Italy and its film production are at the center of attention today also in Hollywood, where this week is filled with free screenings in the multiplex Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, a few feet away from where the Oscar ceremony will be celebrated on Sunday, March 27^th, for the yearly Los Angeles-Italia Film Festival, which brings to the Californian city a large selection of the Italian production – both films and television – of the year.

Well-known actor Riccardo Scamarcio was on hand for the opening on Sunday night, introducing the film he produced – and stars in – The Shadow of the Day by Giuseppe Piccioni, with Benedetta Porcaroli who was also present. A movie set in a prewar fascist regime, with all the fears accompanying day-to-day activities, in the seaside town of Ascoli Piceno.

The Los Angeles-Italia Film Festival series, introduced by actors Robert Davi and Sofia Milos, with a touching welcome from Italian Consul General Silvia Chiave who asked for a minute of silence to the audience in acknowledging the plight of the Ukraine people, will continue with films like the Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated  The Hand of God by Paolo Sorrentino (who will be awarded as well) and concluding on Friday at the Italian Cultural Institute with a tribute to Sorrentino and celebrated director of photography Dante Spinotti.

In the meantime, in Italy women are holding court these days: Valeria Golino, Francesca Archibugi, Claudia Gerini, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Jasmine Trinca, Alice Rochwacher, Wilma Labate are only some of the actresses/directors at the helm of new productions either filming or in post-production heading soon to the theatres or platforms, with far-reaching subjects and interpreted by leading Italian and international actors, from Pierfrancesco Favino to Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante and Dominique Sanda.

On the box office front, the three top-grossing films in Italy are The Batman, with € 317,148 for a total of € 8,395,589; in 2nd position the new Italian entry Corro da te by Riccardo Milani with a total of € 689,287 in four days, and in third place another new entry,  Licorice Pizza by Paul Thomas Anderson for a total of € 435.321 in four days. It was a week full of new titles on the large screen: in    4th  place a preview of Troppo Cattivi gained € 106,076 in one single day; in 5^th place, Moonfall by Roland Emmerich reached a total of € 275,732 in four days and Belle by Mamoru Hosoda registered a total of € 140,969 in four days.

Summing up the season so far, in Italy, the top 10 list still includes in its first 3 positions 3 North American titles: Spiderman: No Way Home, with a total of 26.6 million euros, Eternals with 8.4 million euros, and The Batman with a total of 8.3 million euro. In 4th place the UK film No Time to Die with 8 million euro, in 5th place Dune with 7.3 million euro, 6^th place, Venom with 7.1 million euro, 7^th goes to Uncharted with 5.8 million euro , 8^th place, Death on the Nile with 5.3 million euro, 9^th House of Gucci with 5.3 million euro and only in the last place an Italian film: Me contro te – Il mistero della scuola incantata with 5.1 million euro.