The cinema of Italy comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Since its beginning, Italian cinema has influenced film movements worldwide. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film has been the most important factor 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.
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
Vittorio Gassman, popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter.
Gian Maria Volonté was an Italian actor and activist, remembered for his versatility as a performer, his outspoken left-wing leanings, and fiery temper on- and off-screen. He is perhaps most famous outside Italy for his roles in four Spaghetti Western films: Ramón Rojo in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and El Indio in Leone's For a Few Dollars More (1965), El Chuncho Munoz in Damiano Damiani's A Bullet for the General (1966) and Professor Brad Fletcher in Sergio Sollima's Face to Face (1967).
Giovanna Mezzogiorno is an Italian theatre and film actress.
Cassano delle Murge is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy.
Enzo Petito was an Italian film and stage character actor. A theatre actor under Eduardo De Filippo in the 1950s in the Teatro San Ferdinando of Naples, with whom he was professionally closely associated, Petito also appeared in several of his films, often co-starring Eduardo or/and brother, Peppino De Filippo, brothers who are considered to be amongst the greatest Italian actors of the 20th century. Petito played minor roles in some memorable commedia all'Italiana movies directed by the likes of Dino Risi and Mario Monicelli in the late 1950s and early 1960s, often appearing alongside actors such as Nino Manfredi, Alberto Sordi, Peppino De Filippo, Anna Maria Ferrero, and Totò.
Commedia all'italiana, or Italian-style comedy, is an Italian film genre born in Italy in the 1950s and developed in the 1960s and 1970s. It is widely considered to have started with Mario Monicelli's Big Deal on Madonna Street in 1958, and derives its name from the title of Pietro Germi's Divorce Italian Style (1961). According to most of the critics, La Terrazza (1980) by Ettore Scola is the last work considered part of the commedia all'italiana.
Vittorio Sodano (Victor) is an Italian make-up artist. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup for his work in Apocalypto (2006) and for Il divo (2010). Born in Naples on 1 September 1974, at age 16, in London, he began his work as a make-up artist as a sculptor and prosthodontist in a laboratory for film special effects. In 1996 he made his début in cinema with the film Prima che il tramonto (Before the Sunset) by Stefano Incerti, for which he won an award for make-up and special effects at the Locarno Film Festival. With considerable knowledge in the field of special effects make-up and application of prosthesis he began to assert himself in the Italian and European cinema, becoming a personal makeup artist of Italian's actresses Margherita Buy, Laura Morante, Mariangela Melato and Valeria Golino. Vittorio Sodano has also taught at several academies of fine arts.
Specializing in the field of drama, with particular attention to the drama of its national heritage, the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico has played a key role in the Italian film and theater scene and is currently headed by Professor Luigi Maria Musati. It has prepared artists such as Margherita Buy, Vittorio Gassman, Luigi Lo Cascio, Anna Magnani, Nino Manfredi, and Monica Vitti. Other former alumni include Antoniano, Manuela Arcuri, Mino Bellei, Carmelo Bene, Dirk van den Berg, Giuliana Berlinguer, Alessio Boni, Alberto Bonucci, Giulio Bosetti, Renato De Carmine, Ennio Fantastichini, Gabriele Ferzetti (expelled), Scilla Gabel, Domiziana Giordano, Michele Placido, Luca Ronconi, Gian Maria Volonté and Lina Wertmüller.
L'amore difficile is a 1962 Italian comedy anthology film. The film represents the directorial debut of the four authors, who were however all experienced in other areas of the film industry. The four episodes are based on short stories by well-known Italian novelists and share the themes of love and betrayal.
Rossini! Rossini! is a 1991 Italian biographical film written and directed by Mario Monicelli. It depicts real life events of composer Gioachino Rossini. Monicelli replaced Robert Altman, who was experiencing differences with the producers. The film won the David di Donatello for Best Costumes.
The Nastro d'Argento is a film award assigned each year, since 1948, by Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani, the association of Italian film critics.
Il petomane, internationally released as Petomaniac, is a 1983 Italian commedia all'italiana film directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile. It is loosely based on real life events of Joseph Pujol, best known as "Le Pétomane".
Due pezzi di pane, internationally released as Happy Hobos, is a 1979 Italian comedy film directed by Sergio Citti.
This is a list of Italian television related events from 1959.
