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Sky has unveiled the official trailer for the fifth and final season of “Gomorrah,” Italy’s cult crime series produced by Sky Studios and ITV-owned Cattleya in collaboration with Germany’s Beta Film, which is the show’s international distributor.

“Gomorrah” 5 is set to air locally on Nov. 19 after world premiering as the closing event of the CannesSeries fest on Oct. 13. The show is based on an idea by Italian writer Roberto Saviano who wrote a best-selling mob exposé by the same title.

The final instalment of the hyper-realistic skein, which is Italy’s biggest TV export, will bow on Sky in Germany in December, and in the U.K. later this year. “Gomorrah” will soon also be coming to HBO Max in the U.S., home to the previous four “Gomorrah” seasons as well as the show’s spin-off film “The Immortal,” which is an integral part of the narrative.

Forty years ago on July 8th, 1981, Stevie Nicks issued “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” as the lead single from her debut solo album Bella Donna. The song was penned by Mike Campbell and Tom Petty, who joined Nicks as a featured vocalist on the cusp of his own widespread 1980s fame.

Singer-guitarist Molly Tuttle recorded her own version of “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” for 2021’s …But I’d Rather Be With You, Too, a companion release to her 2020 covers album …But I’d Rather Be With You that also...

Exclusive: American Gods star Emily Browning has replaced Anna Paquin on feature drama Monica, which got underway this week in Ohio.

As we revealed previously, also starring in the movie from Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro are Trace Lysette (Hustlers), Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson (Sharp Objects), and Oscar nominee Adriana Barraza (Babel). Paquin was no longer available due to scheduling conflicts.

The Exchange is handling world sales on the drama, which will chart the story of a transgender woman (Lysette) who returns home to the Midwest to care for her dying mother (Clarkson).

From an original screenplay by the director and Orlando Tirado (Hannah), the film is being produced by Christina Dow (Hannah), Eleonora Granata (Medeas), Marina Marzotto (5 Is The Perfect Number), Gina Resnick (Medeas), Christina Sibul (Thirteen) and BAFTA-winning producer Karen Tenkhoff (The Motorcycle Diaries). Executive producer is Steve Stanulis.

Stanulis told us: “We are very excited to be...

Molly Tuttle’s covers EP …but i’d rather be with you, too was a quiet surprise upon its release earlier this month, with the bluegrass singer, songwriter and guitarist interpreting songs like “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with guests like Nathaniel Rateliff. On Thursday, Tuttle released a live performance video of her rendition of Sheryl Crow’s “Strong Enough” with Americana songwriter Madison Cunningham.

Filmed in the Santa Monica mountains, the video begins with Tuttle perched in a tree, playing the signature opening to Crow’s 1993 ballad off her debut LP,...

Exclusive: Trace Lysette (Hustlers), Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson (Sharp Objects), Oscar winner Anna Paquin (The Piano) and Oscar nominee Adriana Barraza (Babel) are attached to star in the feature film Monica, from Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro.

The Exchange is launching world sales during the Toronto Film Festival on the drama, which will chart the story of a transgender woman (Lysette) who returns home to the Midwest to care for her dying mother (Clarkson). The tale of a fractured family is said to explore themes of abandonment, ageing, acceptance and redemption.

Pallaoro’s 2017 sophomore feature Hannah played at Toronto and Venice, where it won Charlotte Rampling the festival’s best actress prize. His first film, Medeas, also premiered in competition on the Lido.

From an original screenplay by the director and Orlando Tirado (Hannah), the film will be produced by Christina Dow (Hannah), Eleonora Granata (Medeas), Marina Marzotto (5 Is The Perfect Number...

Sardinia, a longtime a magnet for international productions spanning from James Bond classic “The Spy Who Loved Me” to George Clooney-directed TV series “Catch-22,” is ready for its close up again.

Following a hiatus due to the coronavirus crisis, the Italian island known for its emerald coast and ancient monuments is now hosting shoots for food and travel TV shows while scouting is under way for prospective big productions, including several from global streaming giants.

“We are doing lots of location scouting with Netflix, Amazon and Disney,” says Nevina Satta, head of the Sardinia Film Commission, who has long been a champion of eco-friendly best practices on set.

She has been busy training local executive producers in Covid-19 safety protocols alongside previous “green set” directives that the film commission had in place. Incidentally, during the pandemic, Sardinia had the lowest rates of coronavirus infection in Italy.

“Covid can actually...

The ceremony was run from an empty studio with winners acknowledging awards via video-link.

Marco Bellocchio’s mafia drama The Traitor swept Italy’s top David di Donatello awards on Friday evening (May 8), winning six prizes including best film, director and lead actor.

The biopic, which premiered in Competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, captures the life of Tommaso Buscetta, the late infamous mafia turncoat who began his organised crime career in Sicily and died in Florida incognito under the Us witness protection programme in 2000.

It marked the first time Bellocchio has won best film at the awards although he...

Marco Bellocchio’s elegant mob drama “The Traitor,” about the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia’s oath of silence, was the big winner at Italy’s 65th David di Donatello Awards, the country’s equivalent of the Oscars.

“The Traitor” scored six statuettes including best picture, director, and actor honors.

The prizes were announced – but not physically given out – during a no-frills ceremony conducted in primetime on pubcaster Rai by star host Carlo Conti in an empty studio with talents appearing in live web platform link-ups. The event served as a collective rebirth rite just when local coronavirus lockdown restrictions slowly begin to lift.

“My wish is for the Italian film community to start working again,” Bellocchio, who is a revered veteran auteur, said speaking from his home, before adding: “I’m 80, and I also hope to make a few more movies.”

“The Traitor,...

Piera Detassis, who heads the Italian Film Academy that runs the David Awards, is no longer anxious about how the no-frills ceremony for the country’s top prizes will play out.

Ever since the coronavirus outbreak, Detassis had been “tormented” about whether to go forward with the prizes, originally scheduled for April 3. But now that it’s been decided, in tandem with pubcaster Rai, to hold them on May 8, with no red carpet, no live audience, with live web platform hookups conducted by star host Carlo Conti in a studio, she’s just “curious to see how it goes,” she says.

“It will be an experiment…to see how much emotion we can transmit with this technology,” says Detassis. The 97-minute Davids ceremony is about half as long as the average Oscars one.

What this year’s Davids won’t be, she says, is a “celebration”. Detassis doesn’t like...

Cinema Italiano was thriving prior to the pandemic so Italy’s David di Donatello Awards, the country’s top film prizes, will serve as a collective rebirth rite just when coronavirus lockdown restrictions slowly begin to lift.

The ceremony marking the Davids’ 65th anniversary to be aired May 8 on pubcaster Rai in primetime obviously sans red carpet and with stars linked-in by remote, is timed shortly after May 4 when Italy entered “Phase Two” of its lockdown as local producers are busy drafting safety protocols and planning the road map for shoots to restart, hopefully in June.

Meanwhile the David academy’s 1,600 voters and, hopefully, millions of Rai viewers will be cheering a pack of nominees that is led by veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio’s elegant mob drama “The Traitor” – released by Sony stateside in January – and Matteo Garrone’s live-action “Pinocchio” alongside edgier titles by up-and-comers such as Matteo Rovere...

Considering how many graphic novels have been adapted into films, it’s curious that only a precious few graphic novelists have ever directed a movie and, when they do, it’s almost always adapted from their own source material. The list practically begins and ends with Frank Miller (“Sin City” and its sequel) and Marjane Satrapi (“Persepolis” and “Chicken with Plums”). It seems not many graphic novelists can get a handle on the dozens of other disparate concerns involved in making a movie.

This warning goes heedlessly ignored by Igor Tuveri, the Italian illustrator who goes by the name Igort. His 2002 graphic novel “5 Is the Perfect Number,” about a Naples hitman who comes out of retirement to avenge his son’s murder, is a moody crime saga rendered in muted, duotone colors. In directing the film adaptation, Igort tries another visual tack entirely, bringing the sledgehammer style with ultra-bold,...

Independent strand of Venice festival selects 11 titles for its competition.

The world premiere of Dominik Moll’s Only The Animals will open Venice Days, the independent strand of the Venice film festival that will run alongside the festival from August 28 - September 7.

Moll’s film will play in competition, alongside 10 other titles, while Bartabas’ Time Of The Untamed will close the festival, out of competition.

German-born French director Moll’s previous credits include With A Friend Like Harry, which premiered at Cannes in 2000 and was Bafta nominated.

Elsewhere, Italian graphic novelist and director Igort (Igor Tuveri) premieres his crime drama 5 Is The Perfect Number,...

New York-based Filipina filmmaker Isabel Sandoval’s “Lingua Franca,” about a transgender immigrant, is among 11 competition entries, all world premieres, that will launch from the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Venice Days section.

The only U.S. entry set to compete in the section modeled on Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, “Lingua Franca” is Sandoval’s third work. It follows “Apparition” (2012), a period drama about cloistered Filipina nuns praised by Variety’s Richard Kuipers as an “outstanding sophomore feature.”

Produced by Tony- and Grammy-winning Filipino producer Jhett Tolentino, and by Darlene Malimas and Carlo Velayo, “Lingua Franca” is set in Brighton Beach, New York, where a transgender Filipina immigrant named Olivia – played by Sandoval, who is herself transgender – scrambles to avoid deportation. She becomes involved with a Russian slaughterhouse worker who is unaware that she’s trans.

Venice Days artistic director Giorgio Gosetti said that this year’s selection is characterized...

Films tipped from around the world are mostly directed by men.

Word of mouth is building around the titles close to securing a competition slot at the Venice Film Festival next month. The buzz is dominated by films by male directors, with films by female directors looking to be heading for the sidebars. But the announcement is not due until July 25 and there is still time for this to change.

The festival was criticised for only selecting one film by a female director in competition for 2018, Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale. Lucretia Martel has been appointed jury president this year,...