Coming Up: A Banner Year for Italian Cinema
TORONTO – While it may be true that no country has won more Best Foreign Picture Oscars than Italy, only one Italian filmmaker took home a statuette at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday. The Bologna-born Valentina Merli was a co-winner for Best Live Action Short Film, for her short titled Two People Exchanging Saliva. The category produced a tie, for the seventh time in the Oscars’ 100-year history, with the American short musical comedy The Singers.
But while it was a relatively quiet evening for Italian nominees at this year’s event, it’s dollars to donuts that next year’s Oscars will be a great night for Italy, and not just in the Foreign Film Category.
Scheduled to be released this year are a number of high-profile studio films which are either currently being filmed or have already wrapped shooting in Italy. What is most auspicious about the spike in these Italian and Italian co-productions is that there’s a strong likelihood that many of them will be rounding out the Best Picture nominees – come this time next year.
A look forward to next year’s potential/likely nominees coming out of Italy sees two heavyweight filmmakers emerge from the pack: Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino. Sorrentino’s La Grazia – about a President’s controversial pardons – is the clear frontrunner for Italy’s submission to the International Film Category, having premiered at Venice as a nominee for a Golden Lion.
Whereas La Grazia is a shoe-in to represent Italy, Guadagnino’s Artificial will surely compete in the Best Picture category alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest hitters. The film explores the AI race and power struggle, particularly through the story of the dismissed and reinstated CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman.
In addition to films directed by Italians, there is a high probability that the Oscars shortlist will be overcrowded with Italian co-productions shot and set in Italy. While Christians and cinephiles worldwide will have to wait until 2027 for Mel Gibson’s Jesus sequel The Resurrection (shot entirely in Italy), three other Hollywood masters are in the Peninsula filming their Oscar contenders.
Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars employed over 500 Italian extras and background actors to populate the post-apocalyptic world of the film, with key creative roles held by Italians as Executive Producer, Makeup Designer, Special Effects and Production Design. Scott himself has stated that he believes the film is his “best work”.
Add to the list directors Tom Ford and Cristopher Nolan, shooting Cry to Heaven and The Odyssey in Italy. Ford’s Cry to Heaven is set in 18th century Italy, and follows an Italian nobleman who looks to become the world’s best castrato opera singer.
Nolan’s The Odyssey on the other hand shot its Greek epic in the Aeolian islands for 42 days, hiring hundreds of Italian crewmen and women, including Line Producer Erik Paolietti who brought on Italian stunt artists, painters and construction managers.
The purple patch continues for Italy, with its artists joining its athletes in this annus mirabilis.
La Grazia Poster courtesy of The Apartment, Valentina Merli courtesy of Getty Images
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
