‘Vermiglio” Wins Best Film & Director

Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio took home Best Film and Director at the 70th edition of Italy’s David di Donatello Awards on Wednesday evening, in a historic win for a female director.

Delpero is the first woman to win the David di Donatello Best Director prize in the history of the awards, and only the third female filmmaker to win Best Film.

The film picked up seven David di Donatellos in total which also included Best Original Screenplay, Casting, Producer, Cinematography and Sound.

Set in a remote mountain village in 1944, Vermiglio revolves around a family whose life is disrupted by the arrival of a deserted soldier. The feature world premiered in Venice where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and went on to be Italy’s 2025 Oscars submission.

It was an historically strong night for female directors.

Other big winners included Italian actress and singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario who won Best First Film, Composer and Song for feature directorial Gloria.

The film, which debuted in the Berlin in 2024, is set in Venice at the end of the 1700s and revolves around an orphanage and music conservatory for girls, where the young charges are trained to the highest standard but denied the right to shine in the wider world.

Valeria Golino’s The Art of Joy also performed well clinching Best Actress (Tecla Insolia), Supporting Actress (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) and Adapted Screenplay.

The drama follows a woman born into modest circumstances in Sicily in 1900, who goes on to navigate life in a convent, and then carves herself out a place in aristocratic household achieving happiness and emancipation in the process. It debuted as a Special Screening in Cannes.

A big winner on the craft side was Gianluca Jodice’s French-language drama The Flood, starring  Guillaume Canet and Mélanie Laurent as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The historical drama won Best Art Direction, Costumes, Make-up and Best Hair.

The ceremony unfolding in Theater 5 of Rome’s Cinecittà studios kicked off just hours after the beginning of the papal conclave in the Vatican City on the other side of the city, to decide the next head of the Roman Catholic Church following the death of Pope Francis.

Despite recent a spike in popularity for Edward Berger’s timely drama Conclave, the film lost out to Sean Baker’s Anora in the Best International Film category.

In other highlights Timothée Chalamet, who touched down in Rome with Kylie Jenner and his father, received a Special David Award for Cinematic Excellence, alongside Italian actress Ornella Muti.

Asked on stage about his ties to Italy through Luca Guadagnino, who cast him in his breakout role in Call Me By Your Name, Chalamet replied: “Luca is probably the most important person in my career.”

He went on to joke that he if had not gone into acting he would have racked up a “better scoring” record than Italian soccer legend Francesco Totti.

Further honoraries included director Director Pupi Avati, who was feted with a Career Achievement Prize, while Monica Bellucci presented Giuseppe Tornatore with a Special Cinecittà Prize marking the David di Donatello’s 70th edition.

The David di Donatello prize for the most viewed Italian film went to Ferzan Ozpetek’s Diamanti.

The Full List of Winners

Best Film
Vermiglio, Maura Delpero

Best Director
Maura Delpero, Vermiglio

Best Directorial Debut
Gloria!, Margherita Vicario

Best Original Screenplay
Vermiglio, Maura Delpero

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Art of Joy, Valeria Golino, Francesca Marciano, Valia Santella, Luca Infascelli, Stefano Sardo

Best Producer
Vermiglio, Francesca Andreoli, Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli, Santiago Fondevila Sancet, Maura Delpero for cinedora, with Rai Cinema, in collaboration with charades (France), Versus (Belgium)

Best Actress
The Art Of Joy, Tecla Insolia

Best Actor
The Great Ambition, Elio Germano

Best Supporting Actress
The Art of Joy, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

Best Supporting Actor
Familia, Francesco di Leva

Best Casting
Vermiglio, Stefania Rodà, Maurilio Mangano

Best Cinematography
Vermiglio, Mikhail Krichman

Best Composer
Gloria!, Margherita Vicario, Davide Pavanello, Iddu Colapesce

Best Original Song
Gloria! Aria!

Best Art Direction
The Flood, Tonino Zera, Maria Grazia Schirripa, Carlotta Desmann

Best Costumes
The Flood, Massimo Cantini Parrini

Best Make-up
The Flood, Alessandra Vita, Valentina VIsintin

Best Hair
The Flood, Aldo Signoretti, Domingo Santoro

Best Editing
The Great Ambition, Jacopo Quadri

Best Sound
Vermiglio, Dana Farzanehpour, Hervé Guyader, Hervé Guyader, Emmanuel de Boisseau

Best Special Effects
Naples To New York, Victor Perez

Best Documentary
Ukrainian Whispers, Francesca Mannocchi

Best International Picture
Anora, Sean Baker

Best Short
Domenica Sera, Matteo Tortone

Youth Prize
Naples To New York, Gabriele Salvatores

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