4K restoration of Michelangelo Frammartino’s ‘Il Dono’ gets released in cinemas | Trailer
Kino Lorber will release a new 4K restoration of Il Dono (2003) by Michelangelo Frammartino (Le Quattro Volte and Il Buco). It will open in theaters in NYC on July 25th at Metrograph, before expanding to select cities nationwide.
A gentle, beguiling hymn to a semi-deserted Calabrian countryside and those who stayed behind, Il Dono is a portrait of depopulation in the village of Caulonia (the filmmaker’s ancestral town), which saw a dramatic decrease in inhabitants from roughly 15,000 in the 1950s to just a few hundred people at the time of the film’s making. In mainly long, static, observational takes and with next to no dialogue, Il Dono pieces together the fragments of a place guided by slow rhythms and which could be described as “old world” with traditions, rituals, charm aplenty, and not a few ruins from the relentless ravages of time.
Gorgeously shot on 16mm (then transferred to 35mm, and presented here in a recent digital restoration of superlative color), each frame of Il Dono is like a painting, whether a landscape, portraits of great, weather-worn faces, or still lives reminiscent of Giorgio Morandi’s glass bottles.
The restoration was carried out by Co-production Office and Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, starting from the original negative camera and sound. Director Michelangelo Frammartino supervised the restoration. The processes were carried out at the L’Immagine Ritrovata and Augustus Color laboratory in 2022.
Watch the trailer for 4K restoration of Michelangelo Frammartino’s Il Dono
Juliet Lucas’ indie film We Could Still Be Pen Pals sets VOD release date | Trailer
The dramedy film We Could Still Be Pen Pals, written and directed by Juliet Lucas, will be released on VOD as well as on DVD, starting July 11, 2025, by Freestyle Digital Media.
Starring in the film are DonnaKelli Barnett (‘Mrs. Lewis/DonnaKelli’), Alec Dean Boeschen (‘Damien’), Sára Gellért (‘Secretary’), Shay Anuhea (‘Stacy’), and River Downing (‘Young Damien’).
We Could Still Be Pen Pals is a dramedy about a cynical relationship therapist, who takes over her late grandmother’s pen pal correspondent to find purpose in healing another’s relationships, as long as her recipient never discovers her true identity. 5th grade is hard; but graduating 5th grade and leaving for middle school is harder. Damien is sorry to be leaving Mrs. Lewis, his favorite teacher, behind. However, she suggests they remain “pen pals” so he can still write to her about his new school and experiences. Years pass as their writing continues, and as a senior in college, struggling with career choices and girlfriend troubles, Damien rediscovers his old letters. He begins writing again to his old teacher, unknowing that she has recently passed away. Her granddaughter, Lindsey, receives one of Damien’s letters to her late grandmother, and finds herself unable to write back to him with the truth of the situation. Instead, she decides to try to help. This unlikely friendship between a man too scared of the future, and a woman scared to commit to her present, will teach them both what it means to be confident in themselves, and what they seek in another partner.
“We Could Still Be Pen Pals is a friendship story about relationships,” said filmmaker Juliet Lucas. “This movie is about the discovery of what we truly want and need in a partner, and what we are willing to sacrifice.”
Watch the trailer for We Could Still Be Pen Pals
Alexandra Simpson’s No Sleep Till opens in theaters on July 18 | Trailer
Alexandra Simpson’s directing debut No Sleep Till opens for an exclusive one-week NY theatrical run at Metrograph In Theater beginning Friday, July 18, 2025. On Sunday, July 20, No Sleep Till will have its Exclusive Streaming Premiere on Metrograph At Home followed by a limited two-month engagement on the platform.
Writer/director Alexandra Simpson and producer Tyler Taormina in attendance for select screenings.
The threat of an impending hurricane has sent most of the residents of and visiting tourists to the coastal Florida town of Atlantic Beach scurrying for cover—but Simpson’s ravishing mood piece lingers behind with a handful of holdouts ignoring the mandatory evacuation order: a teenager working at a souvenir shack, two longtime friends with a standup night at a local dive bar, and a storm chaser eagerly anticipating the arrival of apocalypse. A singularly becalmed and contemplative work that dispenses with the spectacle of the Hollywood disaster film to offer instead detailed character studies of the last frayed remnants of a community flickering in the wind of a rising storm.
Accompanying this one-week theatrical run, Metrograph presents the series Florida Is a Feeling, a program of Florida-set pictures from directors who were born there (Kelly Reichardt, Barry Jenkins), some who’ve made it their second home (Harmony Korine, Michael Bay), and some who stayed as long as it took to bask in (and capture on celluloid) the ineffable Floridianess of it all.
Running from July 4 to August 31, titles in Florida Is a Feeling include The Beach Bum, Edward Scissorhands, The Florida Project, Key Largo, Magic Mike XXL, Miami Vice, Moonlight, Out of Sight, Pain & Gain, River of Grass, Scarface, Spring Breakers, Stranger Than Paradise, and Sunshine State.
Watch the trailer for No Sleep Till