Italian twins Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, who made a splash in Berlin last year with “Bad Tales,” are back on set with dark thriller “America Latina” toplining Elio Germano, who was at Berlin 2020 with two pics: “Bad Tales” and “Hidden Away,” for which he scored a Silver Bear.
Shooting started March 1 on “America Latina.” Its story details are being kept under wraps other than it’s “a love story and like all love stories it’s obviously a thriller,” as the brothers cryptically put it recently speaking to the Italian press.
“Bad Tales,” in which Germano played the sadistic father in a dysfunctional suburban family, won the Berlin 2020 best screenplay award.
“America Latina” is being co-produced by Lorenzo Mieli’s The Apartment, a Fremantle company, and Vision Distribution, which will release the film theatrically in Italy. Le Pacte is also on board and will be distributing France.
Vision Distribution, which...
Shooting started March 1 on “America Latina.” Its story details are being kept under wraps other than it’s “a love story and like all love stories it’s obviously a thriller,” as the brothers cryptically put it recently speaking to the Italian press.
“Bad Tales,” in which Germano played the sadistic father in a dysfunctional suburban family, won the Berlin 2020 best screenplay award.
“America Latina” is being co-produced by Lorenzo Mieli’s The Apartment, a Fremantle company, and Vision Distribution, which will release the film theatrically in Italy. Le Pacte is also on board and will be distributing France.
Vision Distribution, which...
- 3/1/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Amka Films, the Swiss indie shingle founded by prominent producer Tiziana Soudani – who sadly passed away in January – is carrying on its activities under a trio of women led by her daughter Amel Soudani.
The company is known for its involvement in prizewinning films by prominent directors from nearby Italy, such as Alice Rohrwacher (“The Wonders”), Silvio Soldini (“Bread and Tulips) and Fabio and Damiano D’Innocenzo (“Bad Tales”) as well as by emerging talents in Switzerland and Africa.
Among Amka projects in the pipeline is high-profile doc “L’Afrique Des Femmes,” selected for the lineup of the Locarno fest’s The Films After Tomorrow initiative that will award cash prizes to works-in-progress forced to halt production due to the pandemic.
The long-gestating doc portraying strong resourceful women from different African nations and social classes was close to completion when the coronavirus crisis struck, blocking the editing process, which was being done in Italy.
The company is known for its involvement in prizewinning films by prominent directors from nearby Italy, such as Alice Rohrwacher (“The Wonders”), Silvio Soldini (“Bread and Tulips) and Fabio and Damiano D’Innocenzo (“Bad Tales”) as well as by emerging talents in Switzerland and Africa.
Among Amka projects in the pipeline is high-profile doc “L’Afrique Des Femmes,” selected for the lineup of the Locarno fest’s The Films After Tomorrow initiative that will award cash prizes to works-in-progress forced to halt production due to the pandemic.
The long-gestating doc portraying strong resourceful women from different African nations and social classes was close to completion when the coronavirus crisis struck, blocking the editing process, which was being done in Italy.
- 8/7/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Credits included ‘Happy As Lazarro’ and ‘Bread And Tulips’.
Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani, the long-term producer of Alice Rohrwacher, has died after a long illness. She was in her 60s.
Soudani, who hailed from the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino, founded Lugano-based company Amka Film in 1988 with her Algerian filmmaker husband Mohammed Soudani. It takes its name from the first names of their daughters Amel and Karima.
The couple had strong ties with Africa and many of their early productions were made on the continent including Ivorian director Roger Gnoan M’Bala’s 1993 comedy Au Nom Du Christ, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival,...
Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani, the long-term producer of Alice Rohrwacher, has died after a long illness. She was in her 60s.
Soudani, who hailed from the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino, founded Lugano-based company Amka Film in 1988 with her Algerian filmmaker husband Mohammed Soudani. It takes its name from the first names of their daughters Amel and Karima.
The couple had strong ties with Africa and many of their early productions were made on the continent including Ivorian director Roger Gnoan M’Bala’s 1993 comedy Au Nom Du Christ, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival,...
- 1/27/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani, who through her Amka Films shepherded prizewinning films by prominent directors from nearby Italy, such as Alice Rohrwacher and Silvio Soldini, as well as by emerging talents in Switzerland and Africa, has died after a struggle with brain cancer.
She was in her mid 60s, though her exact age was not immediately verifiable. Soudani’s death was announced on Sunday by several Swiss media outlets and by the Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland’s preeminent film event, with which Soudani had a long rapport.
Born in Locarno, the lakeside town in the Italian-speaking portion of Switzerland, Ticino, Soudani founded Amka Films in 1988 with her Algerian husband Mohammed Soudani, a former professional soccer player turned documentary director.
The previous year, in 1987, while attending the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso, Soudani had been profoundly struck by the film “Ablakan,” the first work by Roger Gnoan M’Bala...
She was in her mid 60s, though her exact age was not immediately verifiable. Soudani’s death was announced on Sunday by several Swiss media outlets and by the Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland’s preeminent film event, with which Soudani had a long rapport.
Born in Locarno, the lakeside town in the Italian-speaking portion of Switzerland, Ticino, Soudani founded Amka Films in 1988 with her Algerian husband Mohammed Soudani, a former professional soccer player turned documentary director.
The previous year, in 1987, while attending the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso, Soudani had been profoundly struck by the film “Ablakan,” the first work by Roger Gnoan M’Bala...
- 1/27/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Acclaimed Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi will be honored with this year's Campari Passion Award, a prize handed out by the Venice International Film Festival to honor below-the-line film talents, such as cinematographers, editors, composers and set and costume designers.
A versatile and adaptable filmmaker, Bigazzi has worked with a wide range of directors, including Iranian helmer Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy) or Italy's Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale) and Silvio Soldini (Bread and Tulips). But he is best know for his long-running collaboration with Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, having lensed Sorrentino's Il Divo, Youth and The Great Beauty, among others.
Bigazzi also ...
A versatile and adaptable filmmaker, Bigazzi has worked with a wide range of directors, including Iranian helmer Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy) or Italy's Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale) and Silvio Soldini (Bread and Tulips). But he is best know for his long-running collaboration with Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, having lensed Sorrentino's Il Divo, Youth and The Great Beauty, among others.
Bigazzi also ...
Acclaimed Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi will be honored with this year's Campari Passion Award, a prize handed out by the Venice International Film Festival to honor below-the-line film talents, such as cinematographers, editors, composers and set and costume designers.
A versatile and adaptable filmmaker, Bigazzi has worked with a wide range of directors, including Iranian helmer Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy) or Italy's Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale) and Silvio Soldini (Bread and Tulips). But he is best know for his long-running collaboration with Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, having lensed Sorrentino's Il Divo, Youth and The Great Beauty, among others.
Bigazzi also ...
A versatile and adaptable filmmaker, Bigazzi has worked with a wide range of directors, including Iranian helmer Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy) or Italy's Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale) and Silvio Soldini (Bread and Tulips). But he is best know for his long-running collaboration with Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, having lensed Sorrentino's Il Divo, Youth and The Great Beauty, among others.
Bigazzi also ...
Rome-based Summerside Intl. has acquired international sales rights to Klaudia Reynicke’s “Love Me Tender.”
The second feature from Peru-born and Switzerland-based filmmaker will receive its world premiere at the Locarno Festival in its Filmmakers of the Present competition, which focuses on first and second features.
Summerside Intl. is the world sales agent, excluding and Lichtenstein and Switzerland. The film, also written by Reynicke, will be distributed in Switzerland by First Hand Films.
“Love Me Tender” is produced by Tiziana Soudani, Muchela Pini and Gabriella De Gara at the Ticino-based Amka Films, founded by Soudani in 1988. Its credits include Alice Rohrwacher’s 2018 Cannes Festival best screenplay winner “Happy as Lazzaro” and 2014’s “The Wonders” which took a Cannes Grand Jury Prize, as well as Silvio Soldini’s “Bread and Tulips,” a big box office hit which swept nine David di Donatello awards.
Italian-language Swiss public broadcaster Rsi Radiotelevisione Svizzera co-produces.
The second feature from Peru-born and Switzerland-based filmmaker will receive its world premiere at the Locarno Festival in its Filmmakers of the Present competition, which focuses on first and second features.
Summerside Intl. is the world sales agent, excluding and Lichtenstein and Switzerland. The film, also written by Reynicke, will be distributed in Switzerland by First Hand Films.
“Love Me Tender” is produced by Tiziana Soudani, Muchela Pini and Gabriella De Gara at the Ticino-based Amka Films, founded by Soudani in 1988. Its credits include Alice Rohrwacher’s 2018 Cannes Festival best screenplay winner “Happy as Lazzaro” and 2014’s “The Wonders” which took a Cannes Grand Jury Prize, as well as Silvio Soldini’s “Bread and Tulips,” a big box office hit which swept nine David di Donatello awards.
Italian-language Swiss public broadcaster Rsi Radiotelevisione Svizzera co-produces.
- 7/23/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Bruno Ganz, the Swiss actor whose work ranged from playing an angel in Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire” to an on-the-edge-of-defeat Adolf Hitler in the much-memed “Downfall,” has died at age 77.
He died at his home in Zurich on Friday after a diagnosis of colon cancer, his agent told France 24.
In his long career, Ganz appeared in more than 80 films and TV movies, mostly in Europe. He starred as a hit man opposite Dennis Hopper in Wenders’ 1977 film noir “The American Friend,” and then reteamed with the director a decade later for “Wings of Desire,” playing an angel sent to earth to comfort dying humans, who begins to long for humanity for himself.
Also Read: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2019 (Photos)
In Werner Herzog’s 1979 “Nosferatu the Vampyre,” Ganz played the human Jonathan Harker to Klaus Kinski’s otherworldly Dracula. And he starred as a Venice cafe worker who romances...
He died at his home in Zurich on Friday after a diagnosis of colon cancer, his agent told France 24.
In his long career, Ganz appeared in more than 80 films and TV movies, mostly in Europe. He starred as a hit man opposite Dennis Hopper in Wenders’ 1977 film noir “The American Friend,” and then reteamed with the director a decade later for “Wings of Desire,” playing an angel sent to earth to comfort dying humans, who begins to long for humanity for himself.
Also Read: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2019 (Photos)
In Werner Herzog’s 1979 “Nosferatu the Vampyre,” Ganz played the human Jonathan Harker to Klaus Kinski’s otherworldly Dracula. And he starred as a Venice cafe worker who romances...
- 2/16/2019
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Film Society Of Lincoln Center announces Relentless Renegade: The Films Of Norman Jewison May 25-30
Jewison to appear in-person along with Academy Award winners Olympia Dukakis and Lee Grant
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the details today for the upcoming film series, Relentless Renegade: The Films of Norman Jewison which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater May 25-30. The series will mark the first major retrospective of the director.s work in New York featuring appearances by Jewison, along with Academy Award winners Olympia Dukakis and Lee Grant and others participating in Q&As and discussing several of the classic films helmed by the great director.
Special guest appearances include:
Olympia Dukakis - who will join Jewison to discuss the film Moonstruck (Saturday, May 28 at 5:45Pm)
Lee Grant - who will attend screenings of In The Heat Of The Night (Friday, May 27 at 6:00Pm) and The Landlord (Monday,...
Jewison to appear in-person along with Academy Award winners Olympia Dukakis and Lee Grant
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the details today for the upcoming film series, Relentless Renegade: The Films of Norman Jewison which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater May 25-30. The series will mark the first major retrospective of the director.s work in New York featuring appearances by Jewison, along with Academy Award winners Olympia Dukakis and Lee Grant and others participating in Q&As and discussing several of the classic films helmed by the great director.
Special guest appearances include:
Olympia Dukakis - who will join Jewison to discuss the film Moonstruck (Saturday, May 28 at 5:45Pm)
Lee Grant - who will attend screenings of In The Heat Of The Night (Friday, May 27 at 6:00Pm) and The Landlord (Monday,...
- 3/30/2011
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
RomaCinemaFest
ROME -- Silvio Soldini, best known for his multiple award-winning Bread and Tulips from 2000, may have toned down his lyrical ways in Clouds and Days, but he has not strayed from his favorite subject matter -- a middle-aged couple in crisis. Here Soldini forgoes his trademark fairy tale or literary touches (such as in 2002's Burning in the Wind) for austere naturalism, complete with handheld camerawork that may not be entirely justified but lends itself to the film's verite feel.
A universal story with which almost anyone can identify, the film was released domestically Oct. 26 on 176 screens, coming in fifth at the boxoffice with nearly €725,000 grossed from its opening weekend -- over half of what Soldini's previous title, Agata and the Storm (2004), took in overall at home.
In the U.S., Days will be most-successful among highbrow audiences with a taste for smart European fare and the Italian realism of a bygone era. It should also win back European audiences -- in particular in Switzerland and Germany, where he has a large following -- ready for a more mature story from the director.
Although Michele (Antonio Albanese) has a solid marriage, he waits until his wife Elsa (Margherita Buy) has obtained her art history degree to tell her that he was fired two months earlier by the company he helped create. They will have to sell their lavish home immediately. Reeling from shock over the abysmal state of their finances, she quickly finds part-time work as a telemarketer while he goes on fruitless job interviews for positions for which he is overqualified.
Depressed, Michele begins skipping the interviews to do menial work, first as a moped messenger then as a handyman with two of his former employees (Giuseppe Battiston and Antonio Carlo Francini). Eventually, he refuses to get out bed, forcing Elsa to accept a full-time office job and take over his role as the family breadwinner. As their life of privilege slips further away, they start taking their frustrations out on one another and their 20-year-old daughter Alice (Alba Rohrwacher).
The intelligently crafted plot (by Soldini, his longstanding collaborator Doriana Leondeff, Francesco Piccolo and Federica Pontremoli) is balanced by comedic moments that keep it from becoming bleak. The film relies more on nuance rather than dramatic peaks. One particularly gripping, wordless scene comes when Alice, oblivious to her parents' problems, pulls up next to Michele, who is on a moped delivering a package, at a stoplight.
Soldini also reigns in Albanese (a renowned comic prone to hamming it up) and Buy (who has perfected the role of the neurotic urbanite), drawing from them two sober, highly credible performances that reflect how life's unexpected struggles can wear away at even the most loving relationships.
However, two hours on the exhaustive, day-by-day fallout of these struggles weighs down rather than heightens the tension and threat to Elsa and Michele's livelihood and love (even when she begins flirting with a co-worker). At times Days seems more of a social commentary on the shrinking middle class than the will-they-or-won't-they-make-it story at the heart of the film.
DAYS AND CLOUDS
Lumiere & Co., Amka Films, RTSI
Credits:
Director: Silvio Soldin
Writers: Soldini, Doriana Leondeff, Francesco Piccolo, Federica Pontremoli
Producer: Lionello Cerri
Executive producer: Tiziana Soudani
Director of photography: Ramiro Civita
Production designer: Paolo Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designers: Silvia Nebiolo, Patrizia Mazzon
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Cast:
Elsa: Margherita Buy
Michele: Antonio Albanese
Alice: Alba Rohrwacher
Vito: Giuseppe Battiston
Riki: Fabio Troiano
Nadia: Carla Signoris
Salviati: Paolo Sassanelli
Luciano: Antonio Carlo Francini
Running time -- 117 minutes
No MPAA rating...
ROME -- Silvio Soldini, best known for his multiple award-winning Bread and Tulips from 2000, may have toned down his lyrical ways in Clouds and Days, but he has not strayed from his favorite subject matter -- a middle-aged couple in crisis. Here Soldini forgoes his trademark fairy tale or literary touches (such as in 2002's Burning in the Wind) for austere naturalism, complete with handheld camerawork that may not be entirely justified but lends itself to the film's verite feel.
A universal story with which almost anyone can identify, the film was released domestically Oct. 26 on 176 screens, coming in fifth at the boxoffice with nearly €725,000 grossed from its opening weekend -- over half of what Soldini's previous title, Agata and the Storm (2004), took in overall at home.
In the U.S., Days will be most-successful among highbrow audiences with a taste for smart European fare and the Italian realism of a bygone era. It should also win back European audiences -- in particular in Switzerland and Germany, where he has a large following -- ready for a more mature story from the director.
Although Michele (Antonio Albanese) has a solid marriage, he waits until his wife Elsa (Margherita Buy) has obtained her art history degree to tell her that he was fired two months earlier by the company he helped create. They will have to sell their lavish home immediately. Reeling from shock over the abysmal state of their finances, she quickly finds part-time work as a telemarketer while he goes on fruitless job interviews for positions for which he is overqualified.
Depressed, Michele begins skipping the interviews to do menial work, first as a moped messenger then as a handyman with two of his former employees (Giuseppe Battiston and Antonio Carlo Francini). Eventually, he refuses to get out bed, forcing Elsa to accept a full-time office job and take over his role as the family breadwinner. As their life of privilege slips further away, they start taking their frustrations out on one another and their 20-year-old daughter Alice (Alba Rohrwacher).
The intelligently crafted plot (by Soldini, his longstanding collaborator Doriana Leondeff, Francesco Piccolo and Federica Pontremoli) is balanced by comedic moments that keep it from becoming bleak. The film relies more on nuance rather than dramatic peaks. One particularly gripping, wordless scene comes when Alice, oblivious to her parents' problems, pulls up next to Michele, who is on a moped delivering a package, at a stoplight.
Soldini also reigns in Albanese (a renowned comic prone to hamming it up) and Buy (who has perfected the role of the neurotic urbanite), drawing from them two sober, highly credible performances that reflect how life's unexpected struggles can wear away at even the most loving relationships.
However, two hours on the exhaustive, day-by-day fallout of these struggles weighs down rather than heightens the tension and threat to Elsa and Michele's livelihood and love (even when she begins flirting with a co-worker). At times Days seems more of a social commentary on the shrinking middle class than the will-they-or-won't-they-make-it story at the heart of the film.
DAYS AND CLOUDS
Lumiere & Co., Amka Films, RTSI
Credits:
Director: Silvio Soldin
Writers: Soldini, Doriana Leondeff, Francesco Piccolo, Federica Pontremoli
Producer: Lionello Cerri
Executive producer: Tiziana Soudani
Director of photography: Ramiro Civita
Production designer: Paolo Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designers: Silvia Nebiolo, Patrizia Mazzon
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Cast:
Elsa: Margherita Buy
Michele: Antonio Albanese
Alice: Alba Rohrwacher
Vito: Giuseppe Battiston
Riki: Fabio Troiano
Nadia: Carla Signoris
Salviati: Paolo Sassanelli
Luciano: Antonio Carlo Francini
Running time -- 117 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/31/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
COLOGNE, Germany -- In a surprise move Wednesday, Marlies Weber resigned as head of distribution at German art house group Tobis. Weber, who previously headed German distribution at PolyGram and Universal, will step down at the end of the month. Tobis has not yet named a replacement. Weber declined comment on the reasons for her decision, and calls to Tobis were not returned by press time. Theodor Gringel, Tobis chief financial officer and head of theatrical operations, admitted that Weber's decision was "sudden" but insisted that her exit will not disrupt business. "We have a good team here, and I don't think we'll have any problem bridging the gap until we appoint a successor," Gringel said. Tobis is distributing White Oleander in Germany. Upcoming releases include the Ron Shelton-directed police drama Dark Blue and French action-thriller The Transporter. In her three years at Tobis, Weber handled several successful releases, ranging from the big-budget thriller Hannibal to more art house titles including Roman Polanski's Oscar-nominated The Pianist and the Italian comedy Bread and Tulips.
- 2/27/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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