Sardinia Festival Hopes Event Gooses Sluggish Italian Box Office

A slew of top-notch directors, producers and stars is set to make the trek to the fifth edition of the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival, which combines film and TV and is stepping up efforts to serve as a collective celebration of the Italian and global industry’s restart spirit.

Since Italy’s box office returns are sputtering due to audience aversion to wearing a mask in theaters, Tiziana Rocca, chief of this unique event, is adding an open-air venue with a giant screen at its main hub, the Forte Village resort near Cagliari, capital of the emerald island of Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian).

“Seeing movies in the open air is a different thrill, especially for younger audiences that have been rebelling against mandatory masks in movie theaters,” Rocca says.

Accordingly, the June 9-12 fest will open with the Italian premiere of Universal’s crowd-pleaser “Jurassic World Dominion” in its new outdoor Piazza Forte Cinema.

As for other movie offerings, U.S. actor Jeremy Piven will be on hand for the Italian launch of Daniel Adams-directed drama “The Walk,” which is based on true events during Boston’s 1974 desegregation busing crisis; Netflix is premiering its Italian original film, Florence-set romcom “Love & Gelato,” based on the best-selling novel by Jenna Evans Welch; and Italian actor Claudia Gerini will promote her directorial debut, the comedy “Tapirulàn,” about a therapist who holds online sessions with her clients while she works out on a treadmill.

On the TV side, Italian pubcaster RAI will tubthump the latest season of its long-running soap “Ladies’ Paradise,” set in 1950s Milan and centered around a clothing department store, and also its show “Non Mi Lasciare,” about the female chief of a special Italian police unit to combat online child pornography. Comcast-owned Sky paybox will be on hand to promote sports doc series “The Team,” which reconstructs the complex and comical dynamics behind the Italian tennis squad that won the 1976 Davis Cup and reached the finals for the trophy three other times between 1976 and 1980.

Rocca, who is a former Taormina Film Festival chief, four years ago launched this new concept festival with a strong accent on women in the biz — reflecting the fact that she is herself a rare case of a female festival director.

She is particularly proud of the high-caliber guests list this year, starting with producer, director and Oscar-winning actor Regina King, who is expected to be on hand to receive the fest’s Women Power Award.

Another Oscar-winning multihyphenate, Julie Taymor — who in 1998 became the first woman to win the Tony for direction of a musical for her Broadway production of “The Lion King” — is being celebrated with a career award and a mini-retro including her first film, “Titus,” and Beatles jukebox musical “Across the Universe.”

On the industry side, former Warner Bros. chief of worldwide marketing Sue Kroll, now a producer, is coming to Sardinia to chat with film students about the nuts and bolts of film promotion. She will be interviewed by former Warner Bros. Italy exec Nicola Maccanico, who is now spearheading the revamp of Rome’s famed Cinecittà Studios, in the masterclass format.

Another industry panel will be about the crucial need for Italy to make bigger-budget product, held by Simone Gialdini, head of Italy’s exhibitors association ANEC, with a plethora of top Italian industry execs.

“Pearl Harbor” and “Penny Dreadful” star Josh Hartnett will preside over a jury that will select the best film student short on the timely topic of peace and democracy. Other notables expected on the isle include “Black Panther” star Winston Duke, Billy Burke (“Twilight”), Rossy de Palma (“Women on the Verge of a Breakdown”), Bollywood veteran Kabir Bedi, Turkish star Can Yaman, Cuba Gooding Jr., Naomie Harris and Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Frémaux.

Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts!