Alex Camilleri Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Venice Critics’ Week Unveils 2022 Selection

Tara Karajica On Tuesday, Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing” opened the 2nd Evia Film Project, in the presence of the two-time Oscar-winning director. The green initiative was launched by the Thessaloniki Film Festival last year to offer support to Northern Evia following the devastating 2021 wildfires. The event runs to June 24 with an enhanced program. The films of this year’s edition are a mix of both classics and recent hits, feature films and documentaries. They have been selected to raise awareness, inform, incite to action, bring to light the repercussions of human-driven activities and mankind’s relation to the environment and, last but not least, praise nature’s magic.

Film Independent has set Lanre Olabisi (A Storybook Ending), Sari Arambulo (Family Style), Sanford Jenkins (Joy and Pain), Rob Connolly (Lavender Country), Elise H. Greven (Silent Spring) and Phumi Morare (There is Salt in the Water) as the participants and projects for its 2022 Screenwriting Lab/

Film Independent has set Alex Camilleri (Luzzu), Lizzie Shapiro (Shiva Baby) and Jessica Beshir (Faya Dayi) as the winners of its Emerging Filmmaker Awards, with each now earning an unrestricted $25,000 Spirit Awards cash grant.

Selome Hailu Film Independent has named the winners of three unrestricted $25,000 Spirit Awards cash grants for emerging filmmakers: Alex Camilleri, Lizzie Shapiro and Jessica Beshir. The announcements were made by Ekwa Msangi (“Farewell Amor”), Gerry Kim (“I’m No Longer Here”) and Elegance Bratton (“Pier Kids”), who received the grants last year.Camilleri, director of “Luzzu,” received the Someone to Watch Award. The award is in its 28th year and recognizes talented filmmakers of singular vision who have not yet received appropriate recognition.

After Luzzu made history by becoming the first Maltese feature to compete in a major international festival, the pic now sails its way to the Oscar race as the nation’s International Feature submission.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMemento International (“Call Me By Your Name”) has closed a raft of sales on Leah Purcell’s Australian revenge tale “The Drover’s Wife,” and Alex Camilleri’s “Luzzu” which world premiered at SXSW and Sundance, respectively. After selling North American rights to “The Drover’s Wife” to Samuel Goldwyn, Memento has sold “The Drover’s Wife” to the U.K.

EXCLUSIVE: WME has signed first-generation Maltese-American filmmaker Alex Camilleri, whose directorial debut Luzzu premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the first Maltese feature to compete in a major international festival.

Halfway through and Berlin's European Film Market is starting to heat up, with a number of deals being signed for finished features. In a pair of domestic acquisitions announced mid-market, Kino Lorber snatched North American rights to Luzzu, Alex Camilleri's directorial debut, which premiered at Sundance, and fellow New York distributor FilmRise took U.S.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Alex Camilleri’s feature debut, “Luzzu,” which world-premiered at Sundance where it won the Special Jury Award for its lead actor, Jesmark Scicluna.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentLes Arcs Film Festival’s Industry Village, one of the many events that switched to virtual due to the pandemic, has unveiled its award-winning projects, which include Delphine Girard’s “Most Alive,” Damien Manivel’s “Magdala” and Sabine Ehrl’s “Paradise Bleeding.”The event has a stellar track record when it comes to unveiling projects that go on to premiere at prestigious festivals and win awards.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMemento Films International (“Call Me By Your Name”) has boarded Alex Camilleri’s “Luzzu,” which will unspool in competition at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition.Penned, directed and edited by Camilleri, “Luzzu” revolves around Jesmark, a struggling fisherman on the island of Malta who is forced to risk everything by entering the world of blackmarket fishing in order to provide for his wife and newborn baby.