58th David di Donatello Award Winners

Yesterday the Italian Academy had their awards ceremony and to my huge surprise top award went to a movie that perhaps has a relevant story for Italian audiences but not any more for world audiences as topic has been covered extensively plus film had not much outstanding as performances, cinematography, direction, tech spec was truly average. Yes, in my opinion La Grande Bellezza as a movie is superior to Il Capitale Umano. Still, La Grande Bellezza won big with nine awards but did not got the top award. Sigh.

Event press coverage claims that the show was stolen by Sophia Loren, who was honored with a special prize for her performance in La Voce Umana (Human Voice) the short directed by her son Edoardo Ponti.

If you wish to watch the awards ceremony then take a deep breath as this is one ceremony where people really talk, talk, talk (uff!) non-stop, but here it is.




Winners are in *BLUE. To check winners in all categories go to the new Academy web site that finally has been updated to a more user friendly site.

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5/12/14
A few minutes ago the Accademia del Cinema Italiano announced the nominations for the yearly Italian cinema top awards and not surprisingly the race is between two movies by two Paolos, both very well-established directors: Paolo Virzì and Paolo Sorrentino.

As a matter of fact Paolo Virzì's Il Capitale Umano (Human Capital) has 19 nods to 18 for La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), so it is open race BUT I have a favorite, one film that was one of the best I saw last year with one of the best actors in the world Toni Servillo. Yes I loved La Grande Bellezza for the outstanding performance by Servillo but also for Sorrentino homage to Fellini.

Awards ceremony will be on June 10.

Best Film

*Il Capitale Umano (Human Capital), Paolo Virzì
La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), Paolo Sorrentino
La mafia uccide solo d'estate, Pierfrancesco Diliberto
La sedia della felicità, Carlo Mazzacurati
Smetto quando voglio, Sydney Sibilia

Best Director
Carlo Mazzacurati for La sedia della felicità
Ferzan Ozpetek for Allacciate le cinture (Fasten Your Seatbelts)
Ettore Scola for Che strano chiamarsi Federico. Scola racconta Fellini
*Paolo Sorrentino for La Grande Bellezza
Paolo Virzì for Il Capitale Umano

Best New Director
*Pierfrancesco Diliberto for La mafia uccide solo d'estate
Valeria Golino for Miele
Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza for Salvo
Matteo Oleotto for Zoran il mio nipote scemo (Zoran My Nephew the Idiot)
Sydney Sibilia for Smetto quando voglio

Best Actress
*Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in Il capitale umano
Paola Cortellesi in Sotto una buona stella
Sabrina Ferilli in La grande bellezza
Kasia Smutniak in Allacciate le cinture
Jasmine Trinca in Miele

Best Actor
Giuseppe Battiston in Zoran il mio nipote scemo
Fabrizio Bentivoglio in Il capitale umano
Carlo Cecchi in Miele
Edoardo Leo in Smetto quando voglio
*Toni Servillo in La grande bellezza

Best European Film
Ida, Pawel Pawlikowski
La vie d’Adèle, Abdellatif Kechiche
*Philomena, Stephen Freas
Still Life, Uberto Pasolini
La Vénus à la fourrure, Roman Polanski

Best Foreign Film
12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen
American Hustle, David O. Russell
Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen
*Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson
The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese

To check nominees in all categories please go here.