The Irishman by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino, perhaps the most sought-after title at the Cannes Film Market, was bought for Italy by Lucky Red. “For us it was a question of pride, the recognition of a piece almost 30 years in the making about a hitman,” said Andrea Occhipinti, the founder of Italy’s biggest independent distributer. 

In addition to the previously-announced winner of the Grand Prix, It's Only the End of the World [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Xavier Dolan, and The Salesman [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Asghar Farhadi, which won the awards for Best Actor and Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, Lucky Red bought Jackie, the latest film by Pablo Larrain starring Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy in the days following the assassination of JFK and The Death and Life of John F Donovan, the first English-language film by Xavier Dolan starring Kit Harington, Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain, Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates. It also purchased Meridiano di sangue by James Franco, Flammable Children by Stephen Elliott, and one of the most eagerly anticipated animated films, Early Man [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Nick Park (executive producer of Shaun the Sheep [+lee también:
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In addition to Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Ken Loach and Loving [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Jeff Nichols, which was shown in competition, Valerio De Paolis’ company Cinema will also be handling the Italian release of Toni Erdmann [+lee también:
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Q&A: Maren Ade
ficha de la película] by Maren Ade (sold by The Match Factory), and Paterson [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Jim Jarmusch (presented by K5 Media), which were both shown in competition. Cinema’s catalogue also features The Together Project [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Solveig Anspach (sold by Le Pacte), which was shown in Directors' Fortnight where it won the Sacd prize.

Microcinema and Film 9 Srl bought The Handmaiden, the latest film by Park Chan-Wook, which was shown in competition at Cannes and is based on the book Ladra by Sarah Waters. Notorious Pictures, meanwhile, has announced that it bought 11 films at the Cannes Film Market, “all of which are characterised by high levels of artistic content and significant commercial potential”, pointed out Guglielmo Marchetti, the president and CEO of Notorious. “These films were made on budgets that were on average higher than films we have bought in the past and feature casts with some very famous faces, and we believe they will allow us to take a huge leap forwards from our previous offering”. Marchetti is referring in particular to Hostiles by Scott Cooper, starring Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike and Wes Studi; Escobar, a drama/biopic by Fernando Leon de Aranoa starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz; Black Butterfly, a thriller by Brian Goodman starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Antonio Banderas, which Notorious is also executive producer for; Official Secrets, a British political thriller by Justin Chadwick starring Natalie Dormer, Paul Bettany, Martin Freeman, Harrison Ford and Anthony Hopkins; and Amy Winehouse by Kristen Sheridan, starring Noomi Rapace as the singer. The films will be distributed in Italian theatres between in either 2017 or 2018. 

Last but not least, I Wonder Pictures bought three fictional films and two documentaries for the 2016/2017 season. Glory [+lee también:
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entrevista: Petar Valchanov
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ficha de la película] is the new film by Bulgarian directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov (The Lesson [+lee también:
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entrevista: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Va…
entrevista: Margita Gosheva
ficha de la película]), which will have its Italian premiere at the Biografilm Festival (Bologna, 10-20 June 2016) before being released in theatres by I Wonder and Unipol Biografilm Collection. Screened at Cannes and scheduled for release in Italian theatres next autumn, The Student, directed by Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, got critics and audiences' tongues wagging in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, where it won the François Chalais prize (previously awarded to Son of Saul [+lee también:
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Q&A: László Nemes
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ficha de la película] and Timbuktu [+lee también:
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ficha de la película]). I Wonder also bought the third film by Polish documentary maker Michal Marczak, All These Sleepless Nights [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], and Zero Days by Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney, awarded at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Creature Designers - The Frankenstein Complex by Alexandre Poncet and Gilles Penso meanwhile brings us an interesting encounter with the most famous monsters in film, venturing into the history of special effects through the accounts of directors and experts, from Guillermo del Toro and John Landis to Joe Dante and Kevin Smith.