What to watch

If your school is a partner in this project, we’ll be choosing some Italian films with young female protagonists to watch in screenings together. Take a look at the following film trailers, and vote for the four you’d most like to see, one from each group, using this survey.  

Teen Films and TV Series

The Lying Life of Adults (La vita bugiarda degli adulti) Giordana Marengo and Valeria Golino star in this Edoardo De Angelis series based on Elena Ferrante’s bestselling novel.
Everything Calls for Salvation(Tutto chiede salvezza), a 7-episode title loosely based on the novel of the same name by Daniele Mencarelli, winner of the 2020 Premio Strega Giovan
Wonder When You’ll Miss Me (Mi chiedo quando ti mancherò) is a 2019 comedy directed by Francesco Fei. A young girl with a difficult past runs away from Italy with her overweight girlfriend. An “on the road” story set in Europe in which the two girls, having joined a circus of young artists, are forced to see their dreams come true. (Source: IMDb)
A Chiara is a film by Jonas Carpignano which follows the story of 15-year-old Chiara whose close-knit family falls apart after her father abandons them in Calabria.
Dog Years is a film directed by Fabio Mollo for Amazon Prime which tells the story of a clumsy, cynical, imaginative and tormented teenage girl named Stella.
The Sea Beyond is an Italian TV Series produced by Italian national Tv RAI and directed by Carmine Elia (1ª stagione); Milena Cocozza, Ivan Silvestrini (2ª stagione). Naples: still an organized crime stronghold. For many teenagers, doing time is part of their “job”. Yet Filippo and Carmine never imagined themselves going down this path. Filippo, who comes from a well-off family in the North, has dreams of becoming a musician. Carmine, from a Camorra family, wants to become a famous hairdresser instead of taking up the family business. Both of them have committed serious crimes, their dreams cut short as their freedom is taken away. Will they be strong enough to oppose the attacks from fellow detainee Ciro, the young, up-and-coming crime boss? What chances are there for young love, as Filippo falls for female inmate Naditza? Though the prison’s director Paola and correctional officer Massimo still try hard to help these “flawed” kids, the boys and girls behind bars are often left to fend for themselves. What they share though is a beautiful view over the sea promising a future in which their dreams may come true. (IMDb)
Out of my league (Italian: Sul Più Bello) is an Italian romantic comedy film directed by Alice Filippi from a screenplay by Roberto Proia and Michela Straniero (Netflix Wiki)
Caught by a Wave (Italian: Sulla Stessa Onda) is a 2021 film directed by Massimiliano Camaiti, written by Claudia Bottino and Massimiliano Camaiti and starring Elvira Camarrone, Roberto Christian and Donatella Finocchiaro.
The film is streaming on Netflix and it is a summer adventure under the Sicilian sun, which soon becomes a painful love story. (Source: IMDb and Wikipedia)
Succede is a 2018 film, directed by the director Francesca Mazzoleni, based on the novel of the same name by Sofia Viscardi. The film is about the life of sixteen-year-old Margherita called Meg. She is an insecure girl who lives in her world that she shares only with her two best friends: Olimpia and Tommaso. Margherita will have to face her first experiences; friendship betrayed, love that becomes more and more complex, but above all, she will have to face herself and her trust in the world, in the long journey of adolescence. (Source: Wikipedia)
The Sweeties (Italian: Dolcissime) is a 2019 film comedy directed by Francesco Ghiaccio. Mariagrazia, Chiara and Letizia are three inseparable friends forced to deal with the question of body size every day, between disapproving looks from their classmates and giggles at school. (Source: IMDb)
Bangla is a 2019 Italian film directed by Phaim Bhuiyan. The film premiered at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam. Thanks to this first movie, Bhuiyan won David di Donatello for Best New Director. The film is about an Italian young man, whose parents are from Bangladesh. He lives with his mom, dad and sister in a house in Rome. He works in a museum, and in his free time, performs with his band at small events. He is still trying to figure out life, but one day an Italian girl appears in his life. (Source: IMDb)
L’Arminuta directed by Giuseppe Bonito, film adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name, winner of the 2017 Campiello Prize by Donatella Di Pietrantonio published by Einaudi. It tells of a 13-year-old who is forced to move in with another family for unknown reasons. (Source: IMDb)

Intergenerational comedies

18 Presents (Italian: 18 Regali) is a 2020 film directed by Francesco Amato Inspired by the extraordinary story of Elisa Girotto, the woman who moved the world by leaving 18 birthday gifts for her daughter when she discovered that she would have little time with her.
Parents VS Influencer is a 2021 comedy directed by Michela Andreozzi. While struggling with her daughter’s addiction to social networks, a middle-aged professor of philosophy has to face all differences between his and young generations.

Middlebrow Films

Italian Race (Italian: Veloce come il vento) is a 2016 Italian sports-drama film written and directed by Matteo Rovere. It is loosely based on the true story of rally racing driver Carlo Capone. Giulia is a young promise of GT racing. When her life falls apart, her only hope is her brother, a drug addict and former rally champion. (Source: IMDb)
Human Capital (Italian: Il capitale umano) is a 2013 Italian film directed by Paolo Virzì. The film is based on the American novel Human Capital by Stephen Amidon. For her performance in the film, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi was awarded Best Actress at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. The film is about the destinies of two families that are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is knocked off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.
Fiore is a 2016 Italian drama film directed by Claudio Giovannesi. It was screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Youth detention centre. Daphne, arrested for theft, falls in love with Josh, who is also a young robber. Men and women can not meet in jail and love is forbidden. Daphne and Josh’s relationship is only based on glances from one cell to the other, short conversations through the bars and secret letters. Prison is not only about losing freedom but it also becomes a place where love is impossible. Fiore is the story of a teenage girl’s desire to love and the power of an emotion that breaks every law. (Source: IMDb)

Female-authored Films and Tv Series

Amanda is a 2022 film by Carolina Cavalli with Benedetta Porcaroli, Galatea Bellugi, Michele Bravi, Giovanna Mezzogiorno. World premiere In competition in the Orizzonti Extra section at Venezia79 and international premiere at the 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival 2022 within the Contemporary World Cinema section.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Yk8xJkMKQ&ab_channel=HBO
My Brilliant Friend (Italian: L’amica geniale) is an Italian- and Neapolitan-language coming-of-age drama television series created by Saverio Costanzo for HBO, RAI and TIMvision. Named after the first of four novels in the Neapolitan Novels series by Elena Ferrante, it is set to adapt the entire literary work over four eight-episode seasons. The series is a co-production between Italian production companies Wildside, Fandango, The Apartment, Mowe and international film group Umedia.
Sirley (Italian: Maledetta primavera) is a film directed by Elisa Amoruso. It was presented at the Rome Film Fest 2020 and screened for the first time in Italian cinemas in 2021. The story is freely inspired by the novel Sirley written by the director herself for the Fandango editions. The film is the partly autobiographical story of the director’s teenage years in Rome when she formed a special friendship with a quarrelsome classmate, which compensated somewhat for trouble with maladjusted parents.
(Source: IMDb)
The Dew and the Sun. Calabrian Jasmine Collectors (Italian: La rugiada e il sole. Le gelsominaie di Calabria). A documentary on women who collected jasmine in the 1950s presented by UDI, Unione Donne in Italia section of Reggio Calabria. From an idea of Lucia Cara. Interviews: Anna Foti and Paola Suraci. Shooting by: Katy Gallo and Bruno Cotrupi. Montage and post-production by Antonio Melasi
Cosmonaut (Italian: Cosmonauta) is a 2009 Italian coming-of-age film written and directed by Susanna Nicchiarelli. It won the Controcampo Italiano at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. It also won the Ciak d’oro for the best first film. In the late ’50s to early ’60s, when the space war between the Soviet and US was raging, a fifteen-year-old member of the communist party, Luciana, develops her ideals while living with her bourgeois stepfather, and among male chauvinists in a communist group in Rome. Her only friend is her brother Arturo, who dreams of going to space but is unable to do so due to his epilepsy. (Source: IMDb)
Io rom romantica is a 2014 comedy by the Italian-Bosnian director Laura Halilovic, with autobiographical content, which tells the fulfilment of a dream of a girl of Romani ethnicity who manages to become a director from the Turin suburbs. (Source: Wikipedia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scfMXetBiEA&ab_channel=CheltenhamInternationalFilmFestival
Nevia is a 2019 drama directed by Nunzia De Stefano that obtained 1 nomination for the prize Nastri d’Argento in Italy. Nevia, a Neapolitan girl who comes from a poor family, joins a circus, trying to escape from poverty. (Source: IMDb)
The Wonders (Italian: Le meraviglie) is a 2014 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Alice Rohrwacher. A family of beekeepers living in the Tuscan countryside finds their household disrupted by the simultaneous arrival of a silently troubled teenage boy and a reality TV show intent on showcasing the family. (Source: IMDb)
A Special Day (Un giorno speciale) is a 2012 Italian drama film directed by Francesca Comencini. The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival (Wikipedia).

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