RAI Head of Film and Drama on Dedicating More Space to European Series: U.S. Strikes Are ‘Creating a Gap, and I Want to Make My Mark’

Scotland’s Film and TV industry as grown considerably in the last 10 years, and continues to do so creating new and exciting opportunities for crew roles behind the scenes.

The Traitors will return to BBC One and BBC iPlayer for a third series following the soon-to-be-aired second series of the hit reality TV show filmed at a Scots castle.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent WestEnd Films has scored multiple sales, including to North America, on British director Patrick Dickinson’s drama “Cottontail,” which stars Japan’s Lily Franky (“Shoplifters”) and Ciaran Hinds. The film, first announced at the AFM in 2019, won the prize for best first feature last week at the Rome Film Festival, where it had its world premiere.

Byron Allen Presents theGrio Awards special, honoring African American excellence, is returning to CBS for its second year. Co-hosted by The Talk‘s Sheryl Underwood and comedian Roy Wood, with honorees including Mariah Carey, Don Cheadle and Misty Copeland, the event will air on Saturday, November 25 from 8-10 PM on CBS and will stream live on Paramount+.

Hello, and welcome to the Scene 2 Seen Podcast. I am Valerie Complex Associate editor and film writer at Deadline!

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano has designated Italian journalist and writer Pietrangelo Buttafuoco as the new president of the Venice Biennale, the foundation that oversees the Venice Film Festival. Buttafuoco (pictured above, left), an openly right-wing member of Italy’s cultural establishment known to be an eclectic thinker, is now set to replace former film producer Roberto Cicutto (pictured, right) at the Biennale’s helm when Cicutto’s four-year mandate expires in March 2024.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The saga of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni splitting from her partner, Mediaset TV personality Andrea Giambruno, after leaked outtakes revealed the anchorman making sexist remarks, is gripping the country amid speculation of political conspiracy behind the incident. Meloni, who became Italy’s first female prime minister a year ago when her right-wing Brothers of Italy party scored big in the country’s national elections, officially dumped Giambruno — her partner for a decade and the father of their young daughter (pictured above with Pope Francis) — last Friday via social media.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore’s vintage TV series “Il Camorrista,” starring Ben Gazzara as one of the fiercest bosses of the Neapolitan Camorra crime syndicate, is being unearthed from the vault 37 years after the mobster himself quashed the show before it aired. “Il Camorrista” was shot in 1985 as part of an innovative production mounted by Italy’s glorious Titanus shingle and Silvio Berlusconi’s ReteItalia. The production comprised both a Tornatore feature film by the same title and the five-episode TV show.

Emmerdale star James Hooton has teased Sam Dingle's involvement as it revealed that Craig Reed is dead. It'd be fair to say that each one of the Dingles would be keen on revenge after Lydia bravely told them she was raped by her former childhood acquaintance.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Beta Film has announced a half-dozen sales to European public broadcasters on high-end period drama “La Storia,” which is Italian pubcaster RAI’s biggest event show of the year and is world premiering at the Rome Film Fest. The sweeping eight-episode saga, set in Italy during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath, is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante, whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference.

Charna Flam Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell showcase their much-discussed chemistry in the first trailer for Sony Pictures’ romantic comedy “Anyone but You,” premiering in theaters on Dec. 15.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent James Franco will play a U.S. Navy sailor stationed in post-World War II Naples, where he fathers a child, in gritty Italian drama “Hey Joe.” Directed by Claudio Giovannesi (“Gomorrah” TV series, “Piranhas”), the film is now shooting in the southern port city.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief VVS Films, a leading Canada-based film distributor, will expand its operations to Australia and New Zealand. A24’s Nicolas Cage-starring comedy “Dream Scenario” is set as its first title for the new markets and will release on Jan. 1, 2024.

Documentary filmmaking legend Errol Morris has built his extraordinary reputation on two principle foundations: what might be called dramatizations (he rejects the terms reenactments or recreations) and interviews of incredible insight and verve. He has conversed with a fascinating array of people — Robert McNamara, Donald Rumsfeld, Steve Bannon, owners of pet cemeteries, a woman accused of kidnapping and raping a Mormon missionary, to name a few.

Between the Rains and The Echo are among the big winners at the prestigious Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas.

Lise Pedersen Two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne shared his passion for film and his thoughts on contemporary American cinema with the audience at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon where he is premiering his eighth feature film, “The Holdovers,” under the French title “Winter Break,” on October 15th. In a conversation skilfully led and translated by Los Angeles-based French film journalist Didier Allouch, Payne drew laughs from the Lumière crowd when he explained that the secret to making good films was “keeping your budgets low.” “John Huston approached Luis Buñuel one day and asked him, ‘How is it that you make these wonderful films, like “Viridiana” and “The Exterminating Angel”?’ And Buñuel replied, ‘How much money do you make and how much money do you think I make?’” said Payne with a smile.

Kevin Spacey’s attempted career comeback has suffered a blow, with a London cinema dropping its offer to host the premiere of his new film.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Investment in original content production continues to grow in Italy where resources across all genres reached a total of €1.8 billion ($1.9 billion) thanks to increased investments from U.S. streamers.

EXCLUSIVE: UK-based sales and distribution company Blue Finch Film Releasing has acquired worldwide sales rights, excluding Australia and New Zealand, to Jordon Prince-Wright’s WW1 war feature Before Dawn. First-look materials will be available to view at the American Film Market, where Blue Finch will begin sales.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sky Italia is launching a high-profile documentary series with international ambitions titled “The Overlooked Serial Killer,” reconstructing a true-crime case that has gripped millions of Italians. The documentary investigates the connection between Elisa Claps, an Italian teenager who disappeared in 1993, and Heather Barnett, a British woman whose mutilated body was found in Bournemouth in 2002.