He was born in Rome in 1968 and debuted in 1997 with ‘Land in Between’, which was screened at 47th Seminci as part of a retrospective on New Realism. Then came ‘Guests’ (1998), a Kodak prize at the Venice Film Festival, and ‘Estate Romana’ (2000), also released there. In 2002 he directed ‘L’ imbalsamatore’, selected at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes and in 2004 he premiered ‘Primo amore’ at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2008 he won the Cannes Grand Prix and five European Film Awards (including best film and best director ) for ‘Gomorrah’. With ‘Reality’ (2012) he won the Cannes Grand Prix again, before returning with ‘Tale of Tales’ (2015) and ‘Dogman’ (2018), award for best actor and selected at Seminci. In 2019 he adapted ‘Pinocchio’ for the big screen, a film which was nominated for two Oscars, and with ‘Me Captain’ (2023) he won the Silver Lion for best director and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best emerging actor for Seydou Sarr in Venice.