News

Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” and Gabriele Mainetti’s “Freaks Out” lead the pack at the David di Donatello Awards this year with 16 nominations each.

Here’s the complete list of nominees:

Picture

“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo

“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino

“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore

“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti

“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone

Director

“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo

“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino

“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore

“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti

“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone

Debut Director

“The Bad Poet,” Gianluca Jodice

“Maternal,” Maura Delpero

“Small Body,” Laura Samani

“Re Granchio” (The Legend of King Crab), Alessio Rigo De Righi, Matteo Zoppis

“Una Femmina” (The Code of Silence), Francesco Constabile

Producer

“A Chiara,” Jon Coplon, Paolo Carpignano, Ryan Zacarias, Jonas Carpignano (Stayblack Productions) — Rai Cinema

“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Carlo Cresto...

In a ceremony dominated by gender inequality speeches most of the awards went to box office disappointments.

The Manetti brothers’ Love And Bullets won five prizes at the 62nd David di Donatello awards – Italy’s equivilent to the Oscars – after starting the evening with 15 nominations.

The musical crime comedy, which first premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival, was awarded for best film, best actress in a supporting role, best score, best original song and best costumes.

Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Nico, 1988, which also premiered in Venice winning the Orizzonti competition, got four awards; best original screenplay, best sound, best make-up and best hairdressing.

In a ceremony dominated by gender inequality speeches most of the awards went to box office disappointments.

The Manetti brothers’ Love And Bullets won five prizes at the 62nd David di Donatello awards – Italy’s equivilent to the Oscars – after starting the evening with 15 nominations.

The musical crime comedy, which first premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival, was awarded for best film, best actress in a supporting role, best score, best original song and best costumes.

Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Nico, 1988, which also premiered in Venice winning the Orizzonti competition, got four awards; best original screenplay, best sound, best make-up and best hairdressing.

"The Great Beauty," Paolo Sorrentino's splashy valentine to Roman high society, was the most lauded foreign-language film of the last awards season -- it ruled the European Film Awards, and scooped Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Oscars. (At all but the last of these, it beat out its Cannes conqueror, "Blue is the Warmest Color.") So you'd think it'd be a shoo-in at Italy's own Academy Awards, right? Wrong. At yesterday's David di Donatello Awards, handed out annually by the Academy of Italian Cinema, Sorrentino's film was the night's biggest winner in terms of numbers -- taking nine awards, including Best Director and Best Actor for Toni Servillo. But its other wins were limited to below-the-line categories -- trust the Italians to have separate awards for Best Makeup and Best Hairstyling -- as Paolo Virzi's "Human Capital" took Best Picture. Virzi's film, a blend...

"Outlaw", written and directed by Enzo Monteleone (the screenwriter of the Oscar-winning "Mediterraneo"), demonstrates that hostage negotiation plots are no less popular abroad than here. The film doesn't compare in quality to the standard bearer of the genre, "Dog Day Afternoon", but it is an engaging and entertaining effort refreshingly free of heavy-handedness. It is receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.

The film is based on a portion of the autobiography of Horst Fantazzini, Italy's so-called "gentleman bandit" of the 1960s, a bank robber armed with a toy gun and known both for his excessive politeness -- he once sent flowers to a bank teller who fainted with fear during her ordeal -- and his revolutionary zeal. He's the kind of crook who's fond of quoting Brecht's maxim, "It is more criminal to found a bank than to rob one."

In 1973, during Italy's holiday season, Fantazzini (appealingly played by Stefano Accorsi) made one of his many attempts to escape from jail, this time using a real gun. The attempt went awry and, holding two guards as hostages, he attempted to negotiate his way out. During this daylong ordeal, he must also endure phone calls from his anarchist father, who berates him for his stupidity, and the prison's warden, who mostly complains about being forced from his beach vacation.

Although it has its tense moments, the film mainly concentrates on depicting the affable nature of its unique hero and delineating the emotional interplay between him and his agreeable but frightened captives, as well as the frenzied communications between the various levels of state bureaucracy trying to end the crisis. The screenplay is deft and clever without being particularly resonant or deep, and one can often feel the filmmaker struggling to find a coherent tone somewhere between farce and tragedy.

Ultimately, like its central character, "Outlaw" mainly comes across as confused.

OUTLAW

Adriana Chiesa Enterprises

Credits: Director: Enzo Monteleone; Writers: Enzo Monteleone, Angelo Orlando; Producer: Gianfranco Piccioli; Executive producer: Mino Barbera; Director of photography: Arnaldo Catinai; Editor: Cecilia Zanuso;

Music: Pivio De Scalzi, Aldo De Scalzi. Cast: Horst Fantazzini: Stefano Accorsi; Lance Corporal Di Gennaro: Giovanni Esposito; Brigadiere Lo Iacono: Emilio Solfrizzi; Wife: Fabrizia Sacchi; Assistant public prosecutor: Antonio Catania. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 95 minutes.