Though production is on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Italian industry is mostly holding up, thanks in part to a $145 million government aid package for exhibitors, distributors and producers.
Netflix and Italy’s film commissions have launched a fund to provide short-term emergency support to crews that have been forced to stop working including, but not limited to, Netflix productions. The hope is that shooting can resume by August or September.
Meanwhile, Italy’s film promotion organization, Filmitalia, has launched its annual Italian Screenings market online, staking out a July 21-24 slot. Backed by government body Istituto Luce Cinecittà, the org “is the first of Europe’s roughly 30 film promotion agencies to make a move into the virtual market space,” says Filmitalia chief Carla Cattani, who doubled the Italian fare screened to 40 titles, most of which are world premieres.
Film production in Italy was buoyant prior to the pandemic, so there is no shortage of completed local titles ready for the international market. Here is a trio of standouts expected to soon surface on the circuit:
- “Three Floors”:
Palme d’Or-winning director Nanni Moretti’s 14th feature is based on Israeli author Eshkol Nevo’s novel “Three Floors Up.” It depicts the lives, secrets, and inner turmoils of three Roman families residing in a three-story building. Cast comprises Margherita Buy, who starred in Moretti’s “My Mother,” Alba Rohrwacher and Moretti. The Match Factory is selling this pic. - “Miss Marx”
This English-language biopic by Susanna Nicchiarelli (“Nico, 1988”) stars Romola Garai (“The Hour”) as Karl Marx’s younger daughter Eleanor, a 19 century activist who is also considered an early feminist. Celluloid Dreams is selling. - “The Ties”
“The Ties” The latest from Daniele Luchetti — whose “Our Life” won a 2010 Cannes nod — is a marriage-in-crisis drama set in Naples and Rome over a long period starting in the 1980s. A-list cast includes Alba Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro”) and Luigi Lo Cascio (“The Traitor”).
MK2 Films is selling.