MONTREAL – Italian success at the newborn New Montreal Film Festival, whose first edition directed by Moritz de Hadeln, ended Sunday night. Angela Baraldi the leading actress in“Quo vadis, baby?” by Gabriele Salvatores, won the ”Silver Iris” award for Best Actress. The International jury presided by Claude Lelouch also included Italian actress Anna Galiena, well known to French audiences for her role in the “The Hairdresser’s Husband” by Patrice Leconte. Angela Baraldi, the Bolognese actress and singer who accepted her award on the final night in the crowded Saint Denis Theatre, expressed her thanks with a rendition of “Reginella”, the moved audience responded with a standing ovation. “Quo vadis, baby?”, the only Italian title selected for competition by the Festival delegates, Silvio Danese and Oscar Iarussi, received praise from the critics, and a successful theatre turnout at the Festival screening with director Salvatores and producer Maurizio Totti also present.
In Montreal, the director proclaimed there would be a television sequel based on the story of the singular detective, again starring Baraldi . The film was bought by “Capri Releasing”, and will be released in Canada, February 2006. The other Italian presence in the festival’s section: “Universo Latino”, was the film “Gli occhi dell’altro”“ by Gianpaolo Tescari, with Lucrezia Lante della Rovere.
(source:Studio Sottocorno)