Italy’s Mediaset Acquires ‘Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake’ from Spain’s Filmax (EXCLUSIVE)

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentGiancarlo Giannini, who was the late great Lina Wertmüller’s muse, helmer Gabriele Muccino (“The Pursuit of Happyness”), and Teresa Saponangelo, star of Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” are among top honorees of the seventh edition of Filming Italy — Los Angeles, the bridge between Italy and Hollywood set to run as a hybrid event Feb. 28-March 3.The celebration of Italy’s top film and TV titles is headed by longtime Italian industry promoter Tiziana Rocca, a former chief of the Taormina Film Festival.

Emiliano Granada Eliza Rycembel, star of Oscar-nominated “Corpus Christi,” and Panos Mouzourakis, whose credits include “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” have joined the cast of “Nasdrovia,” Season 2, which bows Feb. 25 on Movistar Plus, produced with The Mediapro Studio’s Globomedia – a powerful partnership of two of Spain’s biggest content creators.Variety has had exclusive access to a behind-the-scenes trailer where Rycembel and Mouzourakis talk about their characters, both contract killers: George, played by a tongue-in-cheek Rycembel and Mouzourakis’s Ringo, a charmingly ridiculous ‘70s throwback who, as he comments in the video, wants to take George under his wing, but still show her “who’s the man in the house.” Season 2 continues the downward spiral of Edurne (Leonor Watling) and Julian (Hugo Silva).

EXCLUSIVE: French American actor Saïd Taghmaoui (Wonder Woman, The Forgiven) has signed with Buchwald for representation.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentRolling off its Oscar nomination in the international feature category, Pawo Choyning Dorji’s Bhutanese feature debut “Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom” has been sold by Films Boutique in further territories. Bhutan’s first Oscar entry in 23 years, “Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom” follows a young teacher who dreams of emigrating to Australia to become a singer and instead finds himself assigned to a school in the most remote village in Northern Bhutan, where he unexpectedly bonds with local children and finds happiness.Berlin-based company Films Boutique has already sold the movie in most major markets including North America with Samuel Goldwyn Films and recently closed deals with leading distributors in Spain (A Contracorriente), Benelux (September Films) and Portugal (Alambique).

Marta Balaga Danish helmer Lone Scherfig is already developing the second season of “The Shift”, she revealed on Monday during an online Berlinale Series Market talk “From Film to Series.”Set in a maternity ward and starring Sofie Gråbøl and Pål Sverre Hagen, it’s the first series as a showrunner for Scherfig, who in 2019 opened Berlinale with “The Kindness of Strangers” and won a Silver Bear for “Italian for Beginners.”“It’s a tribute to the people who work in the healthcare system under extreme pressure, to the care and the love they show, even despite tough working conditions,” she said. “The Shift” is produced by Creative Alliance, with Beta Film handling the sales.

Since her Sundance hit An Education in 2009, Denmark’s Lone Scherfig has become something of an honorary Brit, specializing in prestige adaptations of best-selling English novels (or, in the case of 2014’s The Riot Club, critically acclaimed stage plays). Surprisingly, none of these ever quite tipped in the way An Education did, and after a mixed reaction to One Day (2011), which mostly rounded on Anne Hathaway’s Yorkshire accent rather than her performance, Scherfig’s first real attempt to tap into the American market — 2019’s The Kindness Of Strangers — was an uncharacteristic misfire and pretty much vanished into the ether after opening the Berlinale that year.

The Good Boss, Fernando León de Aranoa’s comedy-drama starring Javier Bardem, dominated Spain’s top film prizes this year, The Goyas, collecting six awards including Best Picture.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentRAI Com is launching sales at the online EFM on Giuseppe Piccioni’s Fascist-era drama ‘L’Ombra del giorno,” starring Italian A-lister Riccardo Scamarcio (“Three Floors”) and Benedetta Porcaroli (“Baby,” “The Catholic School”).Pic, which Scamarcio produced, is a love story with a thriller twist set in 1938, two years before Italy entered World War II. It unfolds entirely in the central Italian town of Ascoli Piceno, a hidden gem with gorgeous medieval monuments, churches and piazzas.The film’s title translates as “The Shadow of the Day,” a reference to the darkness of Fascism.Luciano (Scamarcio), a wounded World War I veteran and a sympathizer of Fascism like most Italians at the time, runs a classy restaurant overlooking the town’s ancient square.

Javier Bardem at Saturday’s Goya prize ceremony. The prizes marked both Leon and Bardem’s seventh Goya wins. Produced by El Reposado and The Mediapro Studio, and a workplace dramedy skewering the abuse of power practised by a seemingly benign factory owner, “The Good Boss” also won best director and original screenplay for León, as well as best score and editing.Blanca Portillo beat out “Parallel Mothers’” Oscar-nominated Penélope Cruz, thanks to Portillo’s powerful performance as Maixabel Lasa, the real life widow of former Basque Country governor Juan Mari Jauregui who agreed in 2011 to meet one of his ETA killers. Her forgiveness, and Portillo’s portrait, has touched a large nerve in Spain.

Naman Ramachandran Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to writer-director Ajitpal Singh’s debut feature, “Fire in the Mountains,” which premiered in the World Dramatic Competition of the Sundance Film Festival in 2021.A powerful feminist tale set in a tourist homestay in the Himalayan foothills of northern India, the film centers around a woman (Vinamrata Rai), the sole breadwinner of the household, who scrimps and saves for her son’s medical treatment, while her alcoholic husband believes that an expensive shamanic ritual is the answer to all their woes.The film is produced by Alan McAlex and Ajai Rai of prolific Indian arthouse producers Jar Pictures alongside Mauli Singh and Amit Mehta.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAt 81, Italian horror maestro Dario Argento is busier than ever.The director of a string of cult chiller classics starting in the 1970s, including “The Bird With the Crystal Plumage,” “Suspiria” and “Deep Red,” was at Cannes last July with his acting debut in Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex,” about a pair of old lovers. Argento was also celebrated last year with a new book by Italian critic Steve Della Casa and a retro at New York’s Lincoln Center.

Emiliano De Pablos Barcelona-based Filmax has picked up international sales rights to psychological thriller “Girl Unknown” (“La desconocida”), the sophomore film by Spanish director Pablo Maqueda (“Dear Werner”).The film is based on the hit play “Grooming,” penned by Paco Bezerra, which has been adapted in more than 10 countries. Filmax is launching the film with a first promo at the European Film Market.Produced by Spain’s Elamedia Estudio, La Fragua Producciones and Fórmula Cine, “Girl Unknown” shot on locations in Madrid and Albacete, and is currently in post.Maqueda, Bezerra and writer-producer Haizea G.

Italy an ancient statue of the goddess Athena, to be displayed in a Sicilian museum for four years in return for Italy's long-term loan to Athens of a fragment of the celebrated Parthenon Sculptures.The late 5th century B.C. headless marble work was discovered during excavations near the Parthenon Temple, dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom, on the Acropolis and belongs to the Acropolis Museum.Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, who travelled to Palermo’s A.

Emiliano De Pablos Barcelona-based indie sales outfit Filmax has taken international sales rights to Jorge Dorado’s noir thriller feature “Objetos” (“Lost & Found”), starring “Money Heist” actor Álvaro Morte.Filmax is launching the film onto the market with a first promo at this year’s European Film Market.Shot October-November at several locations in Spain and Argentina, including Madrid and Jujuy, the film is currently in post-production.“Lost & Found” is produced by Cristina Zumárraga and Pablo Bossi at Tandem Films, the Madrid-based production company, whose recent titles include award-winning comedy “Rosa’s Wedding” and toon feature sales hit “Turu, the Wacky Hen.” A Spain-Argentina-Germany co-production, “Lost & Found” also teams Spain’s Setembro Cine (“A Fantastic Woman”), Argentina’s Pampa Films (“Chinese Take-Away”) and In Post We Trust (“Unknown Origins”), plus Germany’s Rexin Film, with the participation of Spanish pubcaster RTVE, Amazon Studios and Germany’s ZDF.Written by top Spanish scribe Natxo López (“Stolen Away,” “Unauthorized Living”), “Lost & Found” is sets against the sordid world of human trafficking, moving between some characters who treat objects with as much as care as people and others who treat people as if they were objects.The film follows Mario, who works at a large lost and found office, where he looks after all the missing items that have built up over the decades.Having decided a long time ago to live a solitary life, Mario spends his free time investigating the origin of the lost objects, with the aim of returning to people these lost pieces of their lives.Only Helena, a young police officer, who often visits the lost and found office, has been able to crack Mario’s hard, outer shell a

Mika has been officially announced as one of the co-hosts for Eurovision 2022 in Turin, Italy.

Mika has been officially announced as one of the co-hosts for Eurovision 2022 in Turin, Italy.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterThe small and powerful Sundance drama “A Love Song” has found worldwide distribution in Sony’s Stage 6 Films and Bleecker Street, Variety has learned exclusively.The acclaimed two-hander about love, loss and loneliness is led by Dale Dickey (“Winter’s Bone,” “Hell or High Water”) and honorary Academy Award winner Wes Studi (“Hostiles,” “The Last of the Mohicans”).The film, sitting at 93% Fresh on critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, marks the writer-director debut of Max Walker-Sliverman. Bleecker Street will release the film to domestic theaters this summer, while Stage 6 is currently charting the international release strategy.Dickey plays Faye, a wanderer who stations herself at an idyllic \ campsite in the Colorado Mountains – cooking simple meals, retrieving crawfish from a trap, and scanning her old box radio for a station.