28/03/2017 - Paolo Virzì’s film snagged 5 prizes in total, while Indivisible and Italian Race got 6 statuettes each; Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Stefano Accorsi pocketed the acting gongs

Producer Marco Belardi, actresses Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti and director Paolo Virzì with their David di Donatello Award for Best Film (© David di Donatello)

Like Crazy [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Paolo Virzì
film profile] has come out on top at the 2017 David di Donatello Awards, the annual prizes for Italian cinema. The movie about the madcap escape of two psychiatric patients directed by Paolo Virzì (which had been in the running for 17 statuettes) went home with five accolades in total, including three major gongs: Best Film, Best Director, Best Lead Actress (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), Best Production Design and Best Hair Design. If there was a real moment to treasure from the awards ceremony held yesterday at the De Paolis Studios in Rome, it was the acceptance speech by a clearly emotional Bruni Tedeschi, who called her fellow adventurer Micaela Ramazzotti (who had also been nominated for Best Lead Actress) up on stage because “without her, without Donatella, Beatrice could not exist”, and fighting back both tears and laughter, she thanked basically everyone, from Paolo Virzì to her friend from nursery, via Natalia Ginzburg, Leopardi, Ungaretti, Pavese, De André, Chopin, her mother, her sister, her aunt and her “poor psychoanalyst”. In turn, Virzì, who won his third David Award for Best Film after having done so with August Vacation in 1996 and Human Capital [+see also:
trailer
interview: Paolo Virzì
film profile] in 2014, thanked “the women, the psychiatrists and those who work in the mental-health institutions that we intruded on while making our film”, lastly hailing “Italian cinema, which has torn down the divider between tragedy and comedy”.

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The other undisputed champs of the evening were Indivisible [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Edoardo de Angelis
film profile] and Italian Race [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Matilda De Angelis
interview: Matteo Rovere
film profile], which took home six David Awards each (they had been in the running for 17 and 16 statuettes, respectively). The impressive film by Edoardo De Angelis about two conjoined twins from Castel Volturno scooped Best Supporting Actress (Antonia Truppo, who also won in the same category last year for They Call Me Jeeg [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Gabriele Mainetti
film profile]), Best Screenplay, Best Producer, Best Costume Design, Best Score and Best Original Song (both for Enzo Avitabile). Meanwhile, Matteo Rovere’s high-octane film about the world of motor racing earned Stefano Accorsi the Lead Actor Award (he had won it previously in 1999 for Radio Arrow) and swept the technical awards: Best Cinematography, Best Make-up, Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Digital Effects.

The jury of the Italian Film Academy, which this year handed the Lifetime Achievement Award to Roberto Benigni, subsequently crowned Marco Danieli as Best New Director for Worldly Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Marco Danieli
film profile], Valerio Mastandrea as Best Supporting Actor for Fiore [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Claudio Giovannesi
film profile] (he dedicated the prize to the young star of the film Josciua Algeri, who died in a tragic accident at the beginning of the month) and I, Daniel Blake [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Ken Loach as Best European Film, while The Stuff of Dreams [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Gianfranco Cabiddu pocketed the new Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Finally, there is a peculiar connection between Like Crazy and the film chosen as Best Documentary: Crazy for Football: The Craziest World Cup [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Volfango De Biasi, which is about the “craziest” football team in the world, made up of psychiatric patients, as they play an away game in Japan to vie for the World Cup. 

Here is the complete list of the winners of the 2017 David di Donatello Awards:

Best Film
Like Crazy [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Paolo Virzì
film profile] - Paolo Virzì

Best Director
Paolo Virzì – Like Crazy

Best New Director 
Marco Danieli – Worldly Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Marco Danieli
film profile]

Best Original Screenplay 
Nicola Guaglianone, Barbara Petronio, Edoardo De Angelis - Indivisible [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Edoardo de Angelis
film profile]

Best Adapted Screenplay 
Gianfranco Cabiddu, Ugo Chiti, Salvatore De Mola – The Stuff of Dreams [+see also:
trailer
film profile]

Best Producer
Attilio De Razza, Pierpaolo Verga – Indivisible

Best Lead Actress 
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi – Like Crazy

Best Lead Actor 
Stefano Accorsi – Italian Race

Best Supporting Actress 
Antonia Truppo – Indivisible

Best Supporting Actor 
Valerio Mastandrea - Fiore [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Claudio Giovannesi
film profile]

Best Cinematography 
Michele D'Attanasio – Italian Race

Best Score 
Enzo Avitabile – Indivisible

Best Original Song 
“Abbi pietà di noi”, music and lyrics by Enzo Avitabile – Indivisible

Best Production Design 
Tonino Zera – Like Crazy

Best Costumes 
Massimo Cantini Parrini – Indivisible

Best Make-up 
Luca Mazzoccoli – Italian Race

Best Hair Design 
Daniela Tartari – Like Crazy

Best Editing 
Gianni Vezzosi – Italian Race

Best Sound
Angelo Bonanni (live recording), Diego De Santis (boom operator), Mirko Perri (sound editing and creation), Michele Mazzucco (mix) – Italian Race

Best Digital Effects 
Artea Film and Rain Rebel Alliance International Network – Italian Race

Best Documentary
Crazy for Football: The Craziest World Cup [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Volfango De Biasi

Best European Film 
I, Daniel Blake [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Ken Loach (UK/France/Belgium)

Best Foreign Film 
Nocturnal Animals [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Tom Ford (USA/UK)

Best Short Film 
A casa mia - Mario Piredda

David Giovani Award
At War with Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile] - Pierfrancesco Diliberto

Special David for Lifetime Achievement
Roberto Benigni

(Translated from Italian)