The David di Donatello Awards, named after Donatello's David, a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance,[1] are film awards given out each year by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano (the Academy of Italian Cinema).[2] There are 26 award categories, as of 2023. The industry-voted awards are considered the Italian equivalent of the American Academy Awards.[3]
History
The David di Donatello film awards were founded in 1955 by the founding president of AGIS (Italian General Association for Show Business), businessman Italo Gemini, in order to honour the best of each year's Italian and foreign films. It was first awarded in Rome on 5 July 1956.[4]
The David di Donatello film awards follow the same criteria as the American Academy Awards.[3]
Similar prizes had already existed in Italy for about a decade, such as the Nastro d'Argento, but these were voted on by film critics and journalists. The Donatellos are awarded by people within the film industry, including actors, producers, directors, screenwriters, and technicians.[5]
After Rome, from 1957 to 1980, the ceremony was held at the Greek Theatre in Taormina during Taormina Film Fest, then twice in Florence, finally returning to Rome, always with the support of the President of the Italian Republic and now with the collaboration of the Rome City Council cultural policies department.[6]
The David di Donatello trophy is in the form of a gold David statuette, a replica of Donatello's famous sculpture, on a square malachite base with a gold plaque recording the award category, year, and winner.[5]
^"Trionfante e sereno nella sua nudità, David, simbolo del Rinascimento" (in Italian). Retrieved 21 January 2022.
^Daniele Dottorini. "Festival e premi cinematografici" [Film festivals and awards] (in Italian). Treccani. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
^ a b"Oscar's Foreign Cousins". Variety. Variety Media. 9 December 1998. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
^Laviosa, Flavia (29 January 2015). "David di Donatello 1956–2016: Sixty Years of Awards" [Call for Papers] (PDF). Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies. Intellect. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 October 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
^ a b"La storia dei David di Donatello dal 1955 a oggi" [The history of the David di Donatello from 1955 to today] (in Italian). Elle Magazine. 2 May 2024.
^ a b c"History of the David Di Donatello AWARDS". daviddidonatello.it. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
^D'Angelo, Francesca (4 May 2024). "David di Donatello 2024: Io capitano Miglior film, ma a sbancare è Paola Cortellesi". Elle. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
^"Gold and malachite 'David'". Sotheby's.
^"David di Donatello: La Storia" (in Italian). rai.it. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
^"David di Donatello 2018, 63 anni di Oscar del Cinema italiano" (in Italian). altrospettacolo.it. 18 March 2018. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2018. Tra gli attori più premiati di sempre troneggiano Alberto Sordi e Vittorio Gassman, entrambi a quota 7 David, vinti sempre come migliori attori protagonisti. La Meryl Streep del Cinema italiano è invece Margherita Buy, che ne ha vinti altrettanti (su 16 candidature)
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to David di Donatello.
Official website(in Italian)
Official website(in English)
David di Donatello at IMDb
David di Donatello 1956–2016: 60 Years of Awards. Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies (2016), 4 (2), Intellect, ISSN 2047-7368