Venice, five Italian films competing for the Golden Lion

At Venice 78 (1-11 September) five Italian films in competition and many more in selection and other sections, from Orizzonti to Giornate degli Autori, from established directors such as Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino and Mario Martone to new talents, from the D'Innocenzo brothers to Gabriele Mainetti to emerging talents such as Leonardo Di Costanzo, Laura Bispuri, Stefano Mordini, Alessandro Gassman.

Here's a partial guide to the Italian charge at the Venice Film Festival, starting with the five up for the Golden Lion that will be awarded by the jury presided over by Parasite director Bong Joon-ho.

IT WAS THE HAND OF GOD – Naples, the city of childhood, the beloved parents lost too soon, the place of delirium for Diego Maradona. Exactly twenty years after the release of “L’uomo in più” with Toni Servillo, Sorrentino brings to Venice an autobiographical tale of destiny and family, sports and cinema, love and loss in the story of Fabietto, a boy in Naples in the 24s. An avowedly personal, intimate, sincere film. Produced by Lorenzo Mieli and Paolo Sorrentino, a The Apartment production, it will be released in selected cinemas on November 15 and on Netflix on December XNUMX.

"As kids, the future seems dark. Staggering between joys and sorrows, we feel inadequate. And instead the future is there behind us. We have to wait and search. Then it arrives. And it can be beautiful. This is what It was the hand of God is about. Without tricks, this is my story and probably yours too”, he wrote on Instagram. In the cast, alongside the protagonist/alter ego Filippo Scotti, a fantastic Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri and many other Neapolitan actors.

HERE I LAUGH – Mario Martone tells the story of the great comic actor and playwright from Naples in the early 900s, Eduardo Scarpetta, played by Toni Servillo (who, in addition to Sorrentino, also has a third film, AriaFerma by Leonardo Di Costanzo).

“It is the imaginary novel of Scarpetta and his tribe”, said Martone who investigated the relationship between him and the De Filippo children. The film will be released on September 9 distributed by 01, produced by Indigo Film with Rai Cinema.

LATIN AMERICA – In their third film, after “La terra dell'abbastanza” and “Favolacce”, the D'Innocenzo twins conquer the competition. For their new film they have again chosen as the protagonist Elio Germano / Massimo Sisti, the owner of a dental practice, has conquered everything he could wish for: a villa immersed in the quiet and a family he loves, his wife Alessandra and his daughters Laura and Ilenia. But one day like any other he goes down to the cellar and the absurd takes over his life. Produced by Lorenzo Mieli for The Apartment, the film will be distributed by Vision Distribution in November.

FREAKS OUT – It is the new ambitious film by Gabriele Mainetti who with his first work Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot gave a jolt to Italian cinema. Written again with Nicola Guaglianone (from his original subject), it features Claudio Santamaria in the cast. The adventure and training film tells a story “in occupied Rome in 1943 with four freaks, unique and unrepeatable, protagonists of a History bigger than them”. A work where superpowers are not just entertainment. Produced by Goon Films, Lucky Red with Rai Cinema will be released on October 28 with 01.

THE HOLE – After 11 years, Michelangelo Frammartino returns to the cinema after “The Four Times”. In August 1961, a group of young speleologists from Piedmont discovered one of the deepest caves in the world, the Abisso del Bifurto on the Pollino plateau, at a depth of just under 700 meters, under the gaze of shepherds who were witnesses of the uncontaminated territory. A Doppio Nodo Double Bind production with Rai Cinema, it will be released in theaters with Lucky Red.

In other sections: THE HIDDEN CHILD by Roberto Andò with Silvio Orlando, music teacher in an old popular Neapolitan building is the closing film presented Out of Competition at Venice 78.

Also in the Out of Competition there are AIR STILL by Leonardo Di Costanzo with Toni Servillo, head of the prison guards of a penitentiary in the process of being decommissioned and Silvio Orlando, a prisoner and THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL by Stefano Mordini, based on the novel of the same name by Edoardo Albinati (Rizzoli) with, among others, Benedetta Porcaroli, Valeria Golino, Riccardo Scamarcio, Jasmine Trinca and many promising young actors to evoke the environment and the historical social moment in which the Circeo massacre took place in the 70s.

In the non-fiction Out of Competition, that is, among the documentaries, there is a lot of music: ENNIO by Giuseppe Tornatore monumental tribute to Morricone, DEANDER' – Story of an employee by Roberto Lena, EZIO BOSSO THINGS REMAIN by Giorgio Verdelli and then again DJANGO&DJANGO by Luca Rea in which Quentin Tarantino talks about his passion for Sergio Corbucci and the spaghetti western, while JOURNEY INTO THE TWILIGHT It is a documentary by Augusto Contento that starts from Bellocchio's films to tell the story of Italian decline.

Laura Bispuri is competing at Orizzonti with PEACOCK'S PARADISE, while in the new Orizzonti Extra section there are two other Italian films: the intense THE GIRL FLEW by Wilma Labate with a promising protagonist (Alma Noce), and THE IMAGE MACHINE BY ALFREDO C. by Roland Sejko with Pietro De Silva. And “Rebibbia lockdown” directed by Fabio Cavalli, a Special Event hosted by the Festival with a high value of individual and civil testimony.

At the Giornate degli autori there is the collective ISOLATION (Michele Placido among the directors), THE GREAT SILENCE by Alessandro Gassmann from Maurizio De Giovanni, WELCOME VENICE by Andrea Segre opening the Venetian Nights. And at the Sic, WORLD DOG by Alessandro Celli with Alessandro Borghi.