David di Donatello: the Oscars of Italian cinema

There are just a few days left for the start of the David di Donatello: the 68th edition of the Italian film festival. During the evening the best Italian cinema will be awarded.

The David di Donatello is considered the most prestigious award of Italian cinema, awarded every year to films, documentaries and short films, both Italian and foreign. There are several competition categories, for each of which there are five nominations. But the most coveted prize of the ceremony remains the David for the best Italian film.

The first edition took place in 1956. The criteria used to award the prizes were the same as for the Oscar Awards in Hollywood, but in this case the symbol of the event became the far more prestigious statue of David sculpted in Florence by Donatello.

Why are they called "David di Donatello"?
Donatello's young hero who defeats the giant Goliath is the emblem of Italian genius, creativity and stylistic perfection. The prize is a copy of the statue of David by Donatello.

The evening
The ceremony takes place in Rome on Wednesday 10 May and will be broadcast in prime time on Rai1 with the conducting of Carlo Conti and Matilde Gioli.
The jurors decided on the nominations for the David di Donatello 2023 taking into account the films released in theaters in Italy in the period from 1 March to 31 December 2022:

The nominations
Standing out this year are several critically acclaimed titles such as "Le otto montagne", in which its two protagonists Alessandro Borghi and Luca Marinelli both compete for best actors, and Marco Bellocchio's film dedicated to Aldo Moro, or "Esterno Notte" which received 18 nominations. Also nominated were Il Signore delle Formiche by Gianni Amelio, dedicated to the case of Aldo Braibanti, and La Stranezza, the film by Roberto Andò which also led to the nomination of Ficarra and Picone who compete together.

There is also space for international names such as Penelope Cruz, candidate for L'immensità of Emanuele Crialese.

Italiano On-Air
In today's episode of our podcast Katia and Alessio talk about this wonderful evening. Listen to it here and read all the information about the podcast here.

We can't wait to find out who will be the winners of this exciting and important night!

Other events celebrating Italian excellence: