Matteo Garrone goes to the David di Donatello 2024 for best film and best director for ‘Io Capitano’. Best leading actress Paola Cortellesi for her film There’s Still Tomorrow. Cortellesi also wins the award for best directorial debut. The David goes to Michele Riondino for best actor for the film Palazzina laf. The award for best supporting actress goes to Emanuela Fanelli again for There’s Still Tomorrow while the best supporting actor goes to Elio Germano again for Palazzina Laf. Standing ovation in studio 5 of Cinecittà for Vincenzo Mollica, awarded with the special David for having narrated the world of entertainment in Italy for over forty years. In the end, I Captain by Matteo Garrone wins and, with the adventures of Seydou and Moussa who leave Dakar to reach Europe, takes home seven statuettes including the two most important: best film, direction, cinematography, editing , sound, producer and visual effects. This is the verdict of the 69th edition of the David di Donatello awards, which for the first time have become much more spectacular, broadcast in prime time on Rai 1 from the Cinecittà studios hosted by Carlo Conti and Alessia Marcuzzi, the film with the most nominations, There’s Still Tomorrow by Paola Cortellesi, the story of the redemption of a woman, wife and mother, in Rome in the second half of the 1940s, wins six statuettes: the already acquired David of the spectator, the leading actress went to Cortellesi, the supporting actress to Emanuela Fanelli, best original screenplay, best directorial debut and the David Giovani. Bene Rapito by Marco Bellocchio, which tells an episode from 1858, when a young Jew from Bologna was kidnapped by papal soldiers because he had been secretly baptized by his wet nurse, who won the David for scenography, costumes, non-original screenplay, make-up and hairstyle. Palazzina Laf by Michele Riondino, a film with a strong civil structure which takes place at the Ilva in Taranto in 1997, obtains the statuette for best leading actor, Riondino himself, for supporting actor to Elio Germano, for the original song to Diodato who dedicates the award to “my land and Taranto, a city that suffers”. Adagio by Stefano Sollima, the last part of the criminal trilogy, receives the David for the composer (Subsonica). Finally, disappointment for Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, a poetic journey into the 1980s, into the clandestine world of “grave robbers”; for Commander by Edoardo De Angelis on the figure of Salvatore Todaro, heroic guide of the submarine Commander Cappellini during the Second World War, played by Pierfrancesco Favino, and for Il Sol dell’avvenire, the nostalgic last film by Nanni Moretti. Among the beautiful moments of this edition: Fellini’s voice and the homage to the director of Amarcord at the beginning of the program in the legendary studio 5 of Cinecittà; Pierfrancesco Favino and Anna Ferzetti dancing on the red carpet presided over by Fabrizio Biggio; Vincenzo Mollica who, receiving the special David, receives a standing ovation, recounts the gesture of the umbrella to the workers made by Alberto Sordi and confesses that, if he could see again, he would like to see his wife and daughter again. Garrone, receiving the director’s award for The Captain, underlines the meaning of “a film born from the desire to listen and tell that part of the journey that no one ever sees”, while the two protagonists, Seydou and Moussa, thank the Italians and everyone those “who save migrants at sea”. Cortellesi, in receiving the public’s David, comments: “I don’t like that they are considered a mass of strangers, anonymous spectators” and thanks “the 5 million spectators who made the heroic gesture of going to the cinema”, without neglecting the It’s ironic when he talks about his directorial debut “on the threshold of menopause”; while the very talented Emanuela Fanelli underlines: “I make a very special mention for mum and dad who are now on the sofa crying for my prize”. Elio Germano, best supporting actor for Palazzina Laf says: “We can’t help but fight, Riondino and I, this is a very current film that talks about work, a theme that seems forgotten by cinema today, and of Taranto raped by profit . Many people have told us about their Laf buildings.” Finally, an increasingly disenchanted Bellocchio on receiving the award for best non-original screenplay says: “I have many lines, but they are always the same, I will only say that my age makes me say that this recognition makes me moderately satisfied and I only hope to have the mind in good shape to make other films.” There is some controversy when the David for the best costumes is awarded to Sergio Ballo and Daria Calvelli for Rapito, who receive the award in theater 18: “We would have preferred to share the room with colleagues, unfortunately our work as costume designers and set designers is seen as window dressers and maids,” says Ballo. And Conti explains: “Having brought some categories into some special spaces seemed like an enrichment to us, not a deminutio”. Truly monstrous evening in terms of guests with the Oscar-winning directors Justine Triet (David best international film for Anatomy of a Fall) and Paolo Sorrentino, the actresses Claudia Gerini, Eleonora Giorgi, Elena Sofia Ricci and Isabella Rossellini, the actors Federico Ielapi, Nicolas Maupas and Josh O’Connor, singers Malika Ayane and Giorgia and singers Irama and Mahmood.
