We spoke to Leonidas Christopoulos, CEO of EKKOMED (the Hellenic Film Audiovisual Centre), right after the panel “Greece on Screen,” where Christopoulos was one of the panelists, together with Orestis Andreadakis, the Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

Greece was on every screen this summer thanks to Odyssey by Christopher Nolan. Now it is the Country in Focus in Venice, it will be hosting the European Film Awards next January, and it will be the Country of Honour of the Cannes Marché du Film 2027.

Two years ago, the Greek Film Centre and Ekome merged to form a unique institutional body, EKKOMED (Hellenic Film Audiovisual Centre). Christopoulos spoke about the ambitions of the next five-year strategy, for which the film industry can count on €750M, to be invested across four axes: Funding; Internationalization; Education, Innovation and Audiovisual Heritage; and Technical and Institutional development.

The €750 million were approved by the government in April, says Christopoulos, and legislated in early August. The plans are ambitious: he explains that, now that the budget has increased, the intention is to go out into the world and show that Greece is placing the audiovisual sector alongside its most traditional economic sectors. Visual creativity enters the table. He adds that, as boundaries within the creative industries are fading, “also our policies should adjust consequently” — what they call the Audiovisual Fusion approach.

There are many Greek projects in the selection of the festival and in the Venice Gap Financing Market. “Being selected by big festivals, they are becoming stories of the world,” says Christopoulos. He mentions A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra by Jacqueline Lentzou and the short Tropic of the Mourning Gecko by Stavros Markoulakis (both in Orizzonti Competition).

The projects in the VGFM are: African Grey by Yorgos Goussis, Lionfish by Thanasis Trouboukis, Patrimonial Fears and Other Illusions by Elina Psykou, The Smugglers by Kaveh Bakhtiari, Wake by Thelyia Petraki, The Mysteries of Eleusis by John Fitzgerald and Simon Critchley (Venice Immersive), and Visitor by Spyros Boukas (Biennale College Immersive Cinema).

The next appointment for Greece at the VPB will be September 6th at 2pm, on the Immersive Island, with the panel “Greece and the Future of Immersive Storytelling.”

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Scarpe rotte diretto da Roberta Torre con protagonista Barbara Ronchi ha aperto le Giornate degli Autori nella sezione Notti Veneziane, alla Mostra del cinema di Venezia 2026. Il film, ambientato a Roma ai tempi della Seconda guerra mondiale, è la storia di “un’amicizia forzata tra due donne, che si trasforma in una forte intimità, un esempio di come anche relazioni temporanee possano essere un modo per affrontare le sfide storiche condivise”.

Roberta Torre spiega che il film nasce dalla lettura del racconto di Natalia Ginzburg e dalla propria passione per le scarpe, che considera un vero e proprio linguaggio. “Le scarpe raccontano molto di noi e del nostro percorso: sono simbolo di paura, desideri e sogni, ma anche strumenti di resilienza, come nel caso delle donne protagoniste del film”. Torre sottolinea che “le scarpe rotte diventano un modo per affrontare le fratture della storia, e più in generale, lo stato di guerra e dopoguerra vissuto dalla società”. La protagonista Clara, interpretata da Barbara Ronchi (che nel film recita al fianco di Mersila Sokoli) incarna questa resistenza silenziosa: una donna che si aggrappa al suo spazio e alle sue scarpe come simbolo di tenacia e speranza.

Barbara Ronchi condivide il suo rapporto personale con le scarpe, rivelando “una passione per il ripararle e conservarle nel tempo”. Le sue parole evidenziano l’aspetto simbolico delle scarpe come oggetti che accompagnano l’identità e il cambiamento di una persona.

Il film ambientato nel passato apre a una riflessione anche sul presente, in cui la guerra e le crisi si ripropongono, mettendo in luce come la memoria degli oggetti quotidiani possa diventare una porta aperta sul presente. Torre aggiunge che il suo obiettivo era di “creare un film che avesse uno sguardo potente sul contemporaneo, sottolineando come le storie del passato siano anche storie di oggi, segnate da continue rotture”.

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C’è un’aula scolastica, una professoressa e un libro aperto sulla cattedra. Da lì parte Les métamorphoses, au féminin, il cortometraggio scritto e diretto da Maria Giménez Cavallo scelto per aprire la Settimana Internazionale della Critica 2026. Ed è da lì, da quella lettura ad alta voce, che il film costruisce il suo gesto più radicale: prendere le Metamorfosi di Ovidio, un testo di oltre duemila anni, e restituirgli tutto il peso della violenza contro le donne che vi è custodita, spesso addomesticata dai secoli di trasmissione scolastica in favola, in immagine poetica, in mito innocuo.

La professoressa, interpretata da Noémie Merlant, legge ai suoi studenti alcuni dei passaggi più duri del poema. Man mano che i versi antichi risuonano tra i banchi, la classe smette di ascoltare distrattamente e comincia a percepire, sotto la superficie levigata della poesia, la crudeltà che quei racconti contengono. È un meccanismo semplice, quasi didattico nella sua costruzione, ma efficace: il film non inventa una nuova violenza da mostrare, si limita a togliere il velo da quella che è già scritta, e a farla ascoltare a un pubblico di adolescenti che reagisce, si interroga, si divide.

Dietro questa scelta c’è un’intenzione dichiarata dalla regista, cresciuta con questi miti raccontati da sua madre e già autrice, in precedenza, del corto Anime galleggianti. Per Giménez Cavallo si è trattato soprattutto di cambiare lo sguardo con cui questi testi vengono tramandati: adottare un punto di vista femminile significa poter ribaltare ruoli e letture che la tradizione ha reso quasi automatici, e restituire centralità a chi, nel racconto originario di Ovidio, resta spesso relegato a vittima silenziosa della trasformazione. I passaggi affidati alla voce della professoressa non sono stati scelti a caso, ma proprio per spostare l’attenzione dello spettatore su questa ambiguità sottotraccia, che il film lascia emergere senza mai forzarla in un messaggio esplicito.

A rafforzare questa impressione di autenticità contribuisce il lavoro con un cast di giovani interpreti, molti dei quali alla loro prima esperienza davanti alla macchina da presa. Le reazioni della classe, nel film, non sembrano recitate quanto piuttosto scoperte in tempo reale, ed è forse per questo che Les métamorphoses, au féminin funziona anche, e soprattutto, come strumento pensato per l’uso scolastico: la regista lo immagina esplicitamente rivolto alle aule in cui Ovidio è ancora materia di studio, con l’obiettivo di offrire una chiave di lettura più critica e più attuale di un classico che rischia altrimenti di restare lettera morta.

Il cortometraggio si inserisce inoltre in una riflessione più ampia, che la regista – cresciuta negli Stati Uniti e oggi divisa tra contesti produttivi diversi – porta con sé da tempo: quella sulle differenze culturali nel modo di trattare i classici. Se in Italia le Metamorfosi restano un riferimento centrale ma spesso dato per scontato, negli Stati Uniti, secondo l’esperienza raccontata dalla regista tra Harvard e la Columbia University, le pagine più violente dei testi classici tendono a essere percepite come un terreno troppo delicato, da attenuare o da evitare del tutto. È un contrappunto che nel film non compare esplicitamente, ma che ne illumina la posizione: continuare a leggere questi testi, senza edulcorarli, resta per Giménez Cavallo l’unico modo per misurarne davvero l’attualità.

Il risultato è un cortometraggio breve ma denso, che rifiuta la scorciatoia del manifesto e preferisce affidarsi alla parola letta, al volto degli studenti, al silenzio che si crea in un’aula quando un testo antico smette improvvisamente di sembrare lontano. Aprire con questo film la Settimana Internazionale della Critica significa scommettere su un cinema che non ha bisogno di alzare la voce per parlare di violenza: gli basta, letteralmente, leggerla ad alta voce.

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Evento speciale di apertura della 41ª Settimana della Critica di Venezia 2026, Il Grande Giaffa segna l’esordio alla regia di Marco Santi, con Edoardo Pesce protagonista nei panni di Giacomo Jack Falta, detto il Grande Giaffa. Al fianco di Pesce, nel ruolo della compagna di Giacomo, anche Barbara Chichiarelli. Santi e Pesce ripercorrono la genesi del film, il lavoro sul personaggio e il tema al centro della storia: la fame di riconoscimento e il confine sempre più sottile tra essere e apparire.

Marco Santi racconta come sia nato il personaggio de Il Grande Giaffa mentre stava sviluppando, con la stessa produzione, un altro lungometraggio: “Un film è un progetto che ti porta via talmente tanto tempo e talmente tanto impegno che la scelta giusta non sembra mai quella che hai davanti agli occhi”, spiega. L’idea per il personaggio di Giacomo Jack Falt, detto Giaffa, gli si è imposta all’improvviso: “Ho scritto velocemente due paginette, le ho portate al produttore e gli ho detto: guarda, anche se stiamo spendendo un sacco di tempo su questo, questo è meglio. Da lì siamo partiti: è piaciuta subito, e siamo andati avanti con questo film accantonando l’altro”.

Per costruire Giacomo, Santi dice di non aver attinto ad altre opere, ma solo alla propria esperienza: “Anch’io sono di natura un impacciato, un timido e anche uno scapestrato per alcune cose: un mix di incertezze e dubbi. Ho preso il peggio e il meglio di me, e ho cercato di esasperarlo sulla carta”. Un lavoro che per il regista resta però solo un punto di partenza: “Sulla carta siamo arrivati al 10% di quello che poteva essere il personaggio. Tutto il resto l’ha fatto Edoardo, quando ne ha preso possesso e l’ha fatto suo”.

Pesce ha trovato la sceneggiatura “interessantissima, molto attuale, originale”, perché racconta “questa fame di fama, molto attuale”. Il suo personaggio parte da una condizione quasi pura: “Un personaggio che parte da una sorta di purezza: all’inizio del film è un loser, ma è come se fosse distaccato dalla febbre che prende la gente quando arriva questo Giason”, spiega l’attore. A teatro, davanti allo spettacolo di Giason, che Giacomo fatica a comprendere, lo show si riduce a un’unica battuta, “Io sono io”, eppure basta a scatenare un consenso che, in un primo momento, gli resta incomprensibile. È poi è stata Barbara Chichiarelli, che nel film ha il ruolo della compagna di Giacomo, a pronunciare la frase che per Pesce riassume il film: “L’occasione fa l’uomo Giaffa”.

Una riflessione che per l’attore va oltre la finzione: “Mai come oggi c’è questa fame di essere riconosciuti, di avere un rendiconto esterno, come se l’interiorità non contasse più”. Sul piano personale, il ruolo gli ha permesso di esplorare un registro diverso dal solito: “Ho fatto sempre personaggi un po’ più duri, e qui invece ho avuto la possibilità di far vedere una fragilità, una sensibilità, che poi viene contaminata da quest’altro personaggio. Per me è stata una super occasione”.

Per Santi, il cuore del film sta proprio in questa ambiguità: “C’è un confine molto sottile tra essere davvero qualcosa o essere percepito quella cosa. Noi viviamo di definizioni: se io ti definisco una giornalista, agli occhi delle altre persone che sono qui tu sei una giornalista”. Pesce cita un aneddoto simile legato a Petrolini: “Lo diceva pure Petrolini quando faceva Nerone: la gente lo applaudiva, gli diceva bravo, e lui rispondeva: vedi la gente? Quando cominciano a dirti che sei bravo, diventi bravo pure se non fai niente”. Un meccanismo che secondo entrambi i social hanno amplificato: prima di internet, spiega Pesce, “per crearti un personaggio dovevi comunque costruirti un avatar, anche per un attore o un cantante, penso a Little Tony, a Mastroianni. Ma era comunque un artista”. Oggi, aggiungono, quell’avatar è diventato ancora più invadente: “non è più un’identità, è un avatar: un qualcosa al di fuori di te”.

The post “Il grande Giaffa”, intervista al regista Marco Santi e all’attore Edoardo Pesce appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Today, September 3rd, the Venice Production Bridge opens on the Venice Immersive Island (Lazzaretto Vecchio Island) where Venice Immersive works are being showcased.

Venice Immersive is the Venice Film Festival and VPB flagship initiative dedicated to immersive works, turns 10 this year, while the it’s market, the Venice Gap Financing Market Immersive, turns 5. We talk to Michel Reilhac, curator, together with Liz Rosenthal of the Venice Immersive Selection and also of the VFGM Immersive selection.

Venice Immersive has been a pioneering space since its inception in 2016. Michel Reilhac explains that its development parallels the rapid growth of immersive arts over the past decade. He highlights how the selection process has become increasingly sophisticated, with projects ranging from small independent studios to major organizations like Disney and Google. The focus has shifted from simple virtual experiences to complex, multi-user installations that can accommodate larger audiences and more intricate storytelling. This evolution reflects a broader trend in the industry, where immersive projects are becoming more ambitious in scale and technological complexity, pushing the boundaries of traditional cinema.

A major theme in the interview is the social potential of Venice Immersive and related platforms. Michel Reilhac  emphasizes how immersive experiences are increasingly collaborative and community-oriented. He mentions examples such as VR Chat, where thousands of users gather as avatars to socialize, play, and create together. These platforms allow people from all over the world to connect in a virtual space, fostering interactions that resemble real-life socializing. Michel believes that the future of immersive arts lies in shared experiences, which can be either virtual or physical, as seen in projects that gather groups of people in specific locations to witness collective storytelling or art exhibitions like “Bowie: Unseen | Unheard”, an immersive audio-visual experience that reimagines the photographic archive of legendary music photographer Denis O’Regan, featuring more than 800 iconic, rare and previously unseen images spanning two decades of David Bowie’s extraordinary career.

Michel Reilhac also discusses how immersive arts are impacting cultural storytelling and emotional engagement. He notes that some experiences are designed to be intimate and personal, such as the virtual reality piece created by a woman singer from Poland who used VR to document her life and impending death (“Being In You”). Or the documentary about Palestine, “Raj’in (We Shall Return” tdocuments Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank through the stories of over 11 Palestinian communities facing forcible transfer, using a visceral blend of 360° cinematography and raw phone and handycam footage.

The link between the Venice market and festival shows how projects can progress from development (Biennale College Immersive) to  financing (Venice Gap Financing Immersive) to final exhibition (Venice Immersive), creating a complete ecosystem that nurtures innovation in immersive cinema.

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Martin McDonagh returns to the Venice Film Festival 2026, in competition at the 83rd edition with Wild Horse Nine, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as longtime CIA partners Chris and Lee. Set just before the 1973 Chilean coup, the film follows the two agents as they are sent by their section chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi), from Santiago to Easter Island, where, among the island’s ancient statues, Chris’s new bond with two rebellious students (played by Mariana Di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) threatens to unravel everything. Balancing the dark humor typical of McDonagh’s writing, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, with real emotional weight, the film also stars Tom Waits and Parker Posey.

Martin McDonagh had been looking for a story to set on Easter Island for years before it came together. “I went to Easter Island fifteen years ago, just to see if there was a story to be told there,” he says. “I tried different variations of two guys being there, and why they had to be there, but nothing worked until I started thinking about what the CIA did in Chile in 1973, when they destabilized and helped overthrow the democratically elected government there.” Once that historical thread became part of the story, McDonagh explains, he could explore something more intimate: the guilt and regret carried by his two CIA agents, Chris and Lee.

Even with such heavy subject matter, Martin McDonagh didn’t want to abandon his usual tone. “I love comedies, and most of my writing is usually funny,” he says, “but it was also about making sure there was a balance between the comedy and the darker, sadder aspects of the story.” That balance runs through the friendship between Chris and Lee: one man unwell and older, looking back on his life, alongside a friend who isn’t entirely sure he can trust him, “but he knows that he loves him, and his friend loves him too.”

The political core of the story is something Martin McDonagh has carried with him for a long time. “I’d been interested in the subject of Chile since my teens,” he says, “so I always wanted to examine it in a story, and to make sure the world remembers what happened, and what the American government did back then.”

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The Girl with the Leica opens the Orizzonti section of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival 2026. Directed by Alina Marazzi, with lead actress Emilia Schüle, the film follows the photographer Gerda Taro: her life in Germany in the early 1930s, her exile in Paris, where she meets fellow exile Robert Capa, and her work documenting the consequences of war on the civilian population in Spain.

On FRED, Alina Marazzi and Emilia Schüle introduce The Girl with the Leica starting from a sentence Gerda Taro says at one point in the film: “My photos will prove that the real crime is doing nothing.”

Asked whether Gerda Taro’s photography still speaks to today’s world, Emilia Schüle ties the film directly to the present. “The film is definitely asking this question. It’s reminding us of the power of images and of the responsibility of those people who are shown in the picture and also the people who are witnessing what is shown in the picture. It’s asking us not to get numb, not to look away.” For Alina Marazzi, Gerda Taro’s example is above all about presence and participation. “What Gerda Taro can teach us still today is to be present to our time, and to take part in history. She wanted to give her contribution with her photographs. She wanted to show, for instance, the consequences of war on the civilian population in Spain.” Marazzi draws a direct line to the present: “What’s very important today is that people who are the same age Gerda was then are independent freelance journalists, video makers who very bravely go over to Gaza or Ukraine to document what’s happening there in order to let the world know.”

Asked how the film gently sets Robert Capa aside despite his part in the story, Marazzi and Schüle start with the title itself. “The film is called The Girl with the Leica. If we were called The Boy with the Leica, maybe we would be somewhere else.” At the time the story is set, when Gerda Taro and Robert Capa met, Capa was only twenty-one: “He was already a photographer full of energy and determination. He had a big drive. But at the time they were very young kids and they were finding out who they were while they were experiencing it. So he wasn’t already the famous war photographer to be known later in the years.” The film, they explain, keeps its focus on Gerda: not only her time in Spain, but where she comes from, Germany in the early ’30s, and her life as an exile in Paris, where she meets other exiles such as Robert Capa. “Capa is one of the main characters, but the protagonist is Gerda. It’s really about her authorship and becoming her own artist, using her own voice that started together with Robert Capa, but it’s about becoming Gerda Taro.”

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Ink, the film that opens the 83rd Venice International Film Festival 2026 in official competition, tells the story of The Sun, the British tabloid launched in 1969 by Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb. “1969: the year we first walked on the moon, and the year Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb launched a newspaper that was to change the world far more,” says director Danny Boyle, who describes it as born to become “a new tabloid that, against all the odds, became the biggest-selling newspaper in the world”: “cheeky, irreverent, daring… the ‘super soaraway’ Sun challenged the establishment and remade our world for the modern era.” Described in its synopsis as “an explosive cinematic rollercoaster about a group of visionaries and misfits,” Ink is based on a script by James Graham that Danny Boyle says he “felt compelled and privileged to make” and it marks the director’s first time at the festival itself: “I have been to La Biennale many times, but this is my baptism at the film festival.” Danny Boyle brought all of this to FRED Film Radio: from the rebellious, punk energy of these misfits and the darker consequences that follow them, to journalism as one of the pillars of humanity now threatened by AI, to his decision not to turn Rupert Murdoch into a straightforward villain.

For Danny Boyle, the appeal of the story lies as much in its characters as in its consequences. “They are a bunch of misfits and they’re rebels and they feel like they’re fighting against something,” he says of a Britain that “was very stultified, was very rigid.” That energy, he explains, “got all the attributes of a punk, of a rebel, of a rock and roll rebel.” But the film does not stop at the thrill of rebellion: “you begin to slide towards something a little darker. And there are consequences to this kind of behavior.” Danny Boyle draws a direct line from that newsroom to the present: “I think there’s an ignition point for where the modern media has ended up, where we are now with our media, and where we’ve ended up where the most powerful man in the world has no respect for truth. He just decides what the truth is.” And he is careful not to place the blame only on the newspaper’s founders: “we’re all complicit in it. It’s all our responsibility. And if we want to change it, we have to acknowledge that responsibility.”

Asked about the parallel with today’s social media, where anyone can make something public whether or not they should, Danny Boyle widens the point to journalism itself: “it’s part of and it’s why journalism is one of the core tent poles of humanity. It’s one of the things that holds up humanity, that there are journalists who will not accept what they’re told and will challenge it. But there’s also, they have a judgment to make about how far they go.” For Danny Boyle, that role is now at risk from a different direction: “when you destroy journalism, that’s happening at the moment, you lose that and you hand it over to tech and to AI and to algorithms.” It remains to be seen “whether they will have that ability to challenge their masters, their tech giants, in the way that a journalist can challenge their master, their pay master.” He sees the erosion accelerating: “that is one of the things that’s being whittled away, and it’s accelerating that whittling away at the moment. And the biggest danger, I think, with AI is that it will change fundamentally one of the tent poles of humanity.”

Danny Boyle was equally deliberate about how the film portrays Rupert Murdoch, resisting the temptation to simply monsterize him. “The film is… a lot of the film is about truth,” he says, “so if you’re going to make a film about that, you have to start from a very true point.” That meant portraying Rupert Murdoch as he arrived in Britain, “a country that despised him as an Australian,” and that he “had to fight very hard as a rebel” to win over. Casting followed the same logic: “it was important to us to get an Australian to do it and to feel as truthful as possible,” Danny Boyle says of Guy Pearce, who he notes “looks very like one of Rupert Murdoch’s sons actually, Lachlan Murdoch.” The approach also meant acknowledging what Danny Boyle sees as genuine in the young Rupert Murdoch: “his love of newspapers, his love of journalism, his love of the print industry, and his ability, his desire to change what was a very rigid country, very set in its ways, very snobbish about outsiders coming in.” As he puts it, “there’s much to admire about Rupert as well, and I think it helps reset the palate”, steering the audience away from “another monsterized version of Rupert Murdoch as he’s become in many people’s eyes.”

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Start your day on FRED Film Radio with Venice Production Bridge 2026 morning preview: for the first six days of the market, Carolina Mancini joined by VPB director Pascal Diot, Chiara Marin, Coordinator of the market and Curator of Book Adaptation Rights Market and Alessandra Speciale, Curator of Final Cut in Venice, walks you through the unmissable events and the highlights of the Venice Production Bridge, taking place between the Hotel Excelsior, the Venice Immersive Island (Lazzaretto Vecchio) and the Match Point Arena.

Choose your panels and set your agenda with FRED Film Radio!

Stay up to date every day also listening the latest news from the Film Market at the Venice Lido with the Across the Bridge daily podcast.

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The second feature film of Tunisian-born director Youssef Chebbi, Plague, is one one of the six feature films selected at the 14th edition of Final Cut in Venice, the program of  Venice Film Festival and Venice Production Bridge that supports film in post-production from all African countries and six countries of the Middle East (Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen).

Plague is a story about two twin brothers working in palm tree exploitation in Tunisia. The plot revolves around their daily lives, which take a turn when one brother encounters a palm tree-eating parasite.

Youssef Chebbi describes he parasite symbolizes broader issues, notably the introduction of foreign palm trees just before Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, which led to the spread of the parasite and threatened the country’s main economic resource in the south. Chebbi emphasizes how the film fictionalizes the potential spread of a plague, illustrating the profound impact this could have on Tunisian society and the environment.

The director talks about the deep connection he has to the south of Tunisia, where his family is from, and how his return to the country inspired the project. Youssef  Chebbi met the twin brothers in 2019 in the city of Tozer and was struck by their authenticity, which led him to cast non-professional actors for most roles. He highlights the importance of working closely with these farmers, ensuring the film remains authentic while balancing professional actors like Eya Bellagha, Mohamed Grayaa. Shooting took place in Tozer over a month and a half, with a focus on capturing real environments to maintain authenticity.

Plague is a co-production involving Tunisian, French, Qatari, and Saudi entities, among others. Chebbi shares that the production involved funds from Tunisia’s Ministry of Culture, Doha Film Institute, Red Sea, and regional France aid. The budget was tight, but the team managed to raise sufficient funds to complete filming, primarily focusing on exploring Tunisia’s imaginary landscapes rather than its reality. The postproduction is ongoing, with a screening scheduled soon, and sales are already being handled by a distributor in France. Chebbi emphasizes Tunisia’s strong technical infrastructure, although financial limitations remain a challenge. Plague’s editing process is in progress, with final touches being made ahead of its premiere.

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