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Cara Cusamano is perhaps one of the busiest people in New York City these days, ahead of the opening of the Tribeca Festival (TF) 2023, in which she has a double role as Director and VP of Programming. After being a regular attendee at the Festival’s first edition (2002), Cusamano became professionally involved in 2007, and has not stopped since, having held, she says, “every role within the programming team” so far.

The Golden Globe-winner talks olive trees, strong female characters and 1923 on opening night of the ORA! Fest in Puglia, Italy You have a summer residence in the southern part of Puglia, which is famous for its olive trees, many of which are unfortunately affected by a deadly bacteria. Did you lose any trees? Helen Mirren: We don't have a lot of olives like some people, but we had 80 olive trees that got hit with Xylella.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse spun its web across the world and the result is spectacular, foreshadowing a summer that will be one for the books. In an instance of a film getting box office love commensurate to its critical and audience acclaim, the animated sequel set several records.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse led the Chinese box office charts this weekend with $18. 05 million grossed over the three-day weekend.

Italians comprise one of the largest immigrant groups in New York City. Italian cinema is also among the most internationally awarded industries.

When Dame Helen Mirren arrived in a golf cart in the historical center of Monopoli, the charming port town in Puglia, she – unlike her colleagues who are attending the festival – had only been on a three-hour car ride to get there. Mirren loves to spend her summers in her Italian home, a 16th-century Masseria, a typical Pugliese farmhouse in Tiggiano that she and her husband, director Taylor Hackford, have spent the better part of five years restoring.

Continuing to surprise with its animated art, as well as expanding the story of Afro-Latino Miles Morales, who wears the mask of the new Spidey, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – the sequel to the Golden Globe Best Picture – Animated winner, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) – recently premiered in Hollywood. Featuring the voices of Daniel Kaluuya (Golden Globe winner for Judas and the Black Messiah), Issa Rae (three-time Golden Globe nominee for Insecure), Hailee Steinfeld (Golden Globe nominee for The Edge of Seventeen), along with Brian Tyree Henry, Jason Schwartzman, Jake Johnson and Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, the film was made under the roof of Sony Animation and is set to be released worldwide this June.

No matter the angle, the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto is an architectural star, gorgeous on the outside but also on the inside. In September, during the Toronto International Film Festival, this exquisite space hosts film premieres, galas, screenings, meetings, and conferences.

The 76th Cannes Film Festival marked a major breakthrough for films by Asian filmmakers. In the Competition, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses, Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster and Wang Bing's Youth (Spring) were screened, while the Best Director award went to Tran Anh Hung for The Pot au Feu.

At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster, a recent film by the Cannes regular director, received the Best Screenplay award for its script by Yuji Sakamoto. German director Wim Wenders' Perfect Days, funded by the Japanese fast fashion brand Uniqlo, won the Best Actor award for Koji Yakusho, who portrayed a janitor in a public restroom in Tokyo who loves a quiet life.