L'Estranea wins second place at Toronto Film Festival

The international festival run of L'Estranea, the new film by Paolo Strippoli, continues. After premiering in competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, the film has won second place in the People's Choice Midnight Madness Award presented by Rogers at the Toronto International Film Festival, a public-voted prize for the festival's Midnight Madness genre section.

The Italian film finished as First Runner-Up, behind Canadian film Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney by Matthew Rankin and ahead of Arrested Memory by Sabu, CE Report quotes ANSA.

“It is a particularly encouraging result,” producer Marina Marzotto said in a statement, “given that last year the second-place film for the same award was the box-office phenomenon Obsession.”

The result is unprecedented “for an Italian film in the history of the TIFF Midnight Madness awards.”

L'Estranea is among 21 Italian films competing to be selected as Italy's entry in the race for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. The selection committee is due to announce its choice on Wednesday, September 23.

The film will also compete at the Busan International Film Festival in the World Cinema section.

The film's premiere, the statement said, is scheduled for the first weekend, on Friday, October 9, and sold out in less than an hour, despite the Open Cinema venue — the largest in Asia — offering more than 3,000 seats.

Venice, Toronto and Busan “thus constitute the grand slam of L'Estranea's international festival run,” the statement said. The film has already been selected for competition at numerous other international festivals, including Austin, Beyond LA, Slash, Rio de Janeiro, Ghent, Sitges and Chicago.

Written and directed by Paolo Strippoli and co-written with Salvatore de Chirico, L'Estranea stars Jasmine Trinca, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Adriano Giannini and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.

The film is produced by Marina Marzotto and Mattia Oddone for Propaganda Italia, with Rai Cinema and Dinamo Film, and co-produced by Jean Christophe Raymond for Kazak Productions and Joseph Rouschop and Eva Curia for Tarantula Film.

International sales are handled by Le Pacte, while in Italy the film will be released in theaters on October 8 by 01 Distribution.

Photo: Instagram/01distribution