Actor Mohammed Elshehri belongs to a generation of emerging Saudi talents who first cut their teeth on YouTube and are now making their names in film and TV.
12.04.2024 - 11:29 / deadline.com
Former Venice Film Festival head Marco Müller has been named Artistic Director of Italy’s Taormina Film Fest.
The announcement was made today by the special commissioner of the Taormina Arte Sicilia Foundation/ Fondazione Taormina Arte Sicilia, Sergio Bonomo, who said: “Maestro Müller’s professional contribution will be a driving force of success for the prestigious film event”.
The festival’s 70th edition runs this year from July 12 to 19.
“I am happy to work in Sicily to rediscover my roots – I was born and raised in Rome, but my only quarter of Italian blood is from Palermo,” Müller said.
“I thank all the people, in the institutions and among friends of cinema, who have built for me this opportunity to experiment in Taormina the moving thought of how a useful popular festival can still be built. We will use the extraordinary Teatro Antico – which was always a source of jealousy for me when I was programming Locarno’s Piazza Grande – and other cinemas in Taormina.”
Müller will curate this year’s edition with a wider selection committee, including Sandra Hebron, Enrico Magrelli, Carmelo Marabello, and Édouard Waintrop, who will be joined by Joumane Chahine as consultant for international relations.
Taormina relaunched last year, with fest organizers drawing in some heavy star power. Guests included Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Mads Mikkelsen from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Amber Heard from In the Fire, Zoe Saldana and Marco Perego from The Absence of Eden. Other honored guests included John Landis, Willem Dafoe and Abel Ferrara.
Cateno De Luca, Mayor of Taormina, added: “The Taormina Film Fest represents an appointment of great importance that brings prestige to our splendid city and
Actor Mohammed Elshehri belongs to a generation of emerging Saudi talents who first cut their teeth on YouTube and are now making their names in film and TV.
Just over six years have passed since Saudi Arabia announced the lifting of its 35-year cinema ban as part of a strategy to open up the country and move its economy away from a reliance on oil.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Karlovy Vary Film Festival and Variety have teamed up to honor Francine Maisler, one of the world’s most respected casting directors, whose recent credits include “Dune: Part Two,” “The Bikeriders,” “Challengers,” “Civil War” and “Joker: Folie à Deux.” Maisler has worked on more than 70 feature films and is a recipient of 15 Artios Awards from the Casting Society of America, including for “Marriage Story” in 2020 and “Don’t Look Up” in 2021. As well as working with director Denis Villeneuve on “Dune: Part Two,” “Dune,” “Arrival” and “Sicario,” her other films include Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” and “Knight of Cups,” and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “The Revenant” and “Birdman.” In 2022, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for her work on HBO’s “Succession.” As part of its homage, Karlovy Vary will hold a special screening of one of the films which Maisler worked on.
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Zoe Saldana and Salma Hayek are enjoying each other’s company during a double date in Venice, Italy.
EXCLUSIVE: Film Movement has acquired U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to the acclaimed documentary Obsessed with Light, which explores the influence of one of the most remarkable figures in American arts – dancer-choreographer Loïe Fuller.
The rumors are true. After 40 years, the Sundance Film Festival may (and an emphasis on “may”) be leaving the confines of Park City, Utah.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent After reaping the rewards of a protracted growth spurt, Italy‘s film industry is facing a forced slowdown as the country’s right-wing government dithers with modifications they plan to make to several key regulations, most significantly to the country’s now stalled tax incentives for film and TV production. At a packed protest event held earlier this month in Rome’s Cinema Adriano multiplex, industry figures from all sectors – including producers, writers, actors and big-name directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Marco Bellocchio – lashed out against having to wait endlessly for the government to approve new guidelines so production companies can apply for the 40% tax credits that basically drive the business.
If Italian artist Marco Perego-Saldaña’s transition to film comes as a surprise, it is only to those outside his own household. “I always wanted to make a film. I’m a little obsessed. I watch one film Monday to Friday,” he says. “Sunday, actually,” corrects his wife Zoe Saldaña, with a laugh.
Good afternoon Insiders, thanks for always sticking with us. Max Goldbart here talking you through a packed week in the global entertainment world. Read on, and sign up here.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korea’s second largest generalist film event the Jeonju International Film Festival has set eight fiction films by first or second-time feature directors, for its main competition. They are “Cu Li Never Cries,” by Pham Ngoc Lan; “Junkyard Dog,” by Jean-Baptiste Durand, “La Palisiada,” by Philip Sotnychenko; “My Endless Numbered Days,” by Shaun Neo; “Oxygen Station,” by Ivan Tymchenko; “Practice,” by Laurens Perol; “The Major Tones,” by Ingrid Pokropek; and “The Permanent Picture,” by Laura Ferres. Additionally, two documentary features also compete: “After the Snowmelt,” directed by Lo Yi-Shan and “Kix,” by Balint Revesz and David Mikulan. The COVID-pandemic continues to affect filmmaking and festival selection, organizers said. “Even films planned to be made beforehand had to extend their production period due to the pandemic, and many works highlighted the limitations of the production environments, such as smaller cast numbers and minimal locations,” said chief programmer Chun Jinsu. The festival runs May 1-10 in Jeonju, a major town on South Korea’s west coast.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Marco Mueller has been appointed artistic director of Italy’s Taormina Film Festival, which will have a top notch selection committee comprising British film curator and former London fest chief Sandra Hebron and former Cannes Directors’ Fortnight boss Edouard Waintrop. As anticipated by Variety, Mueller, who over the past decades has headed both the Venice and Rome fests — among several other events — is taking the reins of the storied Sicilian event that has had its ups and downs over the years. Held since the mid-1950s in the Sicilian resort known to U.S.
Immigration has often been a topic that sparks strong emotions around the globe, and it is an especially hot topic this election season, particularly when you have a U.S. presidential candidate characterizing undocumented immigrants not as “human” but rather as “animals” and using phrases such as “they are poisoning the blood of our country” at campaign rallies. Now seems to be a perfect time for a powerful new film, The Absence of Eden, to perhaps help lower the temperature and show the human side of those trying to cross the border into a new and hopefully better life.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent George Lucas, the iconic filmmaker behind the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises, will receive the Honorary Palme d’Or on May 25 during the Closing ceremony of the 77th Cannes Film Festival. “The Festival de Cannes has always held a special place in my heart,” said Lucas in a statement.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Snow in Midsummer,” which quietly probes the 1969 massacre of Malaysian Chinese during post-election turmoil, was named the winner of the best film for young cinema competition (Chinese-language) at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Liang Ming was named best director for “Carefree Days,” while the film’s female lead Lyu Xingchen collected the best actress award.
Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Heatseeking filmmaker Olmo Schnabel has signed for representation with WME, and with Black Bear for management. Schnabel’s breakout directorial effort “Pet Shop Days” played both the Venice International Film Festival and SXSW this cycle, scoring distribution from Utopia for a 2024 theatrical release. Starring Darío Yazbek Bernal, Willem Dafoe and Peter Sarsgaard, the film tells of a drug lord scion on the run from his powerful family.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Euro Gang Entertainment, the company launched last year by Hollywood veterans Gianni Nunnari (“300,” “Immortals”) and Simon Horsman (“Legacy: The True Story of the L.A. Lakers”) is ramping up operations in Italy through a partnership with Rome-based Alfred Film, the young shingle co-founded by experienced producers Roberto Amoroso and Maria Theresia Braun.
Slowly, but surely, the lineup for the 77th Cannes Film Festival is being revealed. Last month, Cannes announced that George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” will be an early world premiere on la Croisette on May 15.
Slowly, but surely, the lineup for the 77th Cannes Film Festival is being revealed. Last month, Cannes announced that George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” will be an early world premiere on la Croisette on May 15.
Marco Mueller, who over the past decades has headed both the Venice and Rome fests – among several other events – is back in Italy where he is expected to be appointed artistic director of Sicily’s storied but troubled Taormina Film Festival. According to several sources Mueller, who in more recent years relocated to China, is expected to sign a contract on Thursday to become Taormina fest chief. The event is run by the Fondazione Taormina Arte Sicilia foundation currently being managed by Sergio Bonomo.