L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano 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 16 th , 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 start- ed to be conferred an Academy Honorary Award upon the best foreign language film distributed in the US. However, the recogni- tion 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 neoreal- ism, 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 adversi- ty." Italy's neorealism's master- piece, De Sica's The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di Biciclette), received again the Honorary Award in 1950. Those heartfelt social com- mentaries on the poor and the working class, filmed on loca- tion, frequently using non-pro- fessional actors, managed to stir solidarity and deep emotional involvement as well as promot- ing appreciation for Italy's resilience in the viewers across the world, including Hollywood. In 1957, during the 29 th 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 "competi- tive" Oscar, beating other four foreign films. The movie, intro- ducing 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 s e m i - a u t o b i o g r a p h i c a l , Amarcord, was awarded the stat- uette 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' surreal- istic 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 cre- ated 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 con- tinuing 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 perfor- mance, 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 stat- uettes awarded to Italian masters, from the three Academy Awards for Best Cinematography won by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (whom L'Italo-Americano inter- viewed 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). The first foreign country to receive the Oscar in 1948 was Italy Italy's Oscars: 14 Statuettes and Counting Continued from page 1 ARTS FILM MUSIC BOOKS THEATRE

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