David di Donatello 2014 and the Renaissance of Italian Cinema

As predicted The Great Beauty and The Human Capital triumphed at the David di Donatello Competition. Named after Donatello's David, this film award ceremony is considered the Italian equivalent of the Academy Awards. It is presented each year, since 1955, for cinematic performances and production by L'accademia del Cinema Italiano (ACI, The Academy of Italian Cinema).


The Great Beauty won 9 statuettes, in the form of Donatello's famous sculpture, including Best Director to Paolo Sorrentino, Best Production for Indigo Film and for Best Photography, while male lead Toni Servillo won his fourth Donatello for Best Actor. The Human Capital got 7, the most important being Best Film. The other awards given to Virzi's film went to Francesco Piccolo and Francesco Bruni for Best Screenplay for their story of how a chance roadside accident impacts two families. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi won the best actress prize and Fabrizio Gifuni and actress Valeria Golino won the awards for supporting actor and actress.


Among all other Awards, two were given to Pif, Piefrancesco Diliberto, for his film The Mafia Only Kills in Summer, that was just presented in New York at the Open Roads Film Festival. Pif won for Best Debut Director and was given the Youth Award. Philomena and The Grand Budapest Hotel were awarded Best Foreign Film from inside and outside the EU. Sophia Loren was honored for her work in The Human Voice, a film directed by her son Edoardo Ponti and adapted in collaboration with Erri De Luca. Director Marco Bellocchio was given a special Lifetime Award. Other awards were assigned to director Carlo Mazzacurati, who has recently passed, to composer Riz Ortolani, who also has recently passed, to director Francesco Rosi and to producer Andrea Occhipinti. The film I Quit Whenever I Want, which also was just presented at Open Roads, had several nominations but won nothing.  Sydney Sibilia is just at the beginning, we are sure he'll make more films that will bring home awards in the future.


The morning of the ceremony all candidates were invited to visit Italy's president Giorgio Napolitano at the Quirinale. With great emotion, the political leader has confessed his passion for cinema and his dreams when he was a young boy: “I remember Giuliano Montaldo playing a partisan in the film Achtung Banditi! (Attention, Bandits!) by Carlo Lizzani. I know this is prehistory but it's great that Montaldo, who attended the ceremony, has reminded us that we too were young once. Personally speaking, I had the temptation to enter the world of cinema before getting lost on the way. We are now experiencing a renewed and positive season for Italian Cinema. In the past we have abused the word “crisis,” while our cinema, with all its difficulties, is indeed strong, and sports an extraordinary creative force, mostly thanks to the new generations. All of you have helped Italian cinema win, yes there are difficulties but also great vitality.” Could this be the Renaissance of Italian cinema?