As usual, the 89th Academy Awards, aka “Oscars,” ceremony – annually presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) – is going to take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, on February 26th.
More unusual is the presence of Italian roots both in one of the event’s producers, Michael De Luca, and in the host of the evening, comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
There are great expectations on Italy’s entry, Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare), a documentary film on the European migrant crisis, a topic that could not be hotter. It didn’t make it to the final shortlist of foreign language films in competition for the Oscar, but it is a nominee for “Best Documentary Feature.”
Other two Italian nominees for “Best Makeup and Hairstyling,” are Alessandro Bertolazzi and Giorgio Gregorini for their work in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, based on the DC Comics antihero team of the same name.
If you think that the Oscars, since their first ceremony, held on May 16th, 1929, have been always celebrating the top achievements in motion pictures outside Hollywood, you are wrong.
Foreign language films were not recognized at all for the first nineteenth editions, and, only between 1948 and 1955, it started to be conferred an Academy Honorary Award upon the best foreign language film distributed in the US. However, the recognition still lacked regularity (no Award was given in 1954), and there was no competition among a shortlist of nominees (like today), but simply one winner per year voted by the Academy Board of Governors.
First country in history to receive that great honor in 1948 was Italy. Vittorio De Sica’s Shoeshine (Sciuscià), one of the early examples of Italian neorealism, was thus recognized by the Academy: “the high quality of this Italian-made motion picture, brought to eloquent life in a country scarred by war, is proof to the world that the creative spirit can triumph over adversity.”
Italy’s neorealism’s masterpiece, De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di Biciclette), received again the Honorary Award in 1950.
Those heartfelt social commentaries on the poor and the working class, filmed on location, frequently using non-professional actors, managed to stir solidarity and deep emotional involvement as well as promoting appreciation for Italy’s resilience in the viewers across the world, including Hollywood.
In 1957, during the 29th Academy Awards, the category of “Best Foreign Language Film Award,” was finally established for non-English speaking films.
Italy was again first in the race. Federico Fellini’s La strada won the brand-new “competitive” Oscar, beating other four foreign films. The movie, introducing fairytale, poetic tones, started to break from neorealism.
Interesting to notice how that was the first win by Fellini but not his first nomination. In fact, he received the latter in 1950 for “Best Story and Screenplay” thanks to Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist war drama, Paisà.
In 1958, Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria gave Italy its second Best Foreign Language Film Award in a row.
In 1962, La Dolce Vita earned Fellini his first Best Director nomination, as well as his second for Best Original Screenplay, together with co-writers Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi.
In 1964, once again Fellini’s 8½ gave the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award to Italy. In that same edition, Federico was again nominated as Best Director and, with his usual cowriters, for the screenplay.
Once more, in 1975, Fellini’s semi-autobiographical, Amarcord, was awarded the statuette for Best Foreign Language Film.
Finally, in 1993, after twelve nominations and four wins, Federico Fellini was awarded an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement at the 65th Annual Academy Awards.
The visionary genius’ surrealistic style, often derived by his own dreams and resulting in the combination of fantasy and baroque images with earthiness, seemed to captivate and charm Hollywood in a very durable way.
Matter of fact, the most recent Italy’s Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful (1999) and Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty (2014) follow on the heels of the dreamlike world created by the beloved Fellini.
Alongside this tradition, more political, “neorealist” films have periodically resurfaced as Oscar winners, starting from De Sica’s Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (respectively in 1965 and 1972) to Elio Petri’s Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (in 1971), Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (winning in 1988 for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay as well as other six Oscars) as well as Gabriele Salvatores’ Mediterraneo (winning the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 1992).
Who knows? We, from L’Italo-Americano, certainly cheer Rosi’s Fire at Sea on continuing this winning tradition.
The 1990’s Academy-Awarded, Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore, like Fellini’s 8½, can hardly fit to any of the two tendencies. They are clear examples of meta-cinema, that is an investigation on the role of the viewer in the fruition of images in motion.
Italy has set records also in the acting category, when, in 1962, Italian actress Sophia Loren became the first to win an Oscar for a foreign-language performance, starring in De Sica’s Two Women (La ciociara).
Over the years, the Academy has highly esteemed Italy’s craftsmanship in many artistic categories.
Because of lack of space, I cannot mention here all the statuettes awarded to Italian masters, from the three Academy Awards for Best Cinematography won by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (whom L’Italo-Americano interviewed in the past), through the three Oscars for Best Visual Effects earned by late visual effects artist, Carlo Rambaldi (best known for the design of the title character of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), up to the four Academy Awards for Best Costume Design won by Milena Canonero (the last, two years ago, for The Grand Budapest Hotel).
Donate