Italian Cinema Today

Gianni Minà and Cristiano de Florentiis Update February 2, 2017 It's recently been announced that documentary filmmaker Gianni Minà will receive an honorary Nastro d'Argento  award for career achievement. Read the full story on Ansa Italian news. The World Premiere of “Pope Francis, Cuba and Fidel,” directed by Gianni Minà and presented by ICFF and AMBI screened in Toronto in occasion of the TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival, was met with standing ovation and appreciation from Canadian critics. ICFF Artistic Director Cristiano de Florentiis awarded Gianni Minà with the ICFF Award of Excellence for addressing themes of historical, economic, social and cultural development with insight, nuance, professionalism and personal commitment. Minà’s documentary explores the recent story of Cuba and its undisputed leader, Fidel Castro, through the lens of last year’s visit of Pope Francis to the Caribbean island. Fidel appears onscreen at age 89, his body marked by hi...

Alec Baldwin in a scene from "Andron" Set in the 22nd century, the new sci-fi movie "Andron," follows a group of young men and women who wake to find themselves in a confined maze. At first they don't remember anything about their lives but slowly their memories return and all they want to do is find their way back into civilization. But in order to break out of this underground world, the members of the group must find their inner strength and work together. This means learning to decipher codes, and overcoming mentally and physically challenging tests all while the outside world watches through a game, placing odds on their fate.  "Andron" is visually layered with a combination of scenes shot on the Mediterranean island of Malta and computer-generated imagery (CGI). The element I enjoyed the most was the exchange between the characters. The film features a crop of beautiful, young protagonists with some pretty sharp acting ...

Born in Calabria but raised in the northern region of Emilia Romagna, Paola Lavini is making her mark in Italian cinema and television as a diverse actress whose passion is telling real stories through sincere, carefully-developed characters.   Lavini is no stranger to American audiences. If you followed the HBO series Rome , you saw her in the very first episode in 2005 portraying a snobby, ill-mannered trophy wife named Phyllis. When I interviewed Lavini back in October, she told me about one scene in particular in which her character was feasting on the Roman delicacy, porchetta. Since Phyllis was rich, spoiled and uncouth, she ferociously ate the porchetta, throwing any class right out the window. The American producers weren’t expecting this beautiful, petite woman to eat with such gusto and authority. They were thoroughly impressed and later remarked on how brilliant she was while doing that scene.   More recently, Americans watched Lavini on the big screen in Fr...

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 ...