Riz Ahmed to Be Honored by Locarno Film Festival Where His Latest Short ‘Dammi’ Will Bow

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival will pay tribute to late Italian icon Gina Lollobrigida, who died in January, with a pre-opening event featuring a double bill of freshly restored works in which she stars. The Lido’s annual pre-opening event on Aug. 29 will feature a 27-minute short by Orson Welles titled “Portrait of Gina.” In 1968, Welles interviewed Lollobrigida in her villa on the Appian Way as the pilot for an ABC TV series — a U.S. version of “Around the World With Orson Welles”– that ABC rejected. Welles’ portrait of the diva remained in the vaults until 1986, when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival one year after Orson Welles’ death. This piece has been defined by Welles as a “personal essay” on Lollobrigida. Interestingly, when Lollobrigida saw “Portrait of Gina” in Venice in 1986, she reportedly tried to have it banned. The short’s restoration was done by the Munich Film Museum and Italy’s Cinecittà.

French actress Mélanie Laurent has really taken her career into her own hands in the last few years. While she really turned heads with one of the lead roles in Quentin Tarantino’s WWII movie “Inglourious Basterds” and immediately grabbed Hollywood’s ear—starring in films like “Beginners,” “Now You See Me,” “By The Sea” and Michael Bay’s “6 Underground”— she also quickly turned to her own projects and became a filmmaker almost as soon as she popped up onto the global stage.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Melbourne International Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 2023 edition, with “Shayda,” by Australian-Iranian director Noora Niasari, set as the opening title. The festival will run as a live event August 3-20, at venues around the city and its suburbs, and online Aug 18 – 27. The hybrid format was developed during the COVID pandemic and MIFF found it useful as a tool to reach further away audiences and wider demographics than a strictly in-theater edition. The ‘Bright Horizons’ competition section open to films by first- or second-time feature directors contains an 11-title mix of new and recently-debuted works.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Locarno Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Rotterdam”s IFFR and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival have joined forces in a new initiative called Launchpad which aims to nurture budding film professionals. The basic purpose of Launchpad is to facilitate the formative process of selected emerging film professionals working in international sales, marketing, traditional and online distribution, exhibition and programming, and funds and commissions. The idea is to give them facilitated access to a network of European film festivals spread throughout the yearly calendar.

French actress Mélanie Laurent has really taken her career into her own hands in the last few years. While she really turned heads with one of the lead roles in Quentin Tarantino’s WWII movie “Inglourious Basterds” and immediately grabbed Hollywood’s ear—starring in films like “Beginners,” “Now You See Me,” “By The Sea” and Michael Bay’s “6 Underground”— she also quickly turned to her own projects and became a filmmaker almost as soon as she popped up onto the global stage.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Veteran Swedish star Stellan Skarsgård, who plays villain Baron Harkonnen in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” – part two of which will be released in November – will be honoured by the Locarno Film Festival with its Leopard Club Award. Skarsgård, who started his Hollywood career working with top directors such as StevenSpielberg in “Amistad” (1997) and Gus Van Sant in “Good Will Hunting,” the same year, and segued to memorable roles in Gore Verbinsky’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise and in “Mamma Mia!,” among other films. He is being feted by the Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema with its Leopard Club Award dedicated to a film industry artist who has made a “mark on the collective imagination.”

Will Tizard Contributor Bulgarian crime story “Blaga’s Lessons” by Stephan Komandarev scored the top prize and $25,000 at the 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Saturday, capping a week of celebrating art film, stars and bold global work. With sold out screenings ranging from Russell Crowe introducing “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” to rare Japanese masterworks by Yasuzo Masumura and a tribute to actor Daniela Kolarova, Czech audiences proved once again to be hungry for every kind of film they cannot experience at any other venue. The Crystal Globe competition special jury prize, along with $15,000, went to “Empty Nets,” a German-Iranian gritty love story directed by Behrooz Karamizade.

Well, it’s official: Variety reports that Luca Guadagnino‘s latest, his tennis love triangle film “Challengers,” will open the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival. No surprise there, as Guada has premiered five of his seven feature films on the Lido.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent 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.”

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.

Marta Balaga 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.”

Self-seriousness is a common trait in the world of European cinema, but the opening night of the 57thKarlovy Vary International Film Festival was a wholly playful affair, starting with the most unexpected sight of a troupe of acrobatic ice-skating showgirls spinning and whirling through fake snow and dry ice. MC Marek Eben followed in a similarly feelgood vein, with a dryly witty monologue that touched on current affairs in the Czech Republic and the wider world without getting too heavily into the politics. A “surprise” appearance by festival stalwart Jiří Bartoška, whose attendance was initially in doubt, occasioned the first standing ovation of the night.

EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has acquired North American VOD rights to the dramatic feature film Waiting For The Light To Change — the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival ‘Grand Jury Prize’ winner for ‘Best Narrative Feature.

“Next Goal Wins” will have its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Wednesday.Waititi’s Oscar-winning feature “Jojo Rabbit” also premiered at TIFF and won the festival’s People’s Choice Award in 2019. His most recent film was “Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022) for Marvel/Disney.A sports comedy starring Michael Fassbender, “Next Goal Wins” is based on the story of the 2014 American Samoa soccer team, which lost a FIFA match 31-0 and then hired a Dutch-American coach, Thomas Rongen, to help them prepare for World Cup qualifiers.

It was a family affair for the Williams family at the 2023 Nantucket Film Festival!

In exciting news for movie lovers and soccer enthusiasts alike, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced that Taika Waititi’s soccer comedy, “Next Goal Wins”, will have its world premiere at the 48th edition of the festival.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Taika Waititi’s sports comedy “Next Goal Wins” will have its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. “We’re thrilled to welcome Taika back to the Festival and share his audacious take on the most popular sport in the world,” said Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF. “’Next Goal Wins’ is perfect for TIFF fans of the beautiful game looking for their football fix until the 2024 World Cup arrives.” Waititi, who most recently directed Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” was last at the festival in 2019 with “Jojo Rabbit.” The offbeat comedy, about a 10-year-old Hitler Youth member whose imaginary friend is the Führer himself, won the TIFF People’s Choice Award and an Academy Award for adapted screenplay. Waititi is also known for “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” “Our Flag Means Death” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Two-time Oscar-winning editor Pietro Scalia will be honored by the Locarno Film Festival with its Vision Award honoring technical achievements and advancements in film. Scalia, who was born in Sicily but grew up in Switzerland and studied film at UCLA, has won Oscars for “JFK” and “Black Hawk Down.” Over the past two decades he’s collaborated closely with top directors such as Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone, Bernardo Bertolucci, Gus Van Sant, Rob Marshall, Sam Raimi and Michael Mann. His recent work includes Mann’s upcoming “Ferrari.” Scalia will receive the Locarno award on Aug. 3 during a ceremony on the Swiss fest’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande, followed on Aug. 4 by an onstage conversation and screenings of two standout titles from his career: “Good Will Hunting” (1997) and “Black Hawk Down” (2001).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French actor-director Nicolas Bedos has been placed in police custody in Paris following a police complaint filed by a woman for an alleged sexual assault, Variety has confirmed. The alleged incident occurred during the night of June 1 in a Parisian club where Bedos allegedly put his hand on the crotch of the woman who was wearing jeans, according to news agency AFP, which reported that it had access to the police complaint. Bedos’ attorney Julia Minkowski declined to comment. A source close to Bedos told French journalists that if such act had occurred, it had to be “accidental.” Bedos has been in custody since Wednesday afternoon.

Next month, Christopher Nolan‘s “Oppenheimer” faces off against Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie” on its opening weekend, a showdown that very well may christen the summer’s biggest movie. In “Barbie,” moviegoers know what to expect, a smart, quippy film from Gerwig with a meta twist on its subject.