Fremantle Company The Apartment was awarded a Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival as recognition for its work on Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God”and the Marcello Mastroianni prize for Best New Young Actor for the title at the 78th Venice Film Festival. “We are incredibly proud of Paolo Sorrentino, Lorenzo Mieli and all of the creative team at The Apartment who worked on The Hand of God. This is a uniquely powerful and personal film with universal themes, it is cinema at its best," Andrea Scrosati, Fremantle Group Chief Operating Officer said. "A huge congratulations to everyone involved in the film both on and off screen and to our partners at Netflix."
The win was doubled for the title after Filippo Scotti took home the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor/ Actress at this evening show. Written and directed by the award-winning Paolo Sorrentino and produced by The Apartment, the show won a Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize Award at its premier at the festival on 3rd September. After being showered with positive feedback, the title is scheduled for released in cinemas and on Netflix sometime this year.
The title showcases the story of a boy, Fabietto Schisa, in the tumultuous Naples of the 1980s. Various occurences are recorded, inlcuding the arrival in Naples of football legend Diego Maradona, and an equally unexpected tragedy. Sorrentino bases the story on much of his personal testimonies about his hometown, as well as his knowledge relating to family, sports and cinema, love and loss.
The awards serve as an addition to a previously established partnership between The Apartment's CEO, Lorenzo Mieli and Sorrentino, which began in 2016 when Sorrentino took on the role as creator and director of "The Young Pope," for which he was nominate dat the Golden Globes and Emmy Awards for Outstanding Production Design and Outstanding Cinematography.