09/05/2025 - The firm will also be touting Paolo Genovese’s box office champion Madly in addition to Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis’ western

The postmodern western Heads or Tails? [+see also:
interview: Alessio Rigo de Righi and M…
film profile], which is set for presentation within the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, is the flagship title on the film slate which RAI Cinema International Distribution will be presenting to buyers at this year’s Marché du Film.

Described by directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis as a “Bonnie and Clyde-style manhunt-escape western involving a real-life mustang and kicked off by a homicide and a huge misunderstanding”, the film is a co-production between Italy and the USA by Ring Film and Cinema Inutile together with RAI Cinema, in association with Andromeda Film and Cinemaundici, in collaboration with Volos Films. The cast stars Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Alessandro Borghi and John C Reilly. The directorial duo had previously brought their first work The Tale of King Crab [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alessio Rigo de Righi and M…
film profile] to Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2021, which subsequently garnered prizes in Salonicco and Annecy, as well as at the Italian foreign press’s Golden Globes.

RAI Cinema International Distribution, which handles rights sales for the films co-produced by RAI Cinema, will also be touting Madly [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Paolo Genovese, an ensemble comedy which proved an absolute box office hit in the early months of 2025. The Roman director previously gave us Perfect Strangers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] in 2016, a comedy which has been remade more than twenty times in countries ranging from Iceland to South Korea. Produced by Lotus Production-Leone Film Group alongside RAI Cinema, Madly has earned upwards of 17 million euros.

Two fascinating movies by young Italian directors also feature on the firm’s film slate. I Saw A King by Giorgia Farina, co-produced by Italy and France, was presented out of competition at the 2024 Turin Film Festival. Set in 1936 during the war in Ethiopia, the film tells the incredible story of an African prince captured and held prisoner in an aviary. First work Weightless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sara Fgaier
film profile], for its part, was previously screened in Locarno’s International Competition. This poetic movie about love, memory and loss stars Andrea Renzi and Sara Serraiocco and is directed by Sara Fgaier, who has lengthy experience as a documentary-maker and editor (of Pietro Marcello’s Lost and Beautiful [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pietro Marcello ­
film profile], among other works). Actress Greta Scarano also made her directorial debut with the poignant movie Siblings [+see also:
film review
film profile], which is still in cinemas in Italy and which follows a young woman who has to take care of her older brother with Autism.

RAI Cinema International Distribution’s showcase also boasts names of established directors, such as Oscar-winner Gabriele Salvatores with Naples to New York [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], based on a treatment by Federico Fellini and revolving around two children who join forces with the many Italian emigrants seeking their fortune in America. The lead actors are supported by Pierfrancesco Favino. Meanwhile, Toni Servillo is the protagonist of another established director Roberto Andò’s most recent film, The Illusion [+see also:
film review
film profile], about the adventures of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s “Thousand” in 1860, which was presented in the IFFR.

(Translated from Italian)