‘La Grazia’ Producer Annamaria Morelli Talks New Vision for Fremantle’s the Apartment (EXCLUSIVE)

Italian producer Annamaria Morelli, who took the reins at Fremantle-owned production company the Apartment in early 2024, is having a pretty good year.

She recently landed movies in both the Cannes and Venice competitions, including Paolo Sorrentino’s well-received Lido opener “La Grazia.”

The Apartment was behind Mario Martone’s Cannes competition drama, ”Fuori,” on which it teamed with Indigo Film. This was Morelli’s first project since taking over from the Rome shingle’s previous chief Lorenzo Mieli.

Mieli — who launched the Apartment in 2020 and went on to form Our Films with producer Mario Gianani — had shaped the shingle as a home for high-end projects by prominent Italian helmers including Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino and Stefano Sollima, as well as international talents such as Sofia Coppola, Pablo Larrain and Joe Wright.

Morelli’s vision for the Apartment is twofold. “I’ve tried to maintain a continuity with the previous approach, which is tied to big-name, high-end films that can travel around the world,” she said. But, on the other hand, “I’m dedicating myself to bringing new talents to the fore,” added Morelli, whose team, incidentally, are all women.

Case in point is the Apartment’s second film at Venice this year, “The Kidnapping of Arabella,” a quirky comedy directed by Carolina Cavalli screening in Horizons and starring Benedetta Porcaroli (“The Leopard”) and Chris Pine. “Arabella” is Cavalli’s follow-up to “Amanda,” also toplining Porcaroli, which screened at Venice and Toronto in 2022.

The Apartment is also behind the feature debut of helmer Margherita Ferrari, “Föa,” produced by Paolo Sorrentino. It’s a drama set during the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa when 200,000 anti-globalization protesters converged on the Italian port city and police violence ensued. “Föa” follows Nicole, an 18-year-old pregnant woman who, during the demonstrations, “recklessly opens the door to some protesters,” as the synopsis puts it, making for a “forced co-existence” between her private realm and “the clash of the outside world.”

Back to business aspects, Morelli points out that under her guidance, the Apartment is keen to co-produce with smaller companies “as a way to help support Italy’s struggling indie eco-system,” she says.

Meanwhile, on the international side, the Apartment has a TV series in development, details of which are being kept under wraps.