59th David di Donatello Awards Winners

Last night the big winner was undoubtedly Anime Nere that collected nine awards but what has generated more English media buzz was Quentin Tarrantino attending in person to collect past awards for Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained.  The awards were handled by Ennio Morricone and surprisingly both announced that Morricone has agreed to compose music for next Tarantino movie, upcoming The Hateful Eight -which many are expecting will premiere in Venice fest.

Believe that Italian academics reflect what Italian cinema industry likes and lately seems they have been honoring very similar cinematic style and perhaps more, storytelling and narrative style. Nevertheless the mafia story (actually is about Ndrangheta, the Calabrian version of organized crime) in Anime Nere got no acting winners as all four categories went to more "traditional" movies like My Mother or Leopartdi.  As a matter of fact believe that Margherita Buy and Elio Germano awards are extremely well-deserved as especially Germano had a fabulous performance in Leopardi. Still is worth mentioning that the second film with most awards is Il giovane favoloso (Leopardi) which is a great film to watch mainly because Germano performance.

These are the nominations for the main categories and to check nominations and winners in all categories go Academy official site here.  Winners are in *BLUE.

Best Film
*Anime Nere (Black Souls), Francesco Munzi
Hungry Hearts, Saverio Costanzo
Il Giovane Favoloso (Leopardi), Mario Martone
Mia Madre, Nanni Moretti
Torneranno I Prati (Greenery Will Bloom Again), Ermanno Olmi

Best Director
*Farncesco Munzi for Anime Nere (Black Souls)
Saverio Constanzo for Hungry Hearts
Mario Maratone for Il Giovane Favoloso (Leopardi)
Nanni Moretti for Mia Madre
Ermanno Olmi for Torneranno I Prati (Greenery Will Bloom Again)

Best New Director
Andrea Jublin for Banana
Lamberto Sanfelice for Cloro (Chlorine)
Eleonora Danco for N-Capace
*Edoardo Falcone for Se dio vuole
Laura Bispuri for Vergine Giurata (Sworn Virgin)

Best Actress
Alba Rohrwacher in Hungry Hearts
Virna Lisi in Latin Lover
*Margherita Buy in Mia Madre
Jasmine Trinca in Nessuno si salva da solo
Paola Cortellesi in Scusate se Esisto!

Best Actor
Fabrizio Ferracane in Anime Nere (Black Souls)
*Elio Germano in Il Giovane Favoloso (Leopardi)
Alessandro Gassmann in Il Nome del Figlio (An Italian Name)
Ricardo Scamarcio in Nessuno si salva da solo
Marco Giallini in Se dio vuole

Best European Film
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen
*The Theory of Everything, James Marsh
Locke, Steven Knight
Pride, Matthew Warchus
Relatos Salvajes, Damián Szifrón

Best Foreign Film
American Sniper, Clint Eastwood
*Birdman, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu
Boyhood, Richard Linklater
The Salt of the Earth, Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Mommy, Xavier Dolan

To check nominees in all categories please go here.  The award ceremony will be broadcast live on June 12th at 18:30 on Rai Movie from the Olympic Theater in Rome.

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5/12/15
Yesterday the Academia del Cinema Italiano announced the nominations for this year's David di Donatello awards. Francesco Munzi's Anime Nere (Black Souls) leads the pack with 16 nominations followed by Mario Martone's Il Giovane Favoloso (Leopardi) with 14 nods, Nanni Moretti's Mia Madre and Gabrielle Salvatores' Il Ragazzo Invisibile (The Invisible Boy) with 10 nominations each.

I know, perhaps is only me but now completely understand the reason why Mia Madre was released ahead of Cannes 2015, as it is highly unusual that a Cannes Official Selection film is released ahead of the festival and much less if the film is in the main competition. But now I see that with the early release date, Mia Madre enteres the competition for the top Italian film awards and effectively avoids next year competition that could be crowded with good films by Matteo Garrone, Paolo Sorrentino and even Luca Guadagnino. Smart as this year five nominees in the best film category are not necessarily with the high quality that characterizes great Italian cinema. So let's see if the strategy works and benefits Mia Madre.

Have seen a few of the nominated films and feel that Il Giovane Favoloso is the best because the outstanding performance by Elio Germano (photo) but film has some "holes" when they try to advance time in the story. Also highly enjoy Alba Rohrwacher performances and from films that have seen she's always great; still I'm looking forward to watch Vergine Giurata. Last, of course haven't seen Mia Madre and if film is as previous Nanni Moretti's films then we know what could happen with this film and the top Italian cinema awards.

Worth mention that great Virna Lisi is nominated in Best Actress category for her role In Latin Lover. This posthumously nomination comes after she passed on December 2014. RIP.