Taviani Producer Donatella Palermo Announces Transgender-Themed ‘Le Favolose’ by Roberta Torre – First Look (EXCLU)

BBC One adventure programme Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof has been unveiled. The six-part series, hosted by Holly Willoughby, 41, and Lee Mack, 53, will see eight celebrities embark on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure under the training of extreme athlete Wim Hof, 62. Wim, also known as The Iceman, will guide the VIPs though a series of challenges designed to test their limits, both physically and mentally.

Manori Ravindran International EditorWarnerMedia has struck a first-look deal with German-Turkish director Fatih Akin.The tie-up marks the first exclusive deal of its kind for Akin in his 27-year career. The helmer is best known for such films as “In The Fade” (2017), “Head-On” (2004) and “Soul Kitchen” (2009).

Fremantle has acquired 70% of Lux Vide, the 30-year-old Italian producer of Medici, Leonardo and Coco Chanel.

German-Turkish film director, screenwriter, and producer Fatih Akin has signed a first-look deal with WarnerMedia, the first such agreement the filmmaker has made in his career.

K.J. Yossman Sky have released first look images for a new Sky Original drama, “Unwanted.”Inspired by the book “Bilal,” an investigative book from journalist Fabrizio Gatti, the eight-part series tells the story of an undercover human rights defender who is helping migrants journey from Africa to Europe as they battle human traffickers and government officials.Stefano Bises (“Gomorrah”) created and wrote the series in collaboration with with the collaboration of Alessandro Valenti, Bernardo Pellegrini and Michela Straniero.

Resembling more of a personal tribute than exhaustive biography, Pietro Marcello‘s Lucio Dalla documentary, “For Lucio,” takes its title as an invitation. A rambling eulogy that is just as often confusing as it is profound, Marcello’s wisp of a film (running less than 80 minutes) may be missing key context for those not already versed in the life and music of the politically-oriented Italian singer-songwriter.

K.J. Yossman First look images from upcoming U.K./Italian co-production “Commedia” have been released, Variety can exclusively reveal.Actor and writer Greta Bellamacina, who will next be seen in Sky Atlantic’s “This Sceptred Isle,” plays the lead, Irene.Helmed by Italian film and theater director Riccardo Vannuccini, “Commedia” will be Vannuccini’s first English-language film and is intended as an homage to renowned Italian filmmaker Marco Ferreri (“Storie di ordinaria follia,” “The House of Smiles”).Set as a “film within a film,” Vannuccini also co-stars in the feature, playing a director called Rocco Cucovaz who unsuccessfully directs Bellamacina in a variety of scenes, each one descending into chaos until the female actors eventually take over the production.

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani directed films together from the early 1950s until Vittorio died in 2018, leaving his now 90-year-old brother to carry on alone. Leonora Addio, the second film Paolo has made without Vittorio, is not only dedicated to him but picks up many of the themes that ran through their earlier work, including their enthusiasm for theater in general and the writings of Nobel laureate Luigi Pirandello in particular. The Berlin Film Festival competition entry looks and sounds sumptuous, but its two stories — both of which raise questions about what the living owe the dead — are disappointingly slight.

EXCLUSIVE: German actor Saralisa Volm makes her directorial debut with mystery thriller The Silent Forest, which is premiering tonight at the Berlin Film Festival in the Perspektive Deutsches section. Here’s an exclusive clip from the film.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticIt’s no spoiler to say that Luigi Pirandello dies nine minutes into “Leonora addio.” This alternately playful and lugubrious work of reflection isn’t really about the controversial Italian writer’s life at all, but rather his legacy, and in a less literal yet ineluctable sense, that of film directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.Over the course of half a century, the two cinematic siblings made movies together — including 1985’s “Kaos,” an omnibus-style collection of five Pirandello stories — bookending their career together by winning top prizes at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals (for “Padre Padrone” and “Caesar Must Die,” in respectively). And then, in 2018, Vittorio died.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s your first look at Oscar winner Penelope Cruz in Italian drama L’immensita, which is in post-production.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentTrustNordisk has sold “Nothing to Laugh About,” Petter Næss’s Norwegian drama comedy which played at the Zürich Film Festival in 2020. Næss is best known for his Oscar-nominated film “Elling” and has been working in TV and theatre in recent years.

EXCLUSIVE: Isaki Lacuesta’s drama One Year, One Night (Un Año, Una Noche), about survivors grappling with trauma following the devastating terrorist attack at Paris’ Bataclan theater on November 13, 2015, world premieres in competition at the Berlin Film Festival today. Check out a clip above as a group of friends discusses messages of support they received in the wake of the tragedy.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentFour years after the death of his brother Vittorio, with whom he shared a celebrated career, Paolo Taviani is back in the Berlin competition solo, with “Leonora Addio.” The brothers won the Golden Bear in 2012 with “Caesar Must Die,” about high-security inmates performing Shakespeare.The free-form film he made –– screening on Feb. 15 –– takes its cue from a story titled “Il Chiodo” (“The Nail”) by Italian playwright and author Luigi Pirandello, written shortly before he died in 1936.

The first phase of plans to redevelop Piccadilly Gardens has been revealed.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran editor Natalia Lopez Gallardo’s feature directing debut Robe Of Gems screens in competition today at the Berlin Film Festival, check out the first trailer above.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentTel-Aviv-based Cinephil, the sales company behind triple-Oscar nominated “Flee,” has snapped up world rights, excluding U.S., to Italian director Nicolò Bassetti’s transgender-themed doc “Into My Name,” which is executive-produced by Elliot Page.UTA Independent Film Group will be handling North American rights. The buzzy doc, which world-premieres at the Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama Documentary section, stems from Bassetti’s personal experience with the gender transition of his child, Matteo.“Into My Name” provides an intimate look at the universal challenges of gender transition by observing a tight-knit group of trans friends in the central Italian city of Bologna. Cinephil managing director Olivier Tournaud in a statement said that he was “immediately taken” by Bassetti’s “sensitive and relatable exploration of the many facets of gender and even more so the love letter from a father to his son.”“Into My Name is timely and spotlights voices that need to be heard; this is exactly the kind of film Cinephil is proud to represent,” Tournaud noted.Bassetti underlined that for him the doc “is a deeply personal project, both as a parent of a transgender son and as a director who has always explored individual paths that show our shared humanity.” “I trust that together with a strong partner such as Cinephil, we can add to the awareness and understanding of trans issues with international audiences,” the director said.The doc’s characters, Nico, Leo, Andrea and Raff — whose ages span from their mid-20s to mid-30s — come from different parts of Italy, and started their gender transition from a female to a male identity at different times in their lives.