Italian Distributors Bridging Culture Between Europe and North America

Raoul Bova and Sarah Jessica Parker on the set of "All Roads Lead to Rome"

Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi are taking the distribution world by storm and bringing a whole new angle of Italian cinema to North America.

Iervolino who has been a producer since the age of 16, has produced, financed and distributed over 40 films. A partner and founder of a number different production companies, he is currently, the youngest and most highly regarded Italian entrepreneurs in the world of film-making.

With his Italian-Canadian origins (his mother is Canadian, his father Italian), after also having worked on different productions and co-productions with some of the country’s major film-makers and having shot no fewer than 8 films in 2011, in October of that same year he founded his own distribution company, Iervolino Entertainment S.p.A, which is now a part of the AMBI PICTURES Group, whose partners are Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi.

Andrea Iervolino has never left out his innate passion for films on powerful social issues and in this regard he is also president of the FCAI, an association that is committed to taking exposé and social commentary films into schools, something made possible thanks to the Cineschoolday initiative, for which Italian Life Senator Giulio Andreotti was a spokesperson in 2011-2012.

Iervolino’s latest ventures include “Italian Style Thriller”, which comprises three feature-length films in 3D and a series consisting of eight episodes that will have as their common denominator a genre that in the seventies led to Italy becoming a worldwide point of reference, namely Horror.

It is through this project that some young Italian directors have had the opportunity to once again bring this genre of movie, which had all but disappeared, back to life in Italy, creating them using present-day directing techniques with a view to venturing once again on the international scene.

AMBI Pictures and Distribution

Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi are partners in AMBI PICTURES, an investment company whose task is to provide financial backing for medium to high-budget international films featuring Hollywood names. Iervolino and Bacardi also founded AMBI Distribution. Based in Beverly Hills, it's a worldwide sales agency that integrates finance, production and distribution for AMBI Pictures.

Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi

I had a conference call with the two distributors during Toronto's Italian Contemportary Film Festival. They talked about their recently produced films, which include eight just last year- the action-thriller 2047 Sights of Death starring Danny Glover, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Baldwin and Michael Madsen; (My interview with “2047: Sights of Death” Screenwriter, Tommaso Agnese) the Barry Levinson directed drama, The Humbling, starring Al Pacino, Greta Gerwig, Kyra Sedgwick, Charles Grodin and Dianne Wiest; and the crime-thriller Hope Lost starring Danny Trejo, Mischa Barton and Michael Madsen.

Recently AMBI produced Andron – The Black Labyrinth, by Francesco Cinquemani starring Alec Baldwin, Danny Glover, Gale Morgan Harold III and the singer Skin. Andrea Iervolino and the director Marco Risi, in collaboration with Monika Bacardi produced Tre Tocchi, by Marco Risi. In collaboration with Paradox Studios, AMBI Pictures is also in production with the romantic comedy All Roads Lead To Rome starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Monika told me that the story brings together the Italian and American cultures.. and that she's really looking forward to releasing this film at the end of this year or in 2016, depending how production goes. We'll keep you posted.

AMBI Pictures is financing and producing with Franco’s Rabbit Bandini Productions and That’s Hollywood Pictures, a film directed by James Franco and based on Steinbeck’s gritty, realist style novel: In Dubious Battle. The film stars James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vincent D’Onofrio, Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, Bryan Cranston and Danny McBride.

The company has also recently ventured into the world of animation, with two animated features: Arctic Justice – Thunder Squad and East End. Iervolino and Bacardi, together with American Sniper Producer, Andrew lazar,are tackling Sci-Fi Thriller, Rupture, starring Noomi Rapace and directed by Steven Shainberg. The team is also in talks with the family of Federico Fellini to remake the iconic filmmaker's equally iconic film, La dolce vita.

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