Paolo Sorrentino

Paolo Sorrentino is an Italian screenwriter and director. Seven of his eight films have been presented in Competition at the Cannes International Film Festival. Sorrentino’s films were also nominated and winner of the main European and international festivals and awards, notably the David of Donatello. He achieved international recognition in 2004 with Le conseguenze dell'amore (The Consequences of Love) which was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. L'amico di famiglia (The Family Friend) in 2006 was also nominated for the Palme d’Or. Il Divo, a dramatized biopic of Giulio Andreotti, the controversial Italian politician, won the Jury Prize at Cannes Festival in 2008. His English language debut This Must Be the Place was released in 2011. La Grande Bellezza, in competition at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, received the Oscar for “Best Foreign Language Film” in 2014. Youth - La Giovinezza, part of the 2015 official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, was released in Italy in May 2015. Critically acclaimed, the film received many awards, notably ‘best European film”, “best director” and “best actor” at the 2015 European Film Awards. Sorrentino directed a mini-series entitled The Young Pope, with Jude Law in the leading role of Pope Pius XIII. It was broadcasted in 2016, won the Nastro d’Argento as Work of the Year (Opera dell’anno) in 2017, and nominated to the Emmy Awards. The second season called The New Pope was out in 2020. In between, he wrote and directed Loro (2018), a biography of the former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. He wrote and directed one episode of the TV series Homemade, about the experience of life in quarantine during the pandemic in 2020. The Hand of God, a dramatic movie inspired by his youth in Naples in the 80’s, was presented at the Venice International Film Festival and then released on Netflix in 2021. Among other nominations, it was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards 2022 and won several other awards. His latest work, Parthenope, was presented at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2024.