Italy’s Oscars – The David di Donatello Awards
The Oscars have been handed out, and even though Gianfranco Rosi’s Fuocoammare (Fire At Sea) lost in the Best Documentary race, we were excited to watch Italians Alessandro Bertolazzi and Giorgio Gregorini accept the award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for their work on Suicide Squad, and Italian-Canadian Alan Barillaro for the Best Animated Short Film, Piper.
But the fun isn’t over yet; last week the nominations for the Italian Academy Awards were announced in anticipation of the award ceremony in Rome on March 27.
In Italy the Oscar is a David, the David di Donatello Awards, named after Donatello’s David and this year the big competition will be between two films we love, Indivisibili (Indivisible) from director Edoardo De Angelis and La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy) from director Paolo Virzì. The films go toe to toe, having been nominated in 17 categories each including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress.
Each film has two strong candidates in a category overflowing with talent; young actresses Daphne Scoccia (Fiore) and Matilda De Angelis (Veloce Come Il Vento) picked the wrong year to give their wonderful performances and will most likely have to be satisfied with having been nominated, but we aren’t making any predictions about who’ll go home with the David.
The two films couldn’t be more equally extraordinary, and at the same time more different. In Indivisibili, twins Angela and Marianna Fontana play conjoined twins that sing at weddings and baptisms to support their low-life family, and in La Pazza Gioia, Micaela Ramazzotti and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi play roommates in a mental hospital that go on a unsupervised and unapproved road trip to settle some unresolved issues.
Indivisibili’s authenticity is it’s biggest strength; filmed on location in Castelvolturno,Italy,with local, non-professional actors (including the Fontana sisters) playing many of the parts, it almost seems like a documentary.
“It’s (got) a very obscure dialect,” said De Angelis, “and the idea was to give them (the twins) a language that was a sort of mysterious code between them.”
La Pazza Gioia, on the other hand, could feel at home in Hollywood, with veteran director Paolo Virzì, top actresses Ramazzotti and Bruni Tedeschi, and arguably Italy’s finest director of photography, Vladan Radovic.
“There are are several scenes in the film where Paolo wanted to shoot in light that’s particularly special because it doesn’t last very long, for example, the scenes at sunrise and also the really long scene at sunset,” said Radovic.
For me it was a cool challenge and I planned my work to accomodate this requirement of direction that brought a special atmosphere to the film. We liked so many of the scenes we shot at dawn so much that we switched them with a lot of the daytime scenes and we did it knowing that we’d be facing practical problems for the implementation.”
Here are ALL the nominations:
Best Film
Fai Bei Sogni (Sweet Dreams) directed by Marco Bellocchio
Fiore directed by Claudio Giovannesi
Indivisibili (Indivisible) directed by Edoardo De Angelis
La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy) directed by Paolo Virzì
Veloce Come Il Vento (Italian Race) directed by Matteo Rovere
Best Director
Marco Bellocchio for Fai Bei Sogni (Sweet Dreams)
Claudio Giovannesi for Fiore
Edoardo De Angelis for Indivisibili (Indivisible)
Paolo Virzì for La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)
Matteo Rovere for Veloce Come Il Vento (Italian Race)
Best New Director
Michele Vannucci for I Più Grande Sogno (I Was a Dreamer)
Marco Danieli for La Ragazza Del Mondo (Worldly Girl)
Marco Segato for La Pelle dell’Orso (On the Trail of My Father)
Fabio Guaglione, Fabio Resinaro for Mine
Lorenzo Corvino for WAX: We Are the X
Best Original Screenplay
Claudio Giovannesi, Filippo Gravino, Antonella Lattanzi for Fiore
Michele Astori, Pierfrancesco Diliberto, Marco Martani for In Guerra Per Amore (At War with Love)
Nicola Guaglianone, Barbara Petronio, Edoardo De Angelis for Indivisibili (Indivisible)
Francesca Archibugi, Paolo Virzì for La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)
Roberto Andò, Angelo Pasquini for Le Confessioni (The Confessions)
Filippo Gravino, Francesca Manieri, Matteo Rovere for Veloce Come Il Vento (Italian Race)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Fiorella Infascelli, Antonio Leotti for Era d’estate (It Was Summer)
Edoardo Albinati, Marco Bellocchio, Valia Santella for Fai Bei Sogni (Sweet Dreams)
Gianfranco Cabiddu, Ugo Chiti, Salvatore De Mola for La Stoffa Dei Sogni (The Stuff of Dreams)
Francesco Patierno for Naples ‘44
Francesca Marciano, Valia Santella, Stefano Mordini for Pericle Il Nero (Pericle The Black)
Massimo Gaudioso for Un Paese Quasi Perfetto (An Almost Perfect Country)
Best Producer
Cristiano Bortone, Bart Van Langendonck, Peter Bouckaert, Gong Ming Cai, Natacha Devillers for Caffè (Coffee)
Rita Rognoni for Pupkin Production, Ibc Movie, Rai Cinema for Fiore
Attilio De Razza, Pierpaolo Verga for Indivisibili (Indivisible)
Marco Belardi for Lotus Production, Rai Cinema for La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)
Angelo Barbagallo for Bibi Film, Rai Cinema for Le Confessioni (The Confessions)
Domenico Procacci, Rai Cinema for Veloce Come Il Vento (Italian Race)
Best Actress
Daphne Scoccia for Fiore
Angela and Marianna Fontana for Indivisibili (Indivisible)
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi for La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)
Micaela Ramazzotti for La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)
Matilda De Angelis for Veloce Come Il Vento (Italian Race)
Best Actor
Valerio Mastandrea for Fai Bei Sogni (Sweet Dreams)
Michele Riondino for La Ragazza Del Mondo (Worldly Girl)
Sergio Rubini – The Stuff of Dreams
Toni Servillo – The Confessions
Stefano Accorsi – Italian Race
Best Supporting Actress
Antonia Truppo for Indivisibili (Indivisible)
Valentina Carnelutti for La Pazza Gioia for (Like Crazy)
Valeria Golino for La Vita Possibile (A Possible Life)
Michela Cescon for Piuma (Feather)
Roberta Mattei for Veloce Come Il Vento (Italian Race)
Best Supporting Actor
Valerio Mastandrea for Fiore
Massimiliano Rossi for Indivisibili (Indivisible)
Ennio Fantastichini for La Stoffa Dei Sogni (The Stuff of Dreams)
Pierfrancesco Favino for Le Confessioni (The Confessions)
Roberto De Francesco for Le Ultime Cose (The Last Things)
Best Cinematography
Daniele Ciprì for Fai Bei Sogni (Sweet Dreams)
Ferran Paredes Rubio for Indivisibili (Indivisible)
Vladan Radovic for La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)
Maurizio Calvesi for Le Confessioni (The Confessions)
Michele D’Attanasio for Veloce Come Il Vento (Italian Race)
Best Musical Score
Carlo Civelli for Fai Bei Sogni (Sweet Dreams)
Enzo Avitabile for Indivisibili (Indivisible)
Carlo Virzì for La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)
Franco Piersanti for La Stoffa Dei Sogni (The Stuff of Dreams)
Andrea Farri for Veloce Come Il Vento (Italian Race)
Best Original Song
‘I Can See The Stars’, Come Diventare Grandi Nonostante i Genitori (How to Grow Up Despite your Parents)‘Abbi Pietà di Noi‘, Indivisibili (Indivisible)
‘L’Estate Addosso‘, L’Estate Addosso (Summertime)
‘Po Popporoppò‘, La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)
‘Seventeen‘, Veloce Come Il Vento (Italian Race)
Best Screenplay
Marcello Di Carlo for In Guerra Per Amore (At War with Love)
Carmine Guarino for Indivisibili (Indivisible)
Marco Dentici for Fai Bei Sogni (Sweet Dreams)
Tonino Zera for La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)
Livia Borgognoni For La Stoffa Dei Sogni (The Stuff of Dreams)
Best Costumes
Cristiana Ricceri for In Guerra Per Amore (At War with Love)
Massimo Cantini Parrini for Indivisibili (Indivisible)
Catia Dottori for La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)
Beatrice Giannini, Elisabetta Antico for La Stoffa Dei Sogni (The Stuff of Dreams)
Cristina Laparola for Veloce Come Il Vento (Italian Race)
Best Make-Up
Gino Tamagnini for Sweet Dreams
Maurizio Fazzini for At War with Love
Valentina Iannuccilli for Indivisible
Esmé Sciaroni for Like Crazy
Silvia Beltrani for The Stuff of Dreams
Luca Mazzoccoli for Italian Race
Best Hair Design
Mauro Tamagnini for Sweet Dreams
Massimiliano Gelo for At War with Love
Vincenzo Cormaci for Indivisible
Daniela Tartari for Like Crazy
Alessio Pompei for Italian Race
Best Editing
Consuelo Catucci for 7 Minutes
Chiara Griziotti for Indivisible
Cecilia Zanuso for Like Crazy
Alessio Doglione for The Stuff of Dreams
Gianni Vezzosi for Italian Race
Best Sound
Sweet Dreams
Indivisible
Like Crazy
The Stuff of Dreams
Italian Race
Best Digital Effects
At War with Love
Indivisible
Mine
Ustica: The Missing Paper
Italian Race
Best Documentary
60 – Ieri, oggi, domani – Giorgio Treves
Acqua e zucchero: Carlo Di Palma, i colori della vita – Fariborz Kamkari
Crazy for football – Volfango De Biasi
Liberami – Federica Di Giacomo
Magic Island – Marco Amenta
Best European Film
Florence Foster Jenkins, Stephen Frears (UK)
I, Daniel Blake – Ken Loach (UK/France/Belgium)
Julieta– Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)
Sing Street – John Carney (Ireland/UK/USA)
Truman – Cesc Gay (Spain/Argentina)
Best Foreign Film
Nocturnal Animals – Tom Ford (USA/UK)
Captain Fantastic – Matt Ross (USA)
Lion – Garth Davis (Australia/UK/USA)
Paterson – Jim Jarmusch (USA/Germany)
Sully – Clint Eastwood (USA)
Best Short Film
A casa mia – Mario Piredda
Ego – Lorenza Indovina
Mostri – Adriano Giotti
Simposio suino in re minore – Francesco Filippini
Viola, Franca – Marta Savina
David Giovani (Young David)
7 Minutes – Michele Placido
At War with Love – Pif
Summertime – Gabriele Muccino
Like Crazy – Paolo Virzì
Piuma – Roan Johnson