US producers Noam Baram and Mark Lipsky forge joint venture to shoot movies in Italy[EXCLUSIVE]

By Judy J. Beasley Last updated Jul 21, 2022

New York-based real estate entrepreneur and producer Noam Baram (“Walking to Paris”) has teamed up with Italian director Augusto Pelliccia to launch Valiah Entertainment, a new production company that will take advantage of Italy’s generous film production incentives.

The new team, called Valiah Entertainment, has also formed a joint venture with a veteran Hollywood producer. Marc Lipsky (“Coming to America,” “Beverly Hills Cop III”) which WOF Entertainment will help fund production and handle distribution for Valiah’s multi-picture slate. Lipsky’s producing partner in WOF is Robert Agueli.

The first film to come out of Valiah’s door will be ‘The Curfew’, a romantic comedy directed by Australian Nadia Tass who is known for directing cult Australian comedies such as ‘Malcolm’, ‘The Big Steal’ and more recently the document”Oleg: The story of Oleg Vidov. The writers pictured are Dennis Loonan and Ann Paly Loonan (“War Dog”) and Nicholas Pisacane.

Filming for “Curfew” is set to begin this fall at Valiah studios in Rome. The film centers on an utterly unremarkable man named Raphael Di Stefano whose mediocre life is suddenly turned upside down when women start to find him utterly irresistible. The casting is kept secret. The entire film will be shot in Italy.

“Through this lucrative partnership with Mark, we are able to fully leverage a one-stop-shop where we can create, fund and share a distinct mix of stories with meaning and purpose,” said Baram (pictured), which is CEO of Valiah Entertainment, in a statement.

Like Baram’s former film funding group, called APX Capital Groupwhich he has now left, his The new production company has a partnership with Italian insurance company Cattolica Assicurazioni, which is a subsidiary of Gruppo Generali, as well as other unspecified private investors.

Baram familiarized himself with claims for the Italian film production tax credit, which during the pandemic increased from 30% to 40% up to 75% of production expenditure incurred in Italy and remained at this level. The tax credit allows producers to recover money during production, from month to month, and reduces costs over time.

Valiah will provide production funding for projects in the form of equity investments for their below-line expenses.

Baram’s Italian partner in Valiah, Augusto Pelliccia, runs Augustus Color which operates a studio outside Rome with a sound stage and post-production facilities.

Valiah will also work closely with the production manager of WOF Ben Loggins, the company’s head of distribution, Robert Schwartz, and the company’s COO, Lory Molino, and SVP RJ Konner.

(Photo: Noam Baram)

The best of variety

Click here to read the full article.