Cinema Italiano and The Oscars
Italy is probably just as famous for its movies as it is for its food, having won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 13 times, the most of any country. This year, Paolo Sorrentino’s critically acclaimed The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza), a top contender for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is Italy’s official submission for a 2014 Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination slot. Now we don’t want to count our chickens before they hatch, but it would be awesome if 2014 was number 14 for Italy.
If you’re interested in adding some Italian Oscar winners to your Netflix queue, below is a list of all the films that have garnered this honor complete with the year and the director’s name. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for Sorrentino…
- 1947: Shoeshine, Vittorio De Sica
- 1949: Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica
- 1950: The Walls of Malapaga, Rene Clement
- 1956: La Strada, Federico Fellini
- 1957: Nights of Cabiria, Federico Fellini
- 1961: 8 1/2, Federico Fellini
- 1964: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Vittorio De Sica
- 1970: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Elio Petri
- 1971: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Vittorio De Sica
- 1974: Amarcord, Federico Fellini
- 1989: Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore
- 1991: Mediterraneo, Gabriele Salvatores
- 1998: Life is Beautiful, Roberto Benigni
