The cinema of Italy comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of 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.
Ilona Staller, known by her stage name Cicciolina, is a Hungarian-Italian former porn star, politician, and singer. Staller gained fame in the early 1970s through her radio show Voulez-vous coucher avec moi? and became widely recognized by her stage name Cicciolina. She appeared in numerous films and gained notoriety for being the first to bare her breasts on live Italian television in 1978. Staller ventured into politics and was elected to the Italian Parliament in 1987, campaigning on a libertarian platform with the Radical Party.
Life Is Beautiful is a 1997 Italian comedy-drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, who co-wrote the film with Vincenzo Cerami. Benigni plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian bookshop owner, who employs his imagination to shield his son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp. The film was partially inspired by the book In the End, I Beat Hitler by Rubino Romeo Salmonì and by Benigni's father, who spent two years in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during World War II.
The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual TV music competition in the world on a national level and it is also the basis and inspiration for the annual Eurovision Song Contest.
Laura Pausini is an Italian singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with her debut single "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an international hit. Her self-titled debut album was released in Italy on 23 April 1993 and later became an international success, selling two million copies worldwide. Its follow-up, Laura, was released in 1994 and confirmed her international success, selling three million copies worldwide.
Álvaro Mutis Jaramillo was a Colombian poet, novelist, and essayist. His best-known work is the novel sequence The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, which revolves around the character of Maqroll el Gaviero. He won the 1991 International Nonino Prize in Italy. He was awarded the 2001 Miguel de Cervantes Prize and the 2002 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
Francesco "Nino" Castelnuovo was an Italian actor of film, stage and television, best known for his starring role as Guy Foucher in the French musical film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964).
Raffaella Maria Roberta Pelloni, better known as Raffaella Carrà, was an Italian singer, dancer, television presenter, actress and model. Considered a pop culture icon in Europe and Latin America, between the 1970s and 1980s she became a pioneer of feminism and women's sexual freedom in the television and music industry, as well as an LGBT icon and an icon of fashion and design.
Anna Hoxha, known professionally as Anna Oxa, is an Italian singer, actress and television presenter. She has received mainstream popularity and recognition within Italy due to her numerous participations in the Sanremo Music Festival.
The Valladolid International Film Festival, popularly known as Seminci, is a film festival held annually in Valladolid, Spain. First held in 1956 as Semana de Cine Religioso de Valladolid, the Seminci is one of the longest-standing film festivals in Spain. It stands out in the area of films d'auteur and independent films.
Luis López Tosar is a Spanish actor and musician from Galicia. He is one of the most recognizable and versatile actors in Spain.
Roberto Faenza is an Italian film director. He received a degree in Political Science and a diploma at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.
Manuel María Arias Domínguez better known as Imanol Arias, is a Spanish actor and film director.
Margarita Rosa de Francisco Baquero also known as Margarita Rosa and La Mencha is a Colombian actress, singer, tv host and beauty pageant titleholder.
Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani, collectively referred to as the Taviani brothers, were Italian film directors and screenwriters who collaborated on numerous film productions.
Roberto Saviano is an Italian writer, essayist, journalist, and screenwriter. In his writings, including articles and his book Gomorrah, he uses literature and investigative reporting to tell of the economic reality of the territory and business of organized crime in Italy, in particular the Camorra crime syndicate, and of organized crime more generally.
The Sanremo Music Festival 2011, officially the 61st Italian Song Festival, was the 61st annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo between 15 and 19 February 2011 and broadcast by Rai 1. The festival was presented by singer Gianni Morandi with Paolo Kessisoglu, Luca Bizzarri, Belén Rodríguez and Elisabetta Canalis, while artistic director was Gianmarco Mazzi.
David Riondino is an Italian singer-songwriter, actor, comedian, writer, playwright, screenwriter, director and composer.
Love & Mathematics is a 2022 Mexican comedy film directed by Claudia Sainte-Luce and written by Adriana Pelusi. Starring Roberto Quijano. It had its international premiere on September 10, 2022, at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema section.
