words by Gabi Logan
Last Friday, the 4th of May 2012, the Accademia del Cinema Italiana (Italian Film Academy) announced the winners of the 2012 Davide di Donatello awards. The Tavini Brothers docudrama Cesare deve morire (Caesar must die) swept three major categories, winning the Davide for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Producer.
Cesare deve morire documents six months of rehearsals of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in Rome’s maximum security prison Rebibbia. As the inmates delve into their roles and the play’s themes of betrayal, power, and friendship, Shakespeare’s message resonates as powerfully as if it were written today.
The film won five of the eight David di Donatello awards it was nominated for, including Best Editing and Best Sound It also won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in February. The Tavini Brothers, Paolo, 80, and Vittorio, 82, have been breaking the Italian cinematic mould with films that blend reality with fiction and amateurs with professional actors since their Palme d’Or-winning 1977 film Padre Padrone (Father Master). Cesare deve morire
This Must be the Place from director Paolo Sorrentino won the most awards of any film, six, though it only netted one major award for Best Screenplay. Romanzo di una strage, originally nominated for 16 awards, the most of any film, took home three: Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Special Effects. Habemus Papam (We Have a Pope), another top contender with 15 nominations, also took home three awards, including Best Actor for Michel Piccoli.
The 2012 award ceremony also marked the first time in 8 years that a non-U.S. film won the Best Foreign Film prize. Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (A Separation), about an Iranian couple choosing between staying in Iran to care for a parent with Alzheimer’s or moving to create a better life for their child, won the Davide for Best Foreign Film after also receiving the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film earlier this year.
