While the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival has just opened at the Lido in Venice, taking stock of which artists and managers are the most influential in our industry comes the “Power list” compiled by the Italian monthly magazines Box Office and Best Movie, which have created a “top 25” ranking divided by “talent” and “professional.”
Leading the “talents” is actress and director Paola Cortellesi, who with her directorial debut film, C’è ancora domani, made a 2023 box office record of more than 36.6 million euros, took home 6 David di Donatello awards, and conquered the French box office with nearly 5 million euros.
She is followed by director Matteo Garrone with Io capitano, in competition at the last Academy Awards as “Best International Film” and last year’s Silver Lion for Best Director right at the Venice Film Festival. While in third place is director Riccardo Milani (moreover, also Cortellesi’s husband): 7 million euros at the box office for his Un mondo a parte, the first Italian film of 2024.
The rankings then include directors Paolo Sorrentino (4) and Luca Guadagnino (5), actors Ficarra and Picone (6), Pierfrancesco Favino (7), Alessandro Siani (8), Antonio Albanese (9) and Virginia Raffaele (10), comedians Me vs. You (11) and Pio and Amedeo (12), Toni Servillo (13), directors Alice Rohrwacher (14), Roberto Andò (15), Marco Bellocchio (16), Mario Martone (17) and Leonardo Pieraccioni (18), Valeria Golino (19), Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo (20), Pietro Castellitto (21), Alessandro Borghi (22), Stefano Sollima (23), comedians I Soliti Idioti (24) and actress and director Margherita Vicario (25).
As far as “professionals” are concerned, on the other hand, leading the ranking is Rai Cinema CEO Paolo Del Brocco, with a total investment of 325 million euros in the four-year period 2020-23 for the production of 280 films and 120 documentaries. In second place is Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, and in third is Massimo Proietti, CEO of Vision Distribution.
They are followed by Giampaolo Letta, managing director of Medusa Film, (4), Alessandro Araimo, executive vice president, general manager and managing director of Warner Bros. Discovery Southern Europe (5), Sonia Rovai, new general manager of Wildside (6), producers Iginio Straffi and Alessandro Usai of Colorado Film (7), Ramón Biarnés of UCI Cinemas and Francesco Grandinetti of The Space Cinemas (8), producers Attilio de Razza and Nicola Picone (9), producer Federica Lucisano (10), Massimiliano Orfei, president of the newly formed PiperFilm, which is making its debut with Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope (11), Marco Cohen, Fabrizio Donvito and Benedetto Habib of Indiana Production (12), Andrea and Raffaella Leone of Leone Film Group (13), Francesco Rutelli, Benedetto Habib and Luigi Lonigro for ANICA and Mario Lorini, president of ANEC (14), producer Andrea Occhipinti (15), Francesca Cima and Nicola Giulianova of Indigo Film (16), Tarak Ben Ammar and Andrea Goretti of Eagle Pictures (17), Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli with the brand-new Our Films (18), Barbara Salabè and Mattia Guerra of Be Water (19), Manuela Cacciamani, managing director of Cinecittà (20), Guglielmo Marchetti of Notorius Pictures (21), Nicola Corigliano, head of the Intesa San Paolo Group’s Specialist Media & Entertainment Desk (22), journalist Piera Detassis, President and Artistic Director of the Academy of Italian Cinema-David di Donatello Awards (23), Cristina Priarone, Director General of Roma Lazio Film Commission and President of the Italian Film Commission (24), Francesco Gesualdi of Marche Film Commission and Paolo Manera of Torino Piemonte Film Commission (25).
The article Who matters in Italian cinema today? Here is the “Power List 2024” comes from TheNewyorker.