Nick Vivarelli Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Raffaele Annecchino, the former president of Paramount Global who left the company last year, is launching a consultancy firm called Blue Ocean Media Partners. In its first deal, he has forged a partnership with Spain’s Mediapro Group, which is looking to expand its footprint in the Middle East.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome’s upcoming MIA market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films and documentaries is set to run Oct. 9-13 in central Rome’s Palazzo Barberini, which besides being Italy’s National Ancient Art gallery, is also the market’s main hub. Now at its ninth edition, this innovative pre-Mipcom event (the MIA acronym stands for the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) aims to boost the Italian industry by strengthening its international ties.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Coccinelle Film Sales has acquired world rights to German director Veit Helmer’s poetic love story “Gondola,” which will world premiere at the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival. Helmer is well known on the international festival circuit for funny, fable-like films with little or no dialogue such as “Tuvalu”; the Azerbaijan-set “Absurdistan,” which went to Sundance in 2008; and “The Bra,” that launched from Tokyo in 2018.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Coccinelle Film Sales has acquired world rights to German director Veit Helmer’s poetic love story “Gondola,” which will world premiere at the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival. Helmer is well known on the international festival circuit for funny, fable-like films with little or no dialogue such as “Tuvalu”; the Azerbaijan-set “Absurdistan,” which went to Sundance in 2008; and “The Bra,” that launched from Tokyo in 2018.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Baz Luhrmann is set to preside over the main jury of the third edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival. The event, which is rapidly becoming the top fest and market in the region and a key driver in Saudi Arabia’s ongoing effort to build a film and TV industry, will run Nov.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome’s MIA market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films, and documentaries is set to feature a panoply of 62 projects from 36 countries for its upcoming 9th edition. Though European content remains the core of the curated pre-Mipcom event that will run Oct.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic (“Quo Vadis, Aida?”) will preside over the main jury of the 6th edition of Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, which has announced its full lineup, featuring a rich mix of Arabic and international titles making their Middle East premieres as they compete for top prizes. Following a one-year hiatus, the Oct.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone, who is a two-time Cannes jury prizewinner, with “Gomorrah” in 2008 and “Reality” in 2012, is in competition at the Venice Film Festival for the first time with his immigration-themed drama “Io Capitano.” Shot in Senegal, Italy and Morocco with a cast of largely non-professional actors, “Io Capitano” narrates the Homeric journey of two young African men, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe. Garrone’s own company, Archimede, produced with RAI Cinema and Belgium’s Tarantula Film as a co-producer. The drama is backed by Pathé, which is handling world sales through Pathé International.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is adamant about his decision to place six Italian movies in this year’s 23-title festival lineup. “Nobody accused the French of chauvinism because they had seven French films in competition in Cannes this year,” Barbera quipped to a snarky Italian reporter when the Venice lineup was announced in July, though he did concede, “It’s true that in the past I have not done this.” Indeed, Barbera’s previous limit on Italian movies in competition for the Golden Lion was five titles last year, which some local critics considered a stretch.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Spanish actor Gabriel Guevara, star of Spanish Amazon Prime teen film franchise “My Fault,” has been arrested during the Venice Film Festival on alleged sexual assault charges, the fest has confirmed, specifying that the teen idol was not on the Lido for anything related to the event. Guevara, 22, had arrived on the Lido yesterday, which he publicised in several Instagram posts.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Whoopi Goldberg and Jeremy Irvine are set to star in Italian comedy “Leopardi & Co.,” directed by Federica Biondi and produced by Franco-Tunisian film and TV entrepreneur Tarak Ben Ammar’s Eagle Pictures. Shooting on the film is currently underway in the town of Recanati, which is known to many Italians as the birthplace of one the country’s greatest poets, Giacomo Leopardi. Goldberg plays the agent of a U.S.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent At the Venice Film Festival press conference for his hotly anticipated “Poor Things,” director Yorgos Lanthimos said he really wished Emma Stone could be on the Lido to talk about, among other things, the fact that Bella Baxter, the character she plays, has plenty of sex scenes in the film. “It’s a shame that Emma could not be here to speak more about it, because it will be coming all from me,” the director said.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The upcoming Venice Film Festival has announced it will hold a flash mob on the red carpet in solidarity with the women and men of Iran “who are fighting for their freedom and against the ongoing repression” and also “the filmmakers and artists who have been arrested or imprisoned,” the fest said in a statement on Friday. Festival organizers specified that the flash mob is partly in reaction to the conviction earlier this month in Iran of director Saeed Roustaee (pictured), who was sentenced to six months in prison for showing his latest film “Leila’s Brothers” at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and banned from making movies. Roustaee had been in the Venice Horizons section in 2019 with the film “Just 6.5.” Venice also held a red carpet flash mob last year in solidarity with then incarcerated auteur Jafar Panahi.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Eleonora Andreatta, Netflix’s VP of Italian originals who oversees the streaming giant’s local output of series, movies, and non-scripted shows, will receive the ITTV International Award during the Venice Film Festival from the Los-Angeles based Italian Television Festival. Affectionately known as Tinny, Eleonora Andreatta has long been a fundamental figure in Italian scripted content production.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Matteo Garrone, who is a two-time Cannes jury prizewinner with “Gomorrah” in 2008 and “Reality” in 2012, is set to be in competition in Venice for the first time with his immigration-themed drama “Io Capitano.” Shot over 13 weeks in Senegal, Italy and Morocco with a cast of non-professional actors, the Italian auteur’s new film – the title for which translates to “I Captain” – narrates the Homeric journey of two young African men, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe. It depicts their plight through the pitfalls of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya and the dangers of the sea.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Banijay is expanding its footprint in Italy’s scripted production arena by partnering with Greenboo Production, the shingle recently founded by “Perfect Strangers” producer Marco Belardi. Formerly known as Bamboo Production, Greenboo was launched last year by Belardi, who formerly headed the Leone Film Group’s film and TV company Lotus Production. Besides producing “Perfect Strangers,” the megahit concept dramedy that’s been remade in a dozen countries around the world, Belardi has also spawned a steady stream of other hits such as Gabriele Muccino’s “There Is No Place Like Home,” which in 2018 pulled in more than $10 million locally and has been spun off recently into a successful TV series for Sky. They also have high-end series “Lions of Sicily” coming up for Disney and a multi-picture deal with Netflix.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iraqi film director and writer Amer Alwan, whose moving drama “Zaman, the Man From the Reeds” was shot right before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and had its North-American premiere at Tribeca in 2004, has died at 66. Alwan, who had long been living in France, died surrounded by family at the Simone Veil Hospital in the French town of Eaubonne on July 4 after battling an unspecified form of cancer for a year, his daughter, Camille Alwan, said by email. He was buried at Saint-Ouen Cemetery in Paris. Born in Babylon-Hills, Iraq, in 1957, Alwan graduated from Iraq’s National School of Drama and Arts and continued his studies at the Audio Visual School of Baghdad, which led to him doing TV work in Iraq. Then in 1980, he left Iraq to earn an advanced degree in philosophy of art and society from Paris’ prestigious Sorbonne university.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Locarno Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Rotterdam”s IFFR and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival have joined forces in a new initiative called Launchpad which aims to nurture budding film professionals. The basic purpose of Launchpad is to facilitate the formative process of selected emerging film professionals working in international sales, marketing, traditional and online distribution, exhibition and programming, and funds and commissions. The idea is to give them facilitated access to a network of European film festivals spread throughout the yearly calendar.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Riz Ahmed will be honoured by the Locarno Film Festival where the latest short in which the British actor appears – titled “Dammi” and directed by French auteur Yann Mounir Damage – will world premiere. Ahmed, who earned an Oscar nomination for best actor in 2021 for his performance as a drummer who suddenly goes deaf in Amazon’s “Sound of Metal,” will be feted by the Swiss fest dedicated to indie filmmaking cinema with with its 2021 Excellence Award Davide Campari, which pays tribute to film personalities who have left their personal stamp on contemporary cinema. “Dammi,” which was teased at Cannes, is an experimental work, broadly on the theme of immigration and identity, produced by French fashion brand  AMI, founded by Alexandre Mattiussi, and also starring Isabelle Adjani, Souheila Yacoub, Sandor Funtek and Suzy Bemba. The buzzed-about short will screen at Locarno’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande, on opening night, Aug. 2, during the ceremony at which Amed will receive the award.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Egyptian producer, director and mentor Marianne Khoury has been appointed artistic director of the El Gouna Film Festival in a clear sign that the prominent Arab event is aiming to make an ambitious comeback for its sixth edition following a one year hiatus.  The fest, launched in 2017 by Egyptian telecom billionaire Naguib Sawiris – whose brother Samih built the El Gouna resort in a swathe of Egypt’s desert near Hurghada, a tourist town 250 miles south of Cairo – was cancelled in 2022 after being held successfully for five years. Khoury will replace Amir Ramses who stepped down as El Gouna’s artistic director at the end of its fifth edition before the event took a one year pause. Ramses subsequently took the reins as artistic director of the Cairo Film Festival, which is Egypt’s oldest and preeminent film event.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sony Pictures International Productions and Italy’s Colorado Film have teamed up on Italian comedy/road movie “50km per Hour” which has started shooting with multi-hyphenate Fabio De Luigi directing and starring. The film is an Italian remake of Sony’s 2018 German box office hit “25 Km/h,” written by Oliver Ziegenbalg and directed by Markus Goller about two estranged siblings who reunite at their father’s funeral and make a spur of the moment decision to fulfill their childhood dream of driving across the country on their old motorbikes. It has also recently been remade in Mexico with the title “A Todas Partes” (“All the Places”).

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “Forest,” an Italian eco-themed animation film about deforestation, has scored some strong pre-sales for Rome-based True Colours at the Cannes Marché du film. The still-in-production 3-D animation feature – the protagonist of which is a young mushroom named Fey – has been picked up for roughly 20 territories by Top Film Distribution which will distribute “Forest” in Ukraine, CIS, the Baltics, and Eastern European countries including former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, and Hungary.  Helmed by Luca Della Grotta and Francesco Dafano, the film is produced by Italy’s AI One, the same team that previously spawned 2020 similarly themed animation feature “Trash” that sold in more than 30 countries. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera,” in which “The Crown” star Josh O’Connor plays a British archeologist named Arthur who gets involved in an international network of stolen Etruscan artifacts during the 1980s, has sold worldwide after premiering positively in Cannes. The Match Factory has inked deals for the film in the U.K. and Ireland (Curzon); Australia and New Zealand (Palace Entertainement); Benelux (September Film); Germany (Piffl Medien); Hong Kong (Edko);  Spain (Elastica); South Korea (M&M International); China (Jetsen); Japan (Bitters End); Taiwan (Swallow Wings); Austria (Stadtkino); Baltics (A-One); Bulgaria (Art Fest); CIS (Mauris Film); Czech Republic & Slovakia (Aerofilms); Finland (B-Film); Denmark (Filmbazar); Former Yugoslavia (MCF): Greece (Cinobo); Hungary (Cirko); Middle East and North Africa (Moving Turtle); Poland (Aurora Films); Portugal (Midas); Romania (Independenta); Singapore (Anticipate Pictures); Thailand (Documentary Club); and Ukraine (Arthouse Traffic). 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia’s Ithra Film Productions has launched a new film fund that aims to attract international filmmakers to shoot fully-financed movies in the kingdom on which local talents and crews can cut their teeth. Ithra Film — which is a unit of The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, financed by Saudi Aramco Oil Company to promote cultural development – is looking to commission and fund up to five films annually. The level of funding was not disclosed, nor was the criteria for selection besides the requirement that they contribute to foster the growth of Saudi Arabia’s embryonic film industry. “We invite international filmmakers to collaborate with filmmakers in the kingdom and join us on our journey to accelerate talent and sector development in Saudi,” said Majed Z. Samman, who is head of performing arts and cinema at Ithra, announcing the fund at the Cannes market during a panel at the Saudi pavilion.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy will be the “Country of Focus” at the European Film Market In Berlin in 2024, reflecting the current flourish of the Italian film and TV industry and its growing international relevance and ambition. The spotlight on Italy during the EFM will highlight the work of Italian filmmakers and offer an opportunity to network with local producers, distributors, investors and experts. The official agreement was signed at Cannes in the Italian Pavillion by Berlinale managing director Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Roberto Stabile, head of special projects of Italy’s general directorate for cinema. Also on hand were EFM director Dennis Ruh, Nicola Borrelli, head of the film department of Italy’s culture ministry, and Venice fest chief Alberto Barbera.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent More that forty years after his bitter battle with Bob Guccione over cult classic “Caligula,” Italian director Tinto Brass is still fighting. Just as Penthouse Films International has unveiled a new cut of the raunchy 1980 epic about the fall of the Roman ruler titled “Caligula: The Ultimate Cut” – that screened on Wed. in the Cannes Classics section with Helen Mirren on hand – Brass has issued a statement distancing himself from this new version of the film and announced that he is taking unspecified legal action. “After numerous and fruitless negotiations that have followed over the years, first with the Penthouse and then with other unclear individuals, to edit the material that I shot and which had been found in the Penthouse archives, a version has been created on which I did not take part and which I am convinced will not reflect my artistic vision,” Brass, who is 90, said in the statement.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia is flying the flag at the Cannes Film Festival where the kingdom’s Cultural Development Fund officially unveiled two separate film sector funds worth a total of $180 million aimed at fostering the local film industry and attracting international industry players. At a breakfast event titled “A Billion Dollar Opportunity” Mohammed Bin Dayel, who is CEO of the Cultural Development Fund, and the fund’s chief strategy and business development officer Najla AlNomair announced an investment program with a budget of $80 million “that will target film and media production, distribution and infrastructure,” said Bin Dayel. He separately announced Saudi’s first film investment fund worth $100 million.

William Earl Variety will present four conversations centered on global incentives and filming at Cannes Film Festival at the American Pavilion on Saturday, May 20 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Panelists from Spain, Hungary, Poland and Film Alula will participate in conversations moderated by Variety reporters John Hopewell, Leo Barraclough and Nick Vivarelli. The panels will highlight each of the region’s facilities, incentives, and filming community. Guests of the conversations will include producers, sales agents, distributors and creatives looking to learn about the different filming opportunities in these regions. Juan Manuel Guimeráns from the General Secretary Spain Film Commission will speak on the Spain Location panel. Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, Madants producer; Kamila Morgisz, head of film production and film project development at the Polish Film Institute; and Martin Moszkowicz, chairman of the executive board at Constantin Film will discuss production in Poland. Csaba Káel, film commissioner and chairman of the National Film Institute and Ildiko Kemeny, CEO/producer of Pioneer Stillking Films will speak about filming in Hungary. Charlene Deleon-Jones, executive director, Alula, will speak on Saudi Arabia production opportunities.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian director Nanni Moretti’s new film “Il sol dell’avvenire” (“A Brighter Tomorrow”), a multi-layered love letter to filmmaking in the age of streaming giants, is doing brisk biz at the home box office ahead of its Cannes Film Festival international premiere. The latest by Moretti — who customarily gets special permission from Cannes to release his works locally before launching them from the Croisette — has already scored close to €3 million ($3.3 million) from 500 screens in Italy via 01 Distribution since its April 20 release. “Brighter Tomorrow” came in second only to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” last weekend, which was a long frame due to the International Workers’ Day holiday on May 1.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Beirut-based production powerhouse Cedars Art Productions is having one of its best Ramadan runs ever with eight new series that are all currently scoring stellar ratings during the region’s peak TV season across the Arab world. The prominent Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region film and TV company – which also has offices in Cairo, Casablanca, and Dubai – is heading to the Cannes MipTV market with a slew of shows, many of which push boundaries in an effort to appeal to a younger generation of Arab viewers.  Case in point is timely drama “Soul Rising” featuring Egyptian star Menna Shalabi as a young woman named Rouh who, in search of her son, winds up captive at an ISIS camp for female fugitives amid fierce fighting in Syria. This series has been submitted for International Emmy consideration, said Cedars’ president Sadek Anwar Sabbah.