The 70th David di Donatello Awards, held at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios, marked a pivotal moment for Italian cinema as women filmmakers emerged at the forefront of the country’s most prestigious film honors. Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio dominated the evening, winning seven awards, while major honors were also claimed by Valeria Golino and Margherita Vicario, signaling a broad shift in creative leadership and recognition.
Delpero’s wartime drama, set in 1944 in an isolated Alpine village, earned the top prizes: Best Film and Best Director. She became the first woman to receive the directing award in the seven-decade history of the event. Only two women had previously taken the Best Film category. Vermiglio also collected awards for Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound, Casting, and Production. These achievements reflect both the artistic ambition of the film and its technical command across multiple disciplines.
The narrative of Vermiglio follows the disruption caused by a deserter’s arrival at the home of three sisters. The film examines loyalty, survival, and familial tension in a setting where war is no longer distant but present and personal. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, and was selected as Italy’s submission for the 2025 Academy Awards.
In her acceptance remarks, Delpero addressed the decision to anchor the story in a wartime setting. “When I thought about writing it, someone asked me if it wasn’t anachronistic to talk about war,” she said. “Unfortunately, war is always current, and since then it has been even more so. Vermiglio is a profoundly antimilitarist film. It tells the story of when we had war in our home.”
The atmosphere inside Cinecittà’s Theater 5 reflected both the prestige of the ceremony and the charged timing of the event, which coincided with the papal conclave in Vatican City following the death of Pope Francis. As cardinals met to choose a new pontiff, Italian filmmakers and performers gathered to reflect on a year of transformation, driven in part by the visibility and success of women directors.
Margherita Vicario received Best First Film for Gloria!, which also earned awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Set in 18th-century Venice, the musical comedy takes place in an orphanage where girls receive elite training in classical music but are denied access to public performance. The story centers on Teresa, a spirited young woman who leads her peers in challenging those restrictions and creating a new kind of music that breaks formal boundaries.
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Vicario’s background as a musician informed both the structure and sound of the film, which blends historical motifs with contemporary energy. The project debuted at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival and quickly gained attention for its ensemble performances and visual design. The music, composed by Vicario and Davide Pavanello, received particular praise for balancing operatic influence with accessible rhythms and lyrics. The song “Aria!” served as a rallying theme for the characters and captured the tone of the film’s rebellion against imposed norms.
Valeria Golino’s The Art of Joy, adapted from Goliarda Sapienza’s novel, collected three awards: Best Actress for Tecla Insolia, Best Supporting Actress for Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The screenplay was co-written by Golino, Francesca Marciano, Valia Santella, Luca Infascelli, and Stefano Sardo.
The story tracks the life of Modesta, a woman born into poverty in 1900 Sicily, who rejects the expectations set upon her by both church and class. Over time, she moves through multiple worlds—first a convent, then an aristocratic estate—and constructs her identity through intellectual and emotional independence. Golino’s direction avoids romanticizing Modesta’s path, instead framing it as a process of self-determination grounded in education, observation, and confrontation with tradition.
Tecla Insolia’s portrayal of Modesta was singled out for its maturity and nuance, especially in a role that required significant internal progression. Bruni Tedeschi, whose role supported Modesta’s arc, added texture to the film’s depiction of changing power dynamics. The film’s visual tone and episodic pacing echoed the structure of Sapienza’s novel while adapting it for contemporary viewing.
Craft categories were dominated by The Flood, a French-language period drama directed by Gianluca Jodice and starring Guillaume Canet and Mélanie Laurent as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The film won awards for Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup, and Hair. The attention to detail in its recreation of late 18th-century France was instrumental in its recognition by voters. Designers Tonino Zera, Massimo Cantini Parrini, Alessandra Vita, and Aldo Signoretti were among those honored for their contributions to the film’s visual integrity.
Elio Germano won Best Actor for his role in The Great Ambition, a political drama directed by Andrea Segre. Germano plays Enrico Berlinguer, the long-serving leader of Italy’s Communist Party, whose tenure included pivotal national elections in 1976. The film examines the pressures he faced as a public figure, offering a portrait shaped by political ideals and private resilience. The editing, by Jacopo Quadri, also received recognition, reinforcing the film’s balance between archival accuracy and dramatic pacing.
Best Supporting Actor was awarded to Francesco Di Leva for his role in Familia, a film that depicts generational divisions and moral negotiation within a Neapolitan household. His character’s ability to bridge experience and impulse formed the foundation of the film’s emotional pull.
Sean Baker’s Anora received the award for Best International Film. The American director, known for The Florida Project and Red Rocket, acknowledged the legacy of Italian cinema in his acceptance speech, referencing both neorealism and genre filmmaking as formative to his craft. His film’s inclusion in the ceremony emphasized the Davids’ widening focus on international voices aligned with Italian sensibilities.
Ornella Muti was honored with a Special David for her decades of contributions to Italian and international film. The award was presented during a segment that also recognized Pupi Avati with a Career Achievement David and Giuseppe Tornatore with a David Cinecittà award in recognition of the 70th anniversary of the awards ceremony.
Timothée Chalamet received a Special David for Cinematic Excellence. Present in Rome with his father and Kylie Jenner, Chalamet addressed his connection to Italian cinema through director Luca Guadagnino. “Luca is probably the most important person in my career,” he said on stage. Chalamet, who starred in Call Me By Your Name, drew laughs when he joked about his hypothetical soccer career, suggesting he might have matched the scoring record of Francesco Totti had he chosen a different path.
Ferzan Ozpetek’s Diamanti earned recognition as the most viewed Italian film of the year, reflecting the director’s ability to blend emotional storytelling with commercial success. Gabriele Salvatores’ Naples to New York was awarded the Youth Prize, while Victor Perez received the award for Best Visual Effects for his work on the same film.
In the short film category, Domenica Sera by Matteo Tortone won, and Ukrainian Whispers by Francesca Mannocchi was awarded Best Documentary. Mannocchi’s work offered a personal account of wartime displacement and human survival amid geopolitical crisis.
The addition of a Casting category to the Davids was marked by a win for Vermiglio. Casting directors Stefania Rodà and Maurilio Mangano were recognized for assembling a cast that contributed to the story’s emotional depth and thematic clarity. This award, introduced for the first time in the ceremony’s history, reflects a growing understanding of casting’s importance in the storytelling process.
Sound design for Vermiglio, led by Dana Farzanehpour, Hervé Guyader, and Emmanuel de Boissieu, was acknowledged for its subtle layering and ambient accuracy, elements that enhanced the film’s depiction of rural isolation and wartime anxiety.
Cinecittà Studios, the venue for this year’s Davids, is undergoing a significant renovation. Studio 22, one of the new facilities, will be the primary location for Mel Gibson’s upcoming biblical feature The Resurrection of the Christ. The investment in infrastructure aims to strengthen Italy’s position as a filming destination for international productions.
The 2025 ceremony highlighted a generational and stylistic shift within Italian cinema. The dominance of female directors, both established and emerging, demonstrated a recalibration of whose stories are told and how they are brought to screen. For an institution with a long legacy of honoring auteur filmmaking, this year’s Davids offered a broader lens—one shaped by collaboration, identity, and the continual redefinition of cinematic purpose.
