12/04/2012 - No comedies among the nominations, the Academy has chosen quality cinema: it will be a battle between the films of Marco Tullio Giordana, Nanni Moretti, Paolo Sorrentino, Emanuele Crialese and the Taviani brothers

In competition for this year’s David di Donatello Award, on Friday, May 4, at Rome’s Auditorium Conciliazione, are the five films that between 2011 and the beginning of 2012 have brought prestige and given new life to Italian cinema world-wide: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s Caesar Must Die [+see also:
film review
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interview: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
film profile], Golden Bear at last February’s Berlinale; Nanni Moretti’s We Have A Pope [+see also:
film review
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interview: Nanni Moretti
film profile]; Emanuele Crialese’s Terraferma [+see also:
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interview: Emanuele Crialese
interview: Emanuele Crialese
film profile], Jury’s Special Prize at the Venice Film Festival; Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
film profile], laso selected in competition at Cannes and well-received by the critics; Marco Tullio Giordana’s Romanzo di una strage [+see also:
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film profile], a film which has been generating heated debates for weeks.

Four out of five candidates announced in a press conference today are co-produced and distributed by the public service, Rai Cinemaand 01 Distribution, which has won a record number of nominations, sixteen, in the various categories, including Best Director for Ferzan Ozpetek for Magnifica presenza [+see also:
film review
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film profile]. "This goes to show the variety and quality of our production choices: from great political cinema, to good quality comedies, all the way to the discovery of surprising new talent", said Paolo Del Brocco, Managing Director of Cinema.

At the opposite end is the giant Medusa, which consoles itself with the nomination for Sorrentino’s film.

Among new directors, the 1,000 plus members of the Academy have chosen five, all of very high quality: Stefano Sollima for Acab [+see also:
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interview: Stefano Sollima
film profile], Francesco Bruni for Scialla! [+see also:
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film profile], Alice Rohrwacher for Corpo Celeste [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Rohrwacher
film profile], Guido Lombardi for Là-bas [+see also:
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interview: Guido Lombardi
film profile] and Andrea Segre for I am Li [+see also:
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interview: Andrea Segre
interview: Andrea Segre
film profile].

Selected for the award for Best EU Film are Roman Polanski’s Carnage [+see also:
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film profile] (distributed by Medusa Film), Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia [+see also:
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interview: Lars von Trier
film profile] (Bim), Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Aki Kaurismäki
film profile] (Bim), Olivier Nakache e Eric Toledano’s The Intouchables (Medusa Film), Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist [+see also:
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interview: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile] (Bim). While the Foreign Film category features Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (01Distribution), Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (01 Distribution), George Clooney’s The Ides of March (01 Distribution), Terrence Malick’s The Tree Of Life (01 Distribution), Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation (Sacher Distribuzione).

Finally, the winners of the sections dedicated to shorts and documentaries have been announced. Of the 6 shorts selected out of 90, the winner is Simone Massi’s Dell'ammazzare il maiale, while of the 6 documentaries chosen out of 120 selected, Stefano Savona’s film, Tahrir Liberation Square, won the David di Donatello.

(Translated from Italian)