EMILIA ROMAGNA/An across the broad presence in Venice
THe implementation of the regional Fund for Audiovisuals has generated a lot of excitement in the world of audiovisuals in Emilia Romagna. Just take a look at the numbers (13 regional projects supported out of the 46 presented, 12 national projects out of 33, plus funding for the development of 10 of the 26 innovative projects received from professionals in the region), as well as the festival presences which, after two debut works at Cannes (“After the war” by Annarita Zambrano in Un Certain Regard) and at Locarno (“Gli Asteroidi” by Germano Maccioni, the only national film in competition ), becomes even more across-the-board at the Venice Film Festival.
“Novecento” by Bernardo Bertolucci and “The Ape Woman” by Marco Ferreri, restored by the L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory of the Cineteca di Bologna are in competition in the Classici section. The Cineteca di Bologna is itself in competition as a producer in the Classici documentari section together with the Fondazione Solares di Parma, for “Evviva Giuseppe” about the life and talent of Giuseppe Bertolucci, directed by Stefano Consiglio and funded by the Emilia-Romagna Film Commission.
Amongst the shorts in competition for MigrArti 2017 we nd “L’incontro” by Michele Mellara and Alessandro Rossi.
In the running for Biennale College, we have the Articolture Bologna and Margherita Ferri production “ The Ice Rift ”, a teenage story set on the Apennines of Bologna and Modena and Adam Selo of Elenfant Film and the director from Bologna Caterina Salvadori, with the comedy “Fear for fun”, which is scheduled to be filmed in Bologna.
Articolture and Elenfant are also the co-producers of “A casa mia”, by Mario Piredda, a film which has already won the David di Donatello award and that in Venice will be presented in the GAI – Giovani Autori Italiani [Young Italian Filmmakers] section, organized by the SIAE.
The Collettivo Humareels is backing the young director Alain Parroni and his short “Adavede” which will be released in spring 2018.

LU.C A./ Millionairs at the Lido
Claudio Santamaria’s debut short “The Millionairs” will be at the 74th Venice Film Festival with a special screening during the Giornate degli Autori. Filmed entirely in the Pollino national park, in the woods and in an old abandoned farmhouse, it is a noir film with nocturnal atmospheres inspired by a graphic novel.
Starring Peppe Servillo, produced by Gabriele Mainetti’s GoonFilms and distributed by Lucky Red, it is one of the works funded by the Lu.Ca. project, a cooperation agreement between the Calabria Film Commission and the Lucana Film Commission.
“After Cannes (Ed.’s note: “A Ciambra” by Jonas Carpignano was at the Quinzaine des realisateurs) we are going to Venice.
We felt it was significant that the projects we are supporting in our regions are valorized by prestigious selections with an arthouse label. With modest funding the most innovative trends are allowed to develop in an optimal way together with our companies and creative entities” say the managers of the Film Commissions of Calabria and Lucania, Giuseppe Citrigno and Paride Leporace.
The short lm “Penalty” by the young director from Crotone Aldo Iuliano will also be in Venice at “I Love GAI – Giovani Autori Italiani” the fair which is the result of a SIAE – Society of Italian Authors and Publishers initiative in collaboration with Lightbox. e short was supported during the promotional phase by the Calabria Film Commission.

TUSCANY/International Sets
This Tuscan summer is one of international television sets: Sandra Oh (known to the general public for her role as Cristina Yang in Grey’s Anatomy) arrived in Siena to star in the thriller series “Killing Eve” written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and produced by Sid Gentle film Ltd for BBC America.
Siena and Pisa are the locations for the British travel show “Good Morning Britain” filmed at the end of July and broadcast on the ITV channel, whereas in August Florence hostess “This is Art”, a Spanish TV show that presents art through the emotions of color, broadcast by Movistar Plus and TV3.
In July the set of a theatrical feature film arrived from Germany: “The War Photographer”, directed by Bernd K. Wunder, an Italian-German co-production by Latemar Film and Revolver Film, set in Montalcino, Civitella Paganico, Monte Antico, Bagno Vignoni and in the Maremma district.
The cast also includes the American actor John Savage.
The Italian production scene is also very lively: filming ended mid-August on the Island of Elba on the h series of “I Delitti del Barlume” inspired by the books of Marco Malvaldi, produced by Palomar for Sky and directed once again by Tuscany’s Roan Johnson.
Greve in Chianti provided the set for the reality show “Il contadino cerca moglie” [ e farmer needs a wife] produced by Fremantlemedia for Fox Life, some episodes of which will star Tuscany’s Leonardo Manetti, a ‘farmer-poet’ who grows irises and produces wine on his farm.
From the end of July Florence and Carrara have been hosting the lming of the new Sky Arte documentary realized in collaboration with Magnitudo Film dedicated to the life and works of Michelangelo.

CAMPANIA/Kevin Spacey is Gore Vidal
There will be many active sets in Campania in August and September supported by the Regione Campania.
From the end of August, Villa La Rondinaia in Ravello, the Amalfi Coast, Capri, the archeological site of Villa Jovis and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Naples will be the locations for the biographical film “Gore” with Kevin Spacey playing the role of Gore Vidal and Matthew Broderick as his companion Howard, directed by Michael Hoffman and produced by Sympathetic Ink for Netflix (the Italian executive production service is by Mestiere Cinema).
Capri Castellabate and other areas in the Cilento district will instead be hosting the filming of “Capri batterie” by Mario Martone, produced by Indigo and starring Reionout Scholten van Aschat, Marianna Fontana, Antonio Folletto, whilst by September Matteo Garrone should begin filming his “Dogman”: five weeks of filming is planned around Castel Volturno and in the area of Bacoli, where various scuba diving scenes will be set, as well as in the archaeological area of Baia Sommersa.
Shooting is scheduled to start at the beginning of September on the next film by Vincenzo Salemme “Una festa esagerata”, starring Salemme alongside Massimiliano Gallo, Nando Paone, Tosca D’Aquino and Iaia Forte, whereas at the end of the month Antonio Capuano will shoot his rst pop comedy with Biagio Izzo, produced by Skydancers, with the working title of “Achille Tarallo”.
Television productions are also flourishing with the documentary series “Il castello delle cerimonie” produced by B&B Film for Discovery, broadcast in Italy on Real Time, and “Camorriste” produced by Doc Lab with A+E Network broadcast by Sky (Crime +Investigation).
In preparation we have the US reality show “Below Deck Mediterranean” for Bravo, with the Italian executive production service by Panorama Films: 9 weeks of filming are scheduled until mid October on board a luxury yacht.
At the beginning of September shooting starts on “Non dirlo al mio capo 2 [Don’t tell my boss 2]” produced by Lux Vide for Rai Uno and by the fall filming will begin on the second season of the series “I Bastardi di Pizzofalcone”, by Alessandro D’Alatri produced by Clemart for Rai, and on the first of four seasons of “Neapolitan Novels” based on the books by Elena Ferrante, directed by Saverio Costanzo, produced by Wildside for Rai and HBO.

ALTO ADIGE/Not only Documentaries
The set of the documentary “Andreas Hofer – Volksheld oder Fanatiker?” which already started filming in Alto Adige in July with production support of € 60,000 from the IDM Film Fund & Commission will return in September to Val Pusteria and Val Passino. The movie is directed by Hannes Schuler and Robert Neumüller and is produced for ORF and Albatross Weltvertrieb by the German Fernsehnüro in co-production with Austria’s Pre TV. Another German television production that filmed this summer in Alto Adige is “Bozen Krimi”.
In August two productions supported by the IDM were launched: the detective lm “Un Confine incerto” by Isabella Sandri, produced by Gaundri (€ 30,000 for pre-production) and “Manaslu – Berg der Seelen”, a documentary by Gerard Salmina on the living legend of mountaineering Hans Kammerlander, produced by Planet Watch Film & Video Produktion GmbH & Co KG (Pörtschach/Austria), with IDM funding of € 379,000. Numerous locations were involved: Valle Aurina, Acereto, Picco Palù, the Cima Grande (“big peak”) of Lavaredo, Ortles, Passo Sella, Sass de Putia, Sass de Mesdi, Santa Maddalena in the Val di Funes, Cima Piccola (“little peak”) of Lavaredo, Croda dei Toni – the Dolomiti di Sesto, Rifugio Auronzo, the south slope of the Tre Cime (“three peaks”) of Lavaredo, Vipiteno, Bressanone, Bolzano, Villa Ottone and Molini di Tures.

TRENTINO/ Looking forward to “Ride”
 Filming concluded at the end of July in Trentino on “Blue Wonder” by Hermes Cavagnini. Also set in the region will be “Ride”, the rst Italian movie entirely lmed using Go-pro cameras, an adrenalin- lled challenge for survival. A dark and lethal game for the strong-hearted who are able to cope with extreme emotions. Produced by Lucky Red and Mercurio Domina with the contribution of the Trentino Film Commission, the lm is directed by Jacopo Rondinelli with the artistic supervision of Fabio Guaglione and Fabio Resinaro who also wrote the screenplay with Marco Sani.