All David di Donatello Awards Winners for Direction

1. Francesco Rosi

His father was a shipowner. After school, Rosi initially began studying law, which he soon dropped out to work as a broadcast journalist and book illustrator in Naples. From 1944 to 1945 he worked for "Radio Napoli". In the immediate post-war years, Rosi moved to Rome, where he came into contact ...

6 Davids

1997: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La tregua 1985: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Carmen 1981: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Tre fratelli 1979: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Cristo si è fermato a Eboli 1976: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Cadaveri eccellenti 1965: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Il momento della verità

2. Giuseppe Tornatore

Director | La migliore offerta

Giuseppe Tornatore was born on May 27, 1956 in Bagheria, Sicily, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for The Best Offer (2013), Cinema Paradiso (1988) and The Legend of 1900 (1998). He is married to Roberta Pacetti.

4 Davids

2013: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La migliore offerta 2007: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La sconosciuta 1999: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano 1996: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - L'uomo delle stelle +2 Nominations

3. Mario Monicelli

Writer | I compagni

Mario Monicelli was born on May 16, 1915 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Organizer (1963), Speriamo che sia femmina (1986) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). He was married to Chiara Rapaccini and Antonella Salerni. He died on November 29, 2010 in Rome, Lazio,...

4 Davids

1976: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Amici miei 1977: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Un borghese piccolo piccolo 1986: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Speriamo che sia femmina 1990: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Il male oscuro

4. Marco Bellocchio

Writer | Il traditore

Marco Bellocchio is one of the most consistent and most adventurous of today's Italian directors-an achievement all the more remarkable given that he made his feature debut almost fifty years ago. Over those years, he has amassed a body of films that encompasses a large number of original ...

3 Davids

2020: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Il traditore 2010: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Vincere 1980: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Salto nel vuoto +6 Nominations

5. Federico Fellini

Writer | Le notti di Cabiria

The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the ...

3 Davids

1974: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Amarcord 1960: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La dolce vita 1957: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Le notti di Cabiria +4 Nominations

6. Matteo Garrone

Director | Dogman

Matteo Garrone was born in Rome in 1968. He is the son of a theatre critic, Nico Garrone, and a photographer. In 1996 he won the Sacher d'Oro, an award sponsored by Nanni Moretti, with the short film Silhouette (1996), that became one of the three episodes of his first feature film Land in Between ...

3 Davids

2019: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Dogman 2015: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Il racconto dei racconti - Tale of Tales 2009: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Gomorra +4 Nominations

7. Ettore Scola

Writer | Una giornata particolare

Ettore Scola was born on May 10, 1931 in Trevico, Campania, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for A Special Day (1977), The Family (1987) and Passion of Love (1981). He was married to Gigliola. He died on January 19, 2016 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

3 Davids

1987: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La famiglia 1984: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Le bal 1978: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Una giornata particolare +3 Nominations

8. Ermanno Olmi

Director | L'albero degli zoccoli

Ermanno Olmi was born on July 24, 1931 in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978), The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988) and Il posto (1961). He was married to Loredana Detto. He died on May 5, 2018 in Asiago, Veneto, Italy.

3 Davids

2002: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Il mestiere delle armi 1989: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La leggenda del santo bevitore 1962: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Il posto +2 Nominations

9. Akira Kurosawa

Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...

3 Davids

1986: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Ran 1981: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Kagemusha 1977: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Dersu Uzala

10. Milos Forman

Director | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Milos Forman was born Jan Tomas Forman in Caslav, Czechoslovakia, to Anna (Svabova), who ran a summer hotel, and Rudolf Forman, a professor. During World War II, his parents were taken away by the Nazis, after being accused of participating in the underground resistance. His father died in ...

3 Davids

1985: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Amadeus 1979: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Hair 1976: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

11. Paolo Sorrentino

Writer | È stata la mano di Dio

Director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino was born in Naples in 1970, and and became an orphan when he lost both of his parents at the age of 16. At the age of 25, after studying for a few years at the Faculty of Economics and Business in University of Naples Federico II, he decided to work in the...

2 Davids

2014: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La grande bellezza 2005: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Le conseguenze dell'amore +3 Nominations

12. Vittorio Taviani

Director | La notte di San Lorenzo

Vittorio Taviani studied law at the University of Pisa, becoming interested in the cinema after seeing Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946). After writing and directing short films and plays with his brother Paolo, he made his first feature in 1962. The brothers have continued to work together ever ...

2 Davids

2012: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Cesare deve morire 1983: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La notte di San Lorenzo +1 Nomination

13. Paolo Taviani

Director | La notte di San Lorenzo

Paolo Taviani studied liberal arts at the University of Pisa, becoming interested in the cinema after seeing Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946). After writing and directing short films and plays with his brother Vittorio, he made his first feature in 1962. The brothers have continued to work ...

2 Davids

2012: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Cesare deve morire 1983: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La notte di San Lorenzo +1 Nomination

14. Ricky Tognazzi

Director | Ultrà

Ricky Tognazzi was born on May 1, 1955 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He is an actor and director, known for Ultrà (1991), Canone Inverso (2000) and La scorta (1993). He has been married to Simona Izzo since June 1995. He was previously married to Flavia Toso.

2 Davids

1993; Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La scorta 1991: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Ultrà +1 Nomination

15. Vittorio De Sica

Director | Ladri di biciclette

Vittorio De Sica grew up in Naples, and started out as an office clerk in order to raise money to support his poor family. He was increasingly drawn towards acting, and made his screen debut while still in his teens, joining a stage company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee ...

2 Davids

1965: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Matrimonio all'italiana 1963: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - I sequestrati di Altona

16. Luchino Visconti

Writer | Il gattopardo

Born in his ancestral palazzo, situated in the same Milanese square as both the opera house La Scala and the Milan Cathedral, Luchino Visconti (1906 - 1976) was raised under the auspices of aristocratic privilege, theater and Catholicism. This triangulation of monuments would create an equally ...

2 Davids

1973: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Ludwig 1971: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Morte a Venezia

17. Pietro Germi

Writer | Il ferroviere

Pietro Germi was born on September 14, 1914 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Railroad Man (1956), Divorce Italian Style (1961) and The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966). He was married to Olga D'Aiello and Anna Bancio. He died on December 5, 1974 in Rome, ...

2 Davids

1966: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Signore & signori 1964: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Sedotta e abbandonata

18. Gillo Pontecorvo

Director | La battaglia di Algeri

Gillo Pontecorvo was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for his 1966 masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers, widely viewed as one of the finest films of its genre: realistic though fictionalized documentary. Its portrayal of the Algerian resistance during the Algerian War uses the neorealist style ...

2 Davids

1980: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Ogro 1970: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Queimada

19. Franco Zeffirelli

Director | Romeo and Juliet

Franco Zeffirelli is an Italian director and producer of operas, films and television. He was also a senator from 1994 until 2001 for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party. Some of his operatic designs and productions have become worldwide classics.

He was known for several of the movies he ...

2 Davids

1972: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Fratello sole, sorella luna 1969: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Romeo and Juliet

20. John Schlesinger

Director | Midnight Cowboy

Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger, who was born in London, on February 16, 1926, was the eldest child in a solidly middle-class Jewish family. Berbard Schlesinger, his father, was a pediatrician, and his mother, Winifred, was a musician. He served in the Army in the Far East during World War ...

2 Davids

1972: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Sunday Bloody Sunday 1970: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Midnight Cowboy

21. Ingmar Bergman

Writer | Smultronstället

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born July 14, 1918, the son of a priest. The film and T.V. series, The Best Intentions (1992) is biographical and shows the early marriage of his parents. The film Sunday's Children (1992) depicts a bicycle journey with his father. In the miniseries Private Confessions (...

2 Davids

1984: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Fanny och Alexander 1974: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Viskningar och rop

22. Louis Malle

Director | Au revoir les enfants

Louis Malle, the descendant of a French nobleman who made a fortune in beet sugar during the Napoleonic Wars, created films that explored life and its meaning. Malle's family discouraged his early interest in film but, in 1950, allowed him to enter the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies ...

2 Davids

1990: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Milou en mai 1988: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Au revoir les enfants

23. Nanni Moretti

Producer | La stanza del figlio

Nanni Moretti was born on the 19th of August, 1953. He lives in Rome, where since he was a kid he devotes himself to his two passions: cinema and water-polo. In 1970 he also played in water-polo first division in Italy, and in the junior National team. In those years he was also very committed in ...

1 David

2006: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Il caimano +6 Nominations

24. Gianni Amelio

Director | Il ladro di bambini

After school, Amelio studied philosophy. He graduated with a doctorate. Amelio developed a keen interest in film at a young age. In 1970 he began working as a cameraman for the Italian state television RAI. A little later, Amelio worked as an assistant director for RAI. In 1970 he directed his ...

1 David

1992: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Il ladro di bambini +5 Nominations

25. Pupi Avati

Writer | Gli amici del bar Margherita

Pupi Avati was born on November 3, 1938 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He is a writer and director, known for Gli amici del bar Margherita (2009), Giovanna's Father (2008) and The Story of Boys & Girls (1989). He has been married to Amelia Turri since 1964. They have three children.

1 David

2003: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Il cuore altrove +5 Nominations

26. Mario Martone

Director | L'amore molesto

Mario Martone was born on November 20, 1959 in Naples, Campania, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for L'amore molesto (1995), The King of Laughter (2021) and Capri-Revolution (2018). He has been married to Ippolita Di Majo since 2010. They have one child.

1 David

1995: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - L'amore molesto +4 Nomniations

27. Paolo Virzì

Writer | La prima cosa bella

Paolo Virzì was born on March 4, 1964 in Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. He is a writer and director, known for The First Beautiful Thing (2010), Tutta la vita davanti (2008) and Like Crazy (2016). He has been married to Micaela Ramazzotti since January 17, 2009. They have two children. He was previously ...

1 David

2017: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La pazza gioia +4 Nominations

28. Carlo Verdone

Actor | La grande bellezza

Carlo Verdone is considered by many the heir of Alberto Sordi, expecially when they acted together in Troppo forte and In viaggio con papa', in these films many similarities with Sordi were apparent, the popular language, the romanesco, and the embodiment of Italian middle man in the '80s that ...

1 David

1994: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Perdiamoci di vista +3 Nominations

29. Bernardo Bertolucci

Writer | Il conformista

Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films were known for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy. He attended Rome University and became famous as a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film Accattone (1961) and directed The Grim Reaper (...

1 David

1988: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - The Last Emperor +3 Nominations

30. Silvio Soldini

Writer | Pane e tulipani

Silvio Soldini was born on August 11, 1958 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He is a writer and director, known for Bread and Tulips (2000), Days and Clouds (2007) and L'aria serena dell'Ovest (1990).

1 David

2000: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Pane e tulipani +2 Nominations

31. Marco Tullio Giordana

Director | Romanzo di una strage

Marco Tullio Giordana was born on October 1, 1950 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy (2012), One Hundred Steps (2000) and The Best of Youth (2003).

1 David

2004: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La meglio gioventù +2 Nominations

32. John Huston

Director | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English,...

1 David

1966: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - The Bible: In the Beginning... +2 Nominations

33. Marco Risi

Director | Fortapàsc

Marco Risi was born on June 4, 1951 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for Fort Apache Napoli (2009), Forever Mary (1989) and Ragazzi fuori (1990).

1 David

1991: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Ragazzi fuori +2 Nominations

34. Gabriele Muccino

Director | Seven Pounds

Gabriele Muccino was born on May 20, 1967 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for Seven Pounds (2008), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) and The Last Kiss (2001). He has been married to Angelica Russo since December 22, 2012. They have one child. He was previously married to ...

1 David

2001: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - L'ultimo bacio +1 Nomination

35. Sergio Leone

Writer | Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...

1 David

1972: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Giù la testa +1 Nomination

36. Carlo Lizzani

Director | Banditi a Milano

Carlo Lizzani was born on April 3, 1922 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Violent Four (1968), Chronicle of Poor Lovers (1954) and Celluloide (1996). He was married to Edith Bieber. He died on October 5, 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

1 David

1968: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Banditi a Milano +1 Nomination

37. Luigi Comencini

Writer | Voltati Eugenio

Luigi Comencini was born on June 8, 1916 in Salò, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Voltati Eugenio (1980), Everybody Go Home! (1960) and Bread, Love and Dreams (1953). He was married to Giulia Grifeo. He died on April 6, 2007 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

1 David

1967: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Incompreso (Vita col figlio) +1 Nomination

38. Roberto Faenza

Writer | Jona che visse nella balena

Roberto Faenza was born on February 21, 1943 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. He is a writer and director, known for Look to the Sky (1993), Escalation (1968) and I Viceré (2007).

1 David

1993: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Jona che visse nella balena +1 Nomination

39. Michelangelo Antonioni

Writer | Blow-Up

Together with Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni is credited with defining the modern art film. And yet Antonioni's cinema is also recognized today for defying any easy categorization, with his films ultimately seeming to belong to their own distinctive genre. Indeed, the ...

1 David

1961: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La notte

40. Roberto Benigni

Actor | La vita è bella

Roberto Benigni was born on October 27, 1952 in Manciano La Misericordia, Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for Life Is Beautiful (1997), The Tiger and the Snow (2005) and Down by Law (1986). He has been married to Nicoletta Braschi since December 26, 1991.

1 David

1998: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La vita è bella

41. Alberto Lattuada

Writer | Guendalina

Alberto Lattuada was born on November 13, 1914 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Guendalina (1957), Flesh Will Surrender (1947) and Bambina (1974). He was married to Carla Del Poggio. He died on July 3, 2005 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

1 David

1959: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La tempesta

42. Alessandro Blasetti

Director | Prima comunione

Alessandro Blasetti was born on July 3, 1900 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for First Communion (1950), La corona di ferro (1941) and Me, Me, Me... and the Others (1966). He was married to Maria Laura Quagliotti. He died on February 1, 1987 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

1 David

1966: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Io, io, io.... e gli altri

43. Dino Risi

Director | Il sorpasso

Dino Risi became a movie director by chance. In 1940 he met Alberto Lattuada at a friend's boutique. Lattuada told him they needed an assistant director for the movie Piccolo mondo antico (1941). Risi accepted just for fun, not for work. Later, he became a psychiatrist and wrote some articles for a...

1 David

1975: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Profumo di donna

44. Valerio Zurlini

Writer | Cronaca familiare

Valerio Zurlini was born on March 19, 1926. During his law studies in Rome, he started working in the theatre. In 1943, he joined the Italian resistance. Zurlini became a member of the Italian Communist Party. He filmed short documentaries in the immediate post-war period and in 1954 directed his ...

1 David

1977: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Il deserto dei tartari

45. Daniele Luchetti

Director | Il portaborse

Daniele Luchetti was born on July 26, 1960 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for The Yes Man (1991), Mio fratello è figlio unico (2007) and It's Happening Tomorrow (1988).

1 David

2011: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La nostra vita +2 Nominations

46. Francesco Munzi

Director | Anime nere

Francesco Munzi was born in 1969 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for Black Souls (2014), Saimir (2004) and The Rest of the Night (2008).

1 David

2015: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Anime nere

47. Jonas Carpignano

Writer | A Ciambra

Jonas Carpignano was born in 1984 and grew up between New York City and Rome. His first feature film Mediterranea debuted at the Cannes Film Festival -Semaine de la Critique in 2015 before receiving the award for the best directorial debut of 2015 by the National Board of Review and Gotham ...

1 David

2018: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - A Ciambra

48. David Lean

Director | Lawrence of Arabia

An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon on March 25, 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family (ironically, as a child he wasn't allowed to go to the movies). During the 1920s, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding ...

1 David

1967: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Doctor Zhivago

49. Marco Ferreri

Writer | Storie di ordinaria follia

Marco Ferreri was born on May 11, 1928 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981), L'udienza (1972) and El cochecito (1960). He was married to Jacqueline Ferreri. He died on May 9, 1997 in Paris, France.

1 David

1982: Best Director (Migliore Regia) - Storie di ordinaria follia

50. Richard Brooks

Writer | In Cold Blood

Richard Brooks was an Academy Award-winning film writer who also earned six Oscar nominations and achieved success as a film director and producer.

He was born Reuben Sax on May 18, 1912, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. He graduated from West Philadelphia ...

1 David

1968: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - In Cold Blood

51. Roman Polanski

Director | Chinatown

Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.

His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years ...

1 David

1969: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Rosemary's Baby

52. Claude Lelouch

Director | Un homme et une femme

He started off by making short films for television on which he was producer,screenwriter and cameraman. This was interrupted by military service in the army but only partly as he was put into the army film unit where he made over 100 films. Demobbed in 1960 he used family money for his first ...

1 David

1971: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Le voyou

53. Bob Fosse

Director | Cabaret

Bob Fosse was born on June 23, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Cabaret (1972), All That Jazz (1979) and Lenny (1974). He was married to Gwen Verdon, Joan McCracken and Mary Ann Niles. He died on September 23, 1987 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.

1 David

1973: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Cabaret

54. Billy Wilder

Writer | The Apartment

Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...

1 David

1975: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - The Front Page

55. Herbert Ross

Director | The Turning Point

Herbert Ross was born on May 13, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Turning Point (1977), The Goodbye Girl (1977) and The Secret of My Success (1987). He was married to Lee Radziwill and Nora Kaye. He died on October 9, 2001 in New York ...

1 David

1978: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - The Goodbye Girl

56. Ridley Scott

Producer | The Martian

Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom ...

1 David

1978: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - The Duellists

57. Francis Ford Coppola

Producer | Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated ...

1 David

1980: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Apocalypse Now

58. Margarethe von Trotta

Director | Hannah Arendt

Margarethe von Trotta was born in Berlin in 1942. In the 1960s she moved to Paris where she worked for film collectives, collaborating on scripts and co-directing short films. She also pursued an acclaimed acting career, starring in films by well known German directors such as Rainer Werner ...

1 David

1982: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Die bleierne Zeit

59. Steven Spielberg

Producer | Schindler's List

One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...

1 David

1983: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

60. James Ivory

Writer | Call Me by Your Name

The main part of his few movies were filmed in the quarter of a century in which he worked closely together with the Indian producer Ismail Merchant and the German writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. His first films are all set in India and are very much influenced by the style of Satyajit Ray and Jean ...

1 David

1987: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - A Room with a View

61. Pedro Almodóvar

Writer | Hable con ella

The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn't study ...

1 David

1989: Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero) - Mujeres al borde de un ataque de "nervios"

62. Gianni Franciolini

Director | Racconti romani

Gianni Franciolini was born on June 1, 1910 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Racconti romani (1955), L'ispettore Vargas (1940) and The World Condemns Them (1953). He died on May 10, 1960 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

1 David

1956: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Racconti romani

63. Andrea Molaioli

Director | La ragazza del lago

Andrea Molaioli was born in 1967 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is a director and assistant director, known for The Girl by the Lake (2007), The Jewel (2011) and Slam (2016).

1 David

2008: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - La ragazza del lago

64. Giorgio Diritti

Director | Il vento fa il suo giro

Giorgio Diritti was born on December 21, 1959 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for The Wind Blows Round (2005), The Man Who Will Come (2009) and Hidden Away (2020).

1 David

2021: Best Director (Migliore Regista) - Volevo nascondermi