There was a little Tuscany in the 2008 Oscars in Los Angeles last Sunday. Composer Dario Marianelli won the Oscar for Best Original Score for Joe Wright's film Atonement.
The 44-year old Pisa native has written roughly 30 film scores and was nominated for an Oscar in 2007 for another Joe Wright picture, Pride and Prejudice.
Marianelli adds his Oscar to the Golden Globe award he won for Atonement last month.
He is currently working on a film titled The Soloist' (also directed by Joe Wright).
Marianelli left Italy for England in 1994 at the age of 26. He made London his base though he comes back to Italy two or three times a year. He comes from a family passionate about music and studied composition and piano in Florence.
He taught music at a Pisa high school where he gave piano lessons in an attempt to make ends meet. He created a small music studio in a garage where he composed the music for the Giugno Pisano festival.
His influences include Nino Rota's scores and the music for the 1970s television version of Pinocchio, starring fellow Pisan Andrea Balestri.
Marianelli moved to London to complete his studies where he won a scholarship for a three-year program at the National Film and Television School.
Though his first piece was composed for theatre, he quickly moved to film when he was asked to write a score for a film produced by some Irish friends.
The film, entitled Alsa and directed by Paddy Breathnach, won first place at the 1994 San Sebastian Film Festival.
It was an important honour for the Italian composer who continued to work in film and for British TV, writing scores for various films produced by the BBC.
His big American break came when Miramax approached him about writing the score for The Brothers Grimm.
Though the film did not perform particularly well at the box office, the music did not go unnoticed.
Marianelli's second US film was Pride and Prejudice, which earned him his first Oscar nomination.
The Oscars also proved successful for Italian pair Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, set designers for Sweeney Todd, directed by Tim Burton.
It was the team's second Oscar - they had previously won for Martin Scorsese's film The Aviator.
