, running August 2 and 12.

The Sound Of Metal actor will be presented with the Excellence Award Davide Campari at the opening night ceremony on the festival’s landmark Piazza Grande open-air cinema.

The ceremony will premiere Yann Mounir Demange’s semi-autobiographical short film Dammi, in which Ahmed participated alongside Isabelle Adjani, Souheila Yacoub, Sandor Funtek and Suzy Bemba.

The tribute will also screen Bassam Tariq’s 2020 rapper drama Mughal Mowgli, which Ahmed starred in and also produced and co-wrote, as part of it program.

Locarno announced the tribute during its announcement on Wednesday of its full 2023 line-up.

French directorial duo Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel’s The Falling Star will open the festival as part of the Piazza Grande program, which also features Justine Triet’s 2023 Cannes d’Or Winner Anatomy of a Fall,...

Laetitia Casta will soon appear on the big screen as the former wife of an abusive southern Italian man whom she is accused of murdering in the thriller “A Dark Story,” directed by Italy’s Leonardo D’Agostini.

In “Dark Story” the French star, whose recent credits include “The Crusade” directed by her husband Louis Garrel, plays Carla (first look image above), the ex-wife of Vito Semeraro, a banker who beat her when they were together and is the father of her three children. She is accused of murdering him a few years after they split up.

Italian sales company True Colours is launching sales in Cannes on this psychological noir that marks the sophomore feature by D’Agostini whose 2019 debut drama “The Champion” – a soccer dramedy about a young male soccer star and a shy academic who becomes his tutor – sold widely via the same outfit. Andrea Carpenzano stars in “Dark Story” alongside Casta.