Looking for Angelina was a 2005

2005 in film

- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...

 Canadian drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 film based on the murder case involving Angelina Napolitano

Angelina Napolitano

Angelina Napolitano or Angelina Neapolitano was an immigrant to Canada who murdered her abusive husband in 1911, igniting a public debate about domestic violence and the death penalty. She was the first woman in Canada to use the battered woman defence on a murder charge...

. Napolitano allegedly murdered her husband with an axe and was sentenced to be executed.

In 2003, independent film

Independent film

An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...

 director Sergio Navarretta

Sergio Navarretta

Sergio Navarretta is an Italian Canadian independent filmmaker known for directing the film Looking for Angelina, based on the true-life story of Angelina Napolitano...

 began researching Angelina’s life for a documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

, but expanded the project into a feature film

Feature film

In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

 “once we realized how dramatic the facts were.”Navarretta the mastermind behind Angelina by Ravi Amarnath. The Gazette, University of Western Ontario, September 26, 2006 accessed June, 2008 The film, Looking for Angelina, was shot in two weeks in 2004 at Sault Ste. Marie, on a shoestring budget of $250,000. The writers, Alessandra Piccione

Alessandra Piccione

Alessandra Piccione is an award-winning Italian Canadian screenwriter, known for her work on the movie, Looking for Angelina.Piccione became interested with the history of Angelina Napolitano after meeting her co-writer, Frank Canino, in 2002...

 and Frank Canino, took inspiration from Canino’s play "The Angelina Project". Lina Giornofelice starred as Angelina, with Alvaro D’Antonio playing Pietro. For authenticity, large parts of the film are in period-correct Italian

Neapolitan language

Neapolitan is the language of the city and region of Naples , and Campania. On October 14, 2008 a law by the Region of Campania stated that the Neapolitan language had to be protected....

 with English subtitles.

The film was released on February 11, 2005 and was directed by Sergio Navarretta

Sergio Navarretta

Sergio Navarretta is an Italian Canadian independent filmmaker known for directing the film Looking for Angelina, based on the true-life story of Angelina Napolitano...

. The film was released in both English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

. The film was also released in Argentina on February

February

February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the shortest month and the only month with fewer than 30 days. The month has 28 days in common years and 29 days in leap years...

 19, 2009

2009 in film

The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...

 under the title Buscando a Angelina. It was shown at the Montreal World Film Festival

Montreal World Film Festival

The Montreal World Film Festival , founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF...

, Cinéfest

Cinéfest

Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, also known as Cinéfest is an annual film festival in Sudbury, Ontario. It is the fourth largest film festival in Canada....

 in Sudbury, Quitus Italian Film Festival in Montreal, Shadows of the Mind Festival in Sault Ste Marie, the International Film Festival of India

International Film Festival of India

The International Film Festival of India , founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually in the beach town of Goa, in the Western Coast of the country, the festival aims at providing a common platform for the cinemas of the world to project the excellence of...

, Cimameriche Film Festival in Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 and the Mumbai International Film Festival

Mumbai International Film Festival

Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films , is a festival organised in the city of Mumbai by the 'Film Division', Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India. It has been organised since 1990, and focuses on documentary, short and animation...

. “In general,” said director Navaretta, “audiences have responded to the film on an emotional level, empathizing with the journey of [the characters].” "Looking For Angelina" won three awards: A Special Recognition at the Cimameriche Film Festival and Best Feature (Drama) and Quitus Award of Distinction at the Quitus Film Festival in Montreal.