Protagonists
of Italian Cinema:
LUIGI LO CASCIO
Luigi Lo Cascio is one of the most intense and authoritative actors in contemporary Italian cinema. His career began with a landmark debut: he starred as Peppino Impastato in Marco Tullio Giordana's One Hundred Steps (I cento passi), a performance that earned him the David di Donatello for Best Actor in 2001 and immediately brought him to the attention of both audiences and critics. That same year, he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for Giuseppe Piccioni's Light of My Eyes (Luce dei miei occhi).
Since then, Lo Cascio has built an artistic career marked by rigorous choices and collaborations with some of the most prominent directors in Italian cinema. Rejoining Giordana, he starred in the family saga The Best of Youth (La meglio gioventù), which won the Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes Film Festival. He has worked with Marco Bellocchio in Good Morning, Night (Buongiorno, notte), The Traitor (Il traditore), Marx Can Wait (Marx può aspettare), and Lord of the Ants (Il signore delle formiche), as well as with Cristina Comencini in The Best Day of My Life (Il più bel giorno della mia vita) and Don't Tell (La bestia nel cuore), alongside other projects that showcase his remarkable ability to tackle deeply complex characters and themes.
Throughout his career, he has also appeared in films such as Alessandro Piva's My Brother-in-Law (Mio cognato), Daniele Luchetti's Our Life (La nostra vita) and The Ties (Lacci), Mario Martone's We Believed (Noi credevamo), Paolo Virzì's Human Capital (Il capitale umano), Roberto Andò's Strangeness (La stranezza), and Gianni Amelio's Lord of the Ants (Il signore delle formiche), not to mention The Ideal City (La città ideale), which he wrote, directed, and starred in, as well as the TV series The Bad Guy and Il mestiere directed by Beppe Tufarulo. In parallel, Lo Cascio has maintained a strong connection to the theater—his original background—as well as to writing and directing, continually broadening his artistic path over time.
photo: Adolfo Frediani
A section dedicated to key figures in Italian cinema. The tribute includes a retrospective of the artist's most representative films, a special event, and the presentation of the Golden Olive Tree) for Lifetime Achievement—an award reserved for masters who have left an indelible mark on the history of cinema.
Over the course of previous editions, the Festival has presented its very first tribute to Ugo Tognazzi, followed by that ones to Carmelo Bene, Giancarlo Giannini, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Virna Lisi, Lucia Bosè, Valeria Golino, Michele Placido, Margherita Buy, Carlo Verdone, Toni Servillo, Sergio Castellitto, Francesca Neri, Claudia Cardinale, Milena Vukotic, Paola Cortellesi, Christian De Sica, Elio Germano, Isabella Ferrari, Valerio Mastandrea, Kim Rossi Stuart, Jasmine Trinca, Stefania Sandrelli, Dario Argento, Giovanna Ralli, Sergio Rubini, Micaela Ramazzotti, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, and—last year—Saverio Costanzo.
