The first thing to know about Il Newyorkese – A New York Story is that it is not being presented as a film about arriving in New York. That story has been told many times, often through the same images: the skyline, the first walk through Manhattan, the feeling that everything is possible. This new film, now shooting in the city, seems to begin later, when the excitement of arrival has settled and New York has become a place where people have to build an actual life.
The film is written and directed by Davide Ippolito, founder of ilNewyorkese, the newspaper created for Italians in New York. Ippolito is also executive producer, together with Simone D’Andria and Emanuele Scamardella for N41 Studios. The project comes from the same creative environment that produced Final Broadcast, released in American theaters, and The Perfect Pitch, broadcast on Mediaset. Mattia Panico is coordinating the production on set, while William Santero is director of photography.
For The Manhattan Society, the most relevant part of the project is its view of the city. New York is not treated only as a setting for an Italian story, but as the place where that story becomes complicated. The film looks at Italians who are no longer just passing through, and who are not simply chasing an abstract American dream. They are people who remain, work, fall in love, feel alone, and slowly understand that staying can be as demanding as leaving.
That makes the film a continuation, at least in spirit, of Ippolito’s previous work on New York. In 2023 he directed New York Solo Andata, available on Prime Video, a film centered on departure, arrival, and the idea of America as a possibility. Il Newyorkese – A New York Story appears to move beyond that first moment. The plot has not been made public, but the production has said that the film will focus on what comes after the American dream: distance, solitude, and the quiet cost of creating a new life far from home.
The cast brings together two Italian actors with different paths between Italy and the United States. Alice Lussiana Parente, born in Turin and active for years in the United States, trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, worked with the resident company at the Flea Theater, dubbed for Disney and Audible, and lent her voice to Ron Howard’s documentary Pavarotti. Marco Fanizzi, born in Taranto, trained at the Silvio d’Amico National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome, won the Premio Hystrio alla Vocazione in 2019 and the Premio Gigi Proietti for best male performer in 2025.
The music will be composed by Cristiano Cosa, a LuckyHorn Entertainment singer-songwriter who had already written the themes for New York Solo Andata and Final Broadcast. Blues guitarist and composer Davide Pannozzo will also appear in a cameo. Filming will continue in the coming weeks across New York, between recognizable locations and less tourist-facing parts of the city. That choice says something about the kind of film this seems to be: not a postcard from New York, but a story about what it means to live inside it.
