Winners of the 2024 Italian Film Awards
Matteo Garrone’s refugee drama Io Capitano, an Oscar nominee this year for Italy in the best international feature category, was the big winner of this year’s 2024 David Di Donatello Awards, Italy’s equivalent to the Oscars, winning best film and director for Garrone.
Io Capitano also picked up prizes for best cinematography, editing, sound, and visual effects.
Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow, a black-and-white feminist dramedy that became the top-grossing film in Italy last year, won Cortellesi the Donatello honors for best actress, directorial debut, and original script for the screenplay she co-wrote with Furio Andreotti and Giulia Calenda.
“I want to thank those who gave me the opportunity to write this role as I wanted it,” she said, accepting her actress honor.
Cortellesi’s film, a dramedy about an abused woman in post-WWII Rome that manages to combine serious social drama with situational comedy, sight gags and even a musical number, was also a huge commercial hit in Italy, outpacing Barbie at the local box office (earning some $40 million) and became a cultural phenomenon, sparking a new debate in Italy over domestic violence and femicide.
The best actor prize went to another actor-turned-director, Michele Riondino, who won the Donatello for playing the lead in his directorial debut, Palazzina Laf, a drama about workplace bullying. Co-star Elio Germano took the best supporting actor prize.
Marco Bellocchio’s Kidnapped, a drama about the true story of a Jewish boy taken from his family and forced to convert to Catholicism, took the Donatello for the best adapted screenplay, for a script co-written by Bellocchio and Susanna Nicchiarelli, and was a big winner in the technical categories, taking awards for production design, costume design, make up, and hair.
The Donatello for best international film went to Justine Triet’s Oscar winner Anatomy of a Fall.
The 69th David di Donatello Awards were held Friday, May 3 at the legendary Cinecittà studios in Rome and broadcast live on Italian public broadcaster Rai 1.
See the full list of winners below.
Best Film
There’s Still Tomorrow
A Better Tomorrow
Io Capitano (WINNER)
La Chimera
Kidnapped
Best Director
A Better Tomorrow Nanni Moretti
Io Capitano, Matteo Garrone (WINNER)
Last Night of Amore Andrea Di Stefano
La Chimera Alice Rohrwacher
Kidnapped Marco Bellocchio
Best Directorial Debut
There’s Still Tomorrow, Paola Cortellesi (WINNER)
Disco Boy Giacomo Abbruzzese
Felicita Micaela Ramazzotti
Palazzina Laf Michele Riondino
Fireworks Giuseppe Fiorello