Italy Abolishes Film Censorship, Ending Government Power to Ban Movies

Italy's Far East Film Festival is making a slight change to the dates for its 2021 edition in order to align with cinemas reopening in the country. The 23rd edition of the specialist festival, highly regarded in Asia, is now set to open on June 24 and close on July 2 and will now include in-person screenings as well as digital elements.

Italy begins its second, and many hope last, reopening of the COVID-19 pandemic.After six months of rotating on-again, off-again closures, restaurants and bars, museums and cinemas, opened to the public in most of the country under a gradual reopening plan that is seen as too cautious for some, too hasty for others.The nation’s weary virologist and health care workers fear that even the tentative reopening laid out by Premier Mario Draghi’s government will invite a free-or-all, signs of which

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentMovie theaters started to gradually reopen in Italy on Monday, serving up Oscar-winning titles such as “Minari” and “Mank” in a fraction of the country’s venues, just as COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease.For the moment, it’s a few mostly arthouse venues in Italy’s biggest cities that are becoming active again, while Italian multiplexes remain closed until mid-May when UCI Cinemas, which is the country’s top exhibitor, has announced they will be back

coronavirus pandemic.Workers doing restoration discovered the frescoes dating from the 17th and 18th centuries beneath plaster in the museum's west wing, which is where the visitor entrance will be when the Uffizi opens to the public.Uffizi director Eike Schmidt said the new entrance facing the Arno River would provide “a glorious introduction” for visitors.The reopening date is not yet certain.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian author Antonio Dikele Distefano, who grew up in the northern Italian city of Ravenna, is the originator of new Netflix Original series “Zero,” which marks the first series centered around the present-day lives of Black Italian youth.

Italy.While Asian and Black activists took to social media to share their experiences with racism growing up in Italy, including how it can be fomented by satire, the TV hosts at the center of the uproar said Thursday they have been subjected to a “wave of hatred,” including death threats.Michelle Hunziker and Gerry Scotti, hosts of the satirical show “Striscia la Notizia” (“The News Crawls”) on the private Mediaset network, apologized for the sketch during which they made slanted-eye gestures

EXCLUSIVE: Italy’s Royal House of Savoy is getting the film and TV treatment from Chinese director, writer and producer Yi Zhou who is developing both a TV series and feature based on Queen Marie-José.

Italian director Matteo Garrone's Pinocchio is not the sunny, cheery cartoon tale of your childhood memories. The Gomorrah auteur's darker, yet thrillingly fantastical adaptation remains true to Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, which began as a weekly series of cautionary children's tales set in the impoverished Tuscan countryside.

House of Gucci hasn’t even reached our screens yet but is already stirring up major backlash.

Two-time Oscar-winning actor-directorRoberto Benigni will receive this year's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 78th Venice International Film Festival, which runs Sept. 1- 11, organizers announced Thursday.

Monica Bellucci looks nothing like herself in these new set pics for La Befana!

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAmazon Prime Video this month launched the local version of its comedy show “LOL: Last One Laughing” in Italy where it has rapidly become the most watched title ever on the platform’s Italian service, says Amazon Studio Head of Italian Originals Nicole Morganti who in an exclusive interview with Variety discussed Amazon’s local strategy a little over a year after moving into Italy with a multi-genre slate. Edited excerpts.Thanks.

Gallery: Designer Rene Hubert — a life in costumes (dw. com)Produced by Lucky Red and Rai Cinema in collaboration with Sky, the new film serves as a prequel to the Italian language La Befana vien di notte (The Legend of the Christmas Witch), which Monica did not star in.

EXCLUSIVE: Universal executive Xavier Albert, who has been Managing Director for France since 2016, is taking on a dual market role with the studio and will also become Managing Director for Italy. Albert will take over the post from Richard Borg who is retiring in July after 30 years with the Universal Pictures International organization.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly’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 (pictured, left) has been quietly gaining prominence in Italy in the kids’ space by producing shows for Disney that have travelled

Italy, and confirmed their suspicions when they cross-referenced the work with a database of known stolen antiquities, the statement said.Italy for decades has worked to recover looted antiquities that have ended up in private collections, famous museums and commercial antique shops around the world.