Io Capitano

Director's Bio

Matteo Garrone, born in 1968, is considered among the best Italian directors of recent years. After graduating from art school in 1986, he dedicated himself full time to painting. The strong communicative power of the image conquers him to such an extent that he decides to test himself also with the audiovisual world: in 1996 he wins the Golden Sacher with the short film SILHOUETTE, which the following year will become one of the three episodes of his first feature film MIDDLE EARTH. The same year he shot a documentary in New York on Pentecostalism with Carlo Cresto-Dina entitled BIENVENIDO ESPIRITO SANTO. Again for Cresto-Dina, in 1998 he worked on the documentary ORESTE PIPOLO, WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER. From the same year is his second feature film, GUESTS, which wins a special mention at the Venice International Film Festival: another story of emigration that confirms Garrone’s interest in realism, this time more attentive to uncertainty, existential nature of the characters and to the social conditions. He began to approach the comedy genre while maintaining a documentary style with ESTATE ROMANA (2000), in the background the capital devastated by construction sites on the eve of the Jubilee, it is a tribute to the underground theater season of the seventies.

He gained critical attention in 2002 with L’IMBALSAMATORE, for which he won the David di Donatello for best screenplay. The film, inspired by a news story, recombines the elements of noir in a story poised between realism and artistic abstraction. FIRST LOVE (2004) is also based on a dramatic news story, which tells the story of a man obsessed with female thinness and the desire for absolute control over being loved. In 2006 he took part with a cameo in the film IL CAIMANO by Nanni Moretti, in the role of director of photography.

He returned behind the camera in 2008 to try his hand at an important project: the film adaptation of Roberto Saviano’s bestseller on the Camorra, GOMORRA, with which he won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as several David di Donatello awards. Four years later he returned to competition in Cannes with REALITY which won the Grand Jury Prize, but also two Nastri d’argento and three David di Donatello.

Also in great style was the foreign project TALE OF TALES – THE TALE OF TALES (2015), a great fresco in a fantastic key of the baroque period, starring among others Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones and John C. Reilly which won seven David di Donatello, including best director. In 2018 he returned to Cannes with the film DOGMAN, which won 40 awards including the David di Donatello. This will be followed by PINOCCHIO (2019), winner of 19 awards and nominated for two Oscars.