GIANFRANCO ROSI
Gianfranco Rosi
Let’s look at nominee for Best Documentary Gianfranco Rosi: His Fuocoammare (Fire At Sea) has won the Berlinale Golden Bear, the European Film Award for Best Documentary, a Special Nastro from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Nastro D’Argento Awards) the London Critics Circle Award for Documentary of the Year (hold on, we aren’t done yet!), and a nomination for a French César Award (TBA 2/24).
Fuoccoammare (Fire At Sea)
Would an Oscar be too much to ask for Rosi’s phenomenal account of the European migrant crisis? Berlin Film Festival jury president Meryl Streep said of it: It’s a documentary, I guess. But it’s also art. The way the truth is arranged makes it sort of like a poem. And I don’t mean like a twee kind of poem, I mean something really essential. It’s unavoidable.”
Gianfranco Rosi and Meryl Streep
Gianfranco Rosi’s strength is what jury president Bernardo Bertolucci called his “filmmaking with no judgement” when Rosi’s documentary Sacro GRA won the Golden Lion at the 2013 Venice Film Festival. He offers us a profound and honest look at something and then asks us to decide for ourselves, unlike other filmmakers with agendas.
“I don’t like this kind of filmmaking”, Rosi says. “Everybody wants to be a small Michael Moore. I like to capture positive elements of the world.”
Would he ever make a fictionalized version about immigration? “I’ll never make a non-documentary film”, he said. “I’d be completely bored.”
ALESSANDRO BERTOLAZZI & GIROGIO GREGORINI
Suicide Squad
We’re keeping our fingers crossed (dita incrociate!) for Italians Alessandro Bertolazzi and Giorgio Gregorini nominated for best makeup and hairstyling for the film Suicide Squad.
ALAN BARILLARO
Italian Canadian Alan Barillaro’s Oscar nominated short Piper is adorable and you can see for yourself. Alan has been the supervisor of Animation at Pixar Animation Studios since 1997. Alan’s father is Calabrian and his mother from Abruzzo. In bocca al lupo a tutti!
