The cinema of Italy comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Italy is widely considered one of the birthplaces of art cinema, and the stylistic aspect of Italian film has been one of the most important factors in the history of Italian film. As of 2018, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film as well as 12 Palmes d'Or, one Academy Award for Best Picture and many Golden Lions and Golden Bears.
The oldest known surviving film was shot in the United Kingdom as well as early colour films. While film production reached an all-time high in 1936, the "golden age" of British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors David Lean, Michael Powell, and Carol Reed produced their most critically acclaimed works. Many British actors have accrued critical success and worldwide recognition, such as Audrey Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Glynis Johns, Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Ian Mckellen, Joan Collins, Judi Dench, Julie Andrews, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Peter O’Toole and Kate Winslet. Some of the films with the largest ever box office returns have been made in the United Kingdom, including the fourth and fifth highest-grossing film franchises.
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies. Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and how the filmmakers' artistic vision is realized. Sometimes, independent films are made with considerably lower budgets than major studio films.
Alessandro Blasetti was an Italian film director and screenwriter who influenced Italian neorealism with the film Quattro passi fra le nuvole. Blasetti was one of the leading figures in Italian cinema during the Fascist era. He is sometimes known as the "father of Italian cinema" because of his role in reviving the struggling industry in the late 1920s.
Quo Vadis is a 1924 Italian silent historical drama film directed by Gabriellino D'Annunzio and Georg Jacoby and starring Emil Jannings, Elena Sangro, and Lillian Hall-Davis. It is based on the 1896 novel Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz which was notably later adapted into a 1951 film.
Arturo Ambrosio (1870–1960) was an Italian film producer who was a pioneering and influential figure in the early years of Italian cinema.
The Last Days of Pompeii is a 1908 Italian silent historical film directed by Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi and starring Lydia De Roberti and Umberto Mozzato. It was loosely based on the novel of the same title by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The film was a success on its release, and its popularity is credited with starting a fashion for epic historical films.
Roberto Omegna was an Italian cinematographer and film director.
Milano Films was an Italian film production company of the silent era. Founded in Milan in 1908, it was one of the leading Italian film companies of the 1910s employing directors such as Baldassarre Negroni and Augusto Genina and actors including Lina Millefleurs, Mercedes Brignone and Pina Menichelli.
Stefano Pittaluga was an Italian film producer, one of several figures who helped revive Italian film production in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Marcel Fernández Pérez, better known as just Marcel Perez, was an internationally celebrated Spanish-born creator and star of more than 200 silent comedy short subjects. He directed himself in nearly two-thirds of these films, acting, on two continents under such names as Marcel Fabre, Michel Fabre, Fernandea Perez, Manuel Fernández Pérez, Robinet, Tweedy, Tweedledum, and Twede-Dan.
Lidia Quaranta, also known with the stage name of Lydia Quaranta, was an Italian stage and film actress of the early 20th century.
The Unione Cinematografica Italiana (UCI) was an Italian film production and distribution consortium of the silent era. Following the end of the First World War, a group of eleven leading Italian companies joined forces in a single conglomerate which would be better able to compete with rival films from America, Britain, France and Germany. The driving force behind UCI was Baron Alberto Fassini, who had previously headed the Cines studio.
Baron Alberto Fassini (1875–1942) was an Italian business tycoon and film producer. Fassini owned a large synthetic textile company, and was close to the regime of the dictator Benito Mussolini. He owned the Palazzo Tittoni where Mussolini lived from 1923 to 1929.
Events from the year 1906 in Italy.
Aquila Films was a Turin-based Italian film production and distribution company of the silent era. It was formed in 1907. The company produced many crime and mystery films, promoting them in a sensationalist way. The company's production expanded rapidly - rising from five films in 1907 to seventy three by 1911. Aquila established strong links with foreign distributors in Britain and France, and enjoyed commercial success in foreign markets. In 1909 it took part in the Paris Film Congress, a failed attempt to create a cartel of leading European producers. It was badly hit by the outbreak of the First World War which closed many of its profitable export markets to it. The company had folded by 1917.
Caesar Film was an Italian film production and distribution company founded in 1913. The studio's owner Giuseppe Barattolo built it into one of the more successful silent film companies of the 1910s, thanks partly to signing up the diva Francesca Bertini to make a series of films.
The Cines Studios were film production studios located in the Italian capital Rome. They were established on Via Veio in 1930 by Stefano Pittaluga, head of the Cines film company, at the beginning of the sound era. It produced Italy's first sound film The Song of Love the same year. For several years it was the leading studio complex in Italy, until September 1935 when it suffered a major fire and was largely destroyed. This became a spur for the Italian government of Benito Mussolini to invest in the construction of a new development Cinecittà, the largest studio in Europe which opened in 1937.
Itala Film was an Italian film production company.
Ernesto Maria Pasquali (1883–1919) was an Italian pioneering film producer and director. Originally a journalist he was employed by Ambrosio Film before he set up the Turin-based Pasquali Film, one of Italy's leading production companies. Shortly after his death in 1919 it was subsumed into larger conglomerate Unione Cinematografica Italiana.
