Alice Rohrwacher: Celebs Rumors

Brie Larson, Paul Dano and Julia Ducournau are among the eight people chosen to complete the main competition jury at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Cannes organizers announced Thursday morning in Paris.Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, who won the Palme d’Or last year for “Triangle of Sadness,” was previously announced as president of the jury. The presence of Ducournau, who won the top award for “Titane” in 2021, means that the last two Palme winners will be part of the deliberations to determine who succeeds them this year.Other jurors will be Moroccan writer-director Maryam Touzani, who was in Cannes last year with “The Blue Caftan”; French actor Denis Menochet, who recently appeared in Ari Aster’s “Beau Is Afraid”; Zambian/British writer-director Rungano Nyoni, whose “I’m Not a Witch” premiered in Cannes; Afghan novelist and writer-director Atiq Rahimi, whose film work often adapts his own bestselling books; and Argentinian writer-director Damian Szifron, who landed an Oscar nomination for his 2014 Cannes film “Wild Tales.”The jury’s 5-to-4 split between men and women is typical for Cannes in recent years.

Lise Pedersen As Switzerland’s international documentary film festival Visions du Réel is about to wrap up, its artistic director Emilie Bujès, who’s been running the show since 2017 and was part of the selection committee for several years before that, told Variety that packed theaters throughout the 10-day event are proof that the public is back. She was very pleased to note that many of the 163 screenings were packed – “even the retrospectives!” – and she was delighted to have two women filmmakers among her guests. “They were fantastic. Symbolically, to have two strong women who were so generous with the audience – it was paradise,” she said of Alice Rohrwacher, who will be in Cannes’ main competition with “La Chimera”, and acclaimed Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, whose upcoming project, “Chocobar,” will be her first foray into feature-length non-fiction.

Martin Scorsese has re-voiced his support for Paris’s La Clef community cinema, following news that activists fighting to save the venue have secured the right to buy the site.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s “Black Flies” starring Sean Penn, and Catherine Corsini’s “Le retour” have been added to the competition lineup of the upcoming 76th Cannes Film Festival. As many as 13 movies have been peppered across several sections, including the competition, special screening, Un Certain Regard and out of competition. Robert Rodriguez’s “Hypnotic” and Kim Tae-gon’s “Project Silence” are joining the Midnight Screening roster, while Amat Escalante’s Mexican drama “Perdidos en la Noche” and Argentinian helmer Lisandro Alonso’s thriller “Eureka” starring Viggo Mortensen and José María Yazpik, will bow at Cannes Premiere, a non-competitive section launched in 2021. Alonso previously won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard with his 2014 movie “Jauja.” Also slated for Cannes Premiere is Valerie Donzelli’s drama “L’Amour et les forets.”

Kicking off on May 16, the Cannes Film Festival is around the corner, and the lineup was announced this morning alongside the names of six female filmmakers that will be participating this year that have films in competition. It’s a small number, but a new record for the festival.

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here penning the weekly mailer a day after Cannes revealed its long-awaited lineup. Read on for all the details and plenty more, and sign up to the International Insider here.

Kicking off on May 16, the Cannes Film Festival is around the corner, and the lineup was announced this morning alongside the names of six female filmmakers that will be participating this year that have films in competition. It’s a small number, but a new record for the festival.

Stars are getting ready to walk the Croisette.

Refresh for latest…: While a handful of big-ticket Cannes Film Festival titles have already been revealed, the bulk of the Official Selection for the 76th edition will be unveiled today. General Delegate Thierry Frémaux is announcing the lineup for the May 16-27 event from Paris’ UGC Normandie cinema this morning and we are updating the list live below; you can also watch the livestream here.

The Cannes Film Festival will announce the lineup for its 76th edition Thursday morning at 11 a.m. Paris time (2 a.m. PT/5 a.m. ET). The press conference will stream live from the UGC Normandie cinema on the Champs-Elysées.

“I wanted to create a film that was out of time,” Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher says about her Oscar-nominated live action short, Disney+ Original Films’ Le Pupille. “That was classic, but also hand-made.”

Ben Croll Zurich-based Tellfilm, the Swiss outfit behind this year’s Golden Bear contender “Ingeborg Bachmann – Journey into the Desert,” has lined up a robust co-production slate, teaming with European partners on the psychological thriller “Motherhood” and the period drama “Gloria!,” while developing their first scripted series “How to Be Sad – The Right Way” with an eye towards global streamers. Co-produced by Austria’s Freibeuter Film (“The Great Freedom”) and with Germany’s The Match Factory handling international sales, the Johanna Moder directed “Motherhood” will tackle maternal anxieties and regrets through the lens of a tense psychological thriller. Production is slated for later this year, with actors Marie Leuenberger and Hans Löw signed as leads. “The Square” star Claes Bang is attached as well.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron wanted to explore making a series of short films honoring the different cultural traditions at the end of the year, from Christmas to Hanukkah to pagan traditions. His concept was to find a director suited to telling the story, depending on the culture. When it came to Christmas, Cuaron says, “That time of year is meaningful in most cultures. It’s the end of the darkest nights and the beginning of a new cycle. I immediately thought of Alice Rohrwacher. I’m a huge fan and have been ever since I saw ‘The Wonders’ and her short films.” Written and directed by Rohrwacher, “Le Pupille,” (The Pupils) the 37-minute short now streaming on Disney+, was produced by Cuaron in tandem with her regular producer Carlo Cresto-Dina.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Cologne-based sales company The Match Factory has expanded and restructured its acquisition and development team. Former head of sales, Thania Dimitrakopoulou, has been promoted to vice president of acquisitions and sales. Claudia Solano comes on board as senior manager of acquisitions, and Cécile Tollu-Polonowski, a long-time partner with the company, has been appointed as head of development. Dimitrakopoulou, who joined The Match Factory in 2007, will now be heading up all acquisitions activities and manage the sales team, reporting to Michael Weber, managing director.

This year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the 16 films selected for its flagship Tiger Competition. Scroll down for the full list.

À la vie à l’amor – Emilie Mannering | CanadaWorld PremiereAgainst Reality – Olivia Peace | United States of AmericaWorld PremiereAirhostess-737 – Thanasis Neofotistos | GreeceNorth American PremiereAll-inclusive (Todo incluido) – Duván Duque Vargas | Colombia, FranceWorld PremiereAnastasia (Анастасия) – Sarah McCarthy | UKCanadian PremiereBaba – Mbithi Masya | KenyaWorld Premierebackflip – Nikita Diakur | Germany, FranceNorth American PremiereCANARY – Pierre-Hugues Dallaire, Benoit Therriault | CanadaNorth American PremiereDiaspora – Tyler Mckenzie Evans | CanadaWorld PremiereGary Screams For You – Cody McGlashan, Nolan Sordyl | United States of AmericaWorld PremiereHills and Mountains (Koha wa Tapaha) – Salar Pashtoonyar | Afghanistan, CanadaWorld PremiereI’m On Fire – Michael Spiccia | United States of America, AustraliaWorld PremiereIce Merchants – João Gonzalez | Portugal, France, United KingdomNorth American PremiereIt’s What Each Person Needs – Sophy Romvari | CanadaWorld PremiereLay Me by the Shore – David Findlay | CanadaNorth American PremiereLe Pupille – Alice Rohrwacher | Italy, United States of AmericaCanadian PremiereLiturgy of Anti-Tank Obstacles (Літургія протитанкових перешкод) – Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk | Ukraine, United States of AmericaNorth American PremiereMirror Mirror – Sandulela Asanda | South AfricaWorld PremiereMunicipal Relaxation Module – Matthew Rankin | CanadaWorld PremiereN’xaxaitkw – Asia Youngman | CanadaWorld PremiereNanitic - Carol Nguyen | CanadaWorld PremiereNo Ghost in the Morgue (Pas de fantôme à la morgue) – Marilyn Cooke | CanadaCanadian PremierePleasure Garden – Rita Ferrando | CanadaWorld PremiereQuiet Minds Silent Streets – Karen Chapman | CanadaWorld PremiereRest Stop –

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian director Alice Rohrwacher, whose “The Wonders” and “Happy as Lazzaro” both won prizes in Cannes, is back at the fest with “The Pupils,” a short film that is screening during her masterclass in the “Rendez-vous With…” section.Variety is unveiling an exclusive clip (above).Written and directed by Rohrwacher, the 37-minute short is backed by Disney and was produced by Alfonso Cuaron in tandem with her regular producer Carlo Cresto-Dina. It features a cast comprising the director’s sister and regular collaborator, Alba Rohrwacher, actor-director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi — whose latest directorial effort “Forever Young” is competing in Cannes — and also Melissa Falasconi, Carmen Pommella, Greta Zuccheri Montanari, Luciano Vergaro — aka “Catirre” — and Tatiana Lepore.

Neon has landed North American rights at Cannes to La Chimera, the tomb-robbing drama from writer-director Alice Rohrwacher that stars Josh O’Connor and Isabelle Rossellini.

Manori Ravindran International EditorNeon has acquired the North American distribution rights to Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera,” starring Josh O’Connor and Isabella Rossellini.Written and directed by Rohrwacher, the film is set in the 1980s in the clandestine world of the tombaroli (tomb robbers) and tells the story of a young English archaeologist (O’Connor) who gets caught up in the illegal trafficking of ancient finds.The cast also includes Carol Duarte, Alba Rohrwacher and Vincenzo Nemolato. The film has wrapped phase one of production in Tarquinia and southern Tuscany and will continue in August and September in central Italy and Switzerland.The film is produced, as all of Rohrwacher’s previous films, by Carlo Cresto-Dina with his company Tempesta and long-time backers Rai Cinema, in co-production with Neon, Amka Films (Switzerland) and Ad Vitam Production (France), and in partnership with Arte France Cinema, Canal+, Ciné+, RSI/SSR SRG (Switzerland) and French distributor Ad Vitam.

Not quite a musical, sort of a folktale, and almost but not entirely a hardscrabble hunk of post-war realism before all of a sudden changing gears, “Scarlet” – which opened the 2022 Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight sidebar on Wednesday – is a tricky project to pin down. Of course, director Pietro Marcello wouldn’t have it any other way.Shooting in French for the first time, the Italian filmmaker made his name with documentaries before working found and historical footage into the world of make-believe with 2019’s “Martin Eden.” With this more ambitious (if more uneven) follow-up, Marcello continues at a similar pace, folding fact into fiction as he explores both the landscapes of rural Normandy in the aftermath of the First World War and the plight of the working poor, all through the crags of his leading man’s brow.That brow (and those crags) belongs to Raphael (Raphaël Thiéry), who we discover limping home from the front interspersed with historical footage of fellow soldiers doing the same.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentAlice Rohrwacher, the Italian director whose “The Wonders” and “Happy as Lazzaro” both won prizes at Cannes, is returning to the festival with “The Pupils,” a short film that will screen during her masterclass in the “Rendez-vous With…” section.Penned and directed by Rohrwacher, the 37-minute short is backed by Disney and was produced by Alfonso Cuaron and Carlo Cresto-Dina. It boasts a cast that includes Alba Rohrwacher, actor-director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi — whose latest movie is competing at the festival — Melissa Falasconi, Carmen Pommella, Greta Zuccheri Montanari, Luciano Vergaro — aka “Catirre” — and Tatiana Lepore.Shot in Super 16 and in 35mm format, “The Pupils” is a facetious coming-of-age fable that follows rebellious little girls at a Catholic boarding school in the run up to Christmas in a time of scarcity and war.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticIn the Italian town of Vejano, local hunters gather to share stories rich enough to inspire movies. Over the past decade, filmmakers Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis have been dutifully documenting these sessions — some fact-based, others blurring the lines of reality — translating them to screen via films that entertain, while also testing what audiences might believe.

Over only a relatively small number of feature films, Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher has established herself as one of the most interesting working today. And it doesn’t appear that she’s going to be stopping anytime soon, as she is already in the middle of filming her latest feature, “La Chimera.” According to Variety, Alice Rohrwacher has started production on “La Chimera,” her newest feature, which will star Josh O’Connor, Isabella Rossellini, Carole Duarte, Alba Rohrwacher, and Vincenzo Nemolato.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentEmmy-winning “The Crown” star Josh O’Connor will be the protagonist of Italian auteur Alice Rohrwacher’s next film “La Chimera,” which is set in the world of archeological looting and is currently shooting in and around Southern Tuscany.O’Connor, who in “The Crown” played the young Prince Charles, in “La Chimera” is playing a young British archeologist named Arthur who gets involved in an international network of stolen Etruscan artifacts during the 1980s.Also starring in “La Chimera,” which can be loosely translated as “The Unrealizable Dream,” are Isabella Rossellini as a retired opera singer; Brazilian actor Carole Duarte (“The Invisible Life”) who plays another non-Italian woman who intersects with Arthur; Alba Rohrwacher as an international artifacts trafficker; and Vincenzo Nemolato (“Martin Eden”) who plays one of the “tombaroli,” literally grave robbers, as artifacts thieves are known in Italy. “‘La Chimera’ is the story of a young English archaeologist who gets involved in the underground world of the ‘tombaroli,’ the nocturnal raiders of Etruscan tombs,” the director said in a statement.Rohrwacher added that the film “is the final piece of a triptych on territory that I started with ‘The Wonders’ and which poses a central question: what to do with the past?” “Is the past merely a lost world, or does it intimately concern our present?,” Rohrwacher asks.“The Wonders,” which screened in Competition in 2014 at Cannes, winning the Grand Prix, was followed in 2018 by “Happy as Lazzaro” that also launched from the Croisette where it scooped the award for best screenplay.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentChiara Bellosi, whose first work, “Ordinary Justice,” launched from Berlin’s Generation 14plus section in 2020, is back with “Swing Ride” (“Calcinculo”) about an overweight 15-year-old named Benedetta pining for attention in an Italian province where she falls in love with the skinny non-binary Amanda.A key difference between the two films is that while “Ordinary Justice,” which examined the lives of two families on opposite sides of a murder case, originated from a deeply researched screenplay that Bellosi wrote, “Swing Ride” — premiering in Panorama on Feb. 13 — stems from a prizewinning script proposed to her by Carlo Cresto Dina, her producer, who also discovered Alice Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro”) and is known for nurturing the cream of Italy’s new cinematic crop.   “It’s a very different process; it was the first time that I had to start from a world that didn’t germinate from me,” said Bellosi about working from the script penned by Maria Teresa Venditti and Luca De Bei that won Italy’s prestigious Solinas prize in 2018.It was like moving into a new house that she had to make her own, she said.“I worked with the writers; I wanted to make a few tweaks and we did that together,” she added, noting that initially “it was a leap into the void.” But directing from their screenplay actually ended up giving her “more freedom” than her previous pic because “the container is already there; but you can go pretty wild with the rest.”This freedom also made it more fun.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly’s Vision Distribution has boarded Berlin Panorama title “Swing Ride,” directed by Chiara Bellosi, and will launch sales at the upcoming EFM on the pic about an overweight teenager named Benedetta who is pining for attention.“Swing Ride” (“Calcinculo”) is set in a tiny southern Italian town where Benedetta meets Armando, aka Amanda, a young transvestite who runs the carousel and sells drugs.

Opening Night“The Tragedy of Macbeth“Dir. Joel CoenCenterpiece“The Power of the Dog“Dir. Jane CampionClosing Night“Parallel Mothers“Dir.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian director Alice Rohrwacher, whose “The Wonders” and “Happy as Lazzaro” are both Cannes prizewinners, will direct her first TV series that, similarly to her fable-like films, will explore the world of Italian folk tales.The Alice Rohrwacher-directed series, which is scheduled to start shooting next year, is titled “Ci Sarà Una Volta,” which translates as “There Will Be a Time.” Casting and other details are still being decided.Rohrwacher is back in Cannes this year as co-director with Pietro Marcello and Francesco Munzi of the doc “Futura,” a portrait of how Italy’s adolescents look at the future which world premieres in Directors’ Fortnight on Monday.“There Will Be a Time” is being produced

The Directors’ Fortnight parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its lineup for the 2021 edition which runs from July 7-17. Scroll down for the full list.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentAfter canceling its last edition due to the pandemic, Directors’ Fortnight, a section running alongside the Cannes Film Festival, will be back with a stylish and eclectic international lineup, including Joanna Hogg’s highly anticipated “The Souvenir Part II,” Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman’s Rwanda-set sci-fi film “Neptune Frost,” and Alice Rohrwacher, Pietro Marcello and Francesco Munzi’s “Futura.” The world premiere of “The Souvenir Part II” will mark the first presence of Hogg, a British writer-director, at Cannes.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian directors Alice Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro”), Pietro Marcello (“Martin Eden”) and Francesco Munzi (“Black Souls”) have teamed up on high-profile doc “Futura,” a portrait of how Italy’s adolescents look at the future.“Futura,” which is being co-produced by pubcaster RAI’s RAI Cinema film unit with Marcello’s own Avventurosa shingle, is billed as a “collective investigation” by the three auteurs “on the different expectations and prospects for the future” of adolescents they met while traveling across Italy.The doc, which is now in post, is described in promotional materials as “a portrait of the country [Italy] observed through the eyes of teenagers who talk about the places they live in

Lise Pedersen Italian director Alice Rohrwacher presented her latest short film on Tuesday at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, where she was guest of honor.The filmmaker was visibly moved as she took to the stage of the 100-year-old Comédie Odéon theater, where the 9-minute short she made with French artist JR, “Omelia Contadina” (“A Peasant Homily”), was screened.“It’s not really a film, it’s not art either – you could call it a cinematic action,” she explained about the short, which features two of JR’s signature giant cardboard cut-out figures being carried to their graves by a group of farmers as part of a kind of funeral rite, symbolizing the burial of traditional farming.

Lise Pedersen One of several high-profile guests scheduled to attend the Lumière Festival in October, Oliver Stone will be screening a newly restored copy of 1989’s “Born on the Fourth of July” at its world premiere in the French city of Lyon.Other guests of honor include actor Viggo Mortensen, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (1998’s “Festen”), Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher (“The Wonders” 2014; “Happy as Lazarro,” 2018) and Oscar winning composer Gabriel Yared.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAmka Films, the Swiss indie shingle founded by prominent producer Tiziana Soudani – who sadly passed away in January – is carrying on its activities under a trio of women led by her daughter Amel Soudani.The company is known for its involvement in prizewinning films by prominent directors from nearby Italy, such as Alice Rohrwacher (“The Wonders”), Silvio Soldini (“Bread and Tulips) and Fabio and Damiano D’Innocenzo (“Bad Tales”) as well as by emerging talents in Switzerland and Africa.Among Amka projects in the pipeline is high-profile doc “L’Afrique Des Femmes,” selected for the lineup of the Locarno fest’s The Films After Tomorrow initiative that will award cash prizes to works-in-progress

In venturing out of the Luzzatti quarter of Naples where most of the first season of “My Brilliant Friend” is set, the second season, subtitled “The Story of a New Name,” breaks new ground in several ways that are key to understanding the show’s overall vision and ambitious aesthetic scope.

Martin Scorsese is known not just for making incredible films, but also for backing and supporting emerging filmmakers. The past few years, Scorsese has executive produced films by the Safdie Brothers, Joanna Hogg, Alice Rohrwacher and more.