News from Italy
The history of Donatello’s Davids from 1955 to today
by Angela Maria
It was the early 1950s, years in which Italian cinema flourished again, full of hope after the war: in the wake of this rebirth, the Open Gate Club was founded in 1953; the symbol was a door that opened to indicate the end of dark times and the return to a culture of international openness. The Committee for Art and Culture and the International Cinema Club were then born within the club, which, in 1955, became the International Cinema Club. It is from these two circles of cinema lovers and connoisseurs of the big screen that, in 1955, David di Donatello was born.
The collapse of fascism in Italy at the end of World War II and the transition to the democratic order allowed cinema to produce films that brought a new perspective to social problems. With the Neorealism movement that emerged in this period, different aspects and issues of social life began to be represented on screen. The main themes chosen were unemployment, homelessness, the black market, hunger, prostitution and orphaned children. It was born as a radical reaction to the “white telephone films” shot for fascist propaganda purposes, which began to be produced after Mussolini founded Cinecittà. In such a dynamic situation, the foundations of Donatello’s David were being laid.
The history of Donatello’s Davids began in 1950 when the Open Gate Club was founded in Rome. Given the ever-increasing importance assumed by cinema in those years, the Committee for Art and Culture was born between 1953 and 1955 and the Circolo Internazionale del Cinema, which gave rise to the David di Donatello Awards for the best Italian and foreign film production.
Awards were established in 1955 by Italo Gemini, President of AGIS, as part of a cultural club based in Rome, the Open Gate Club, founded in 1950, who initially made it an offshoot of his International Cinema Club. Specifically, the entrepreneur Italo Gemini, President of AGIS, the General Italian Entertainment Association, established the awards, taking inspiration from the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and allocating them to the best Italian and foreign film productions.
The aim was “to stimulate competition in the industrial, technical and artistic fields of Italian and foreign film production.”
The awards were called David di Donatello because the winners were given a small Bulgari gold reproduction of Donatello’s David in Florence, a statuette that has become iconic.
First step
Their first assignment took place the following year at the Fiamma cinema in Rome, under the patronage of the President of the Republic and with the support of the Ministry of Entertainment. The winners on that occasion were Nicolò Theodoli for the creation of Racconti romani (1955) by Gianni Franciolini, also awarded for the direction, Goffredo Lombardo for the production of Pane, amore e (1955) by Dino Risi, also awarded for the interpretation of Vittorio De Sica, Gina Lollobrigida for that of The Most Beautiful Woman in the World (1955) by Robert Z. Leonard, while in the field of foreign film production and co-productions awards were given to Walt Disney for Lady and the Tramp (1955; Lady and the Tramp) by Wilfred Jackson, Clyde Geronimi and Hamilton Luske, to Angelo Rizzoli for the production of Les grandes manœuvres (1955; Great manoeuvres) by René Clair, to Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger for the interpretation of Footsteps in the fog (1955; The Perverse) by Arthur Lubin.
Taormina – Messina – Rome
Starting the following year, the awards moved (with sporadic exceptions) to the Greco-Roman theatre of Taormina at the same time as the Messina International Film Festival. The ceremony took place in Rome only starting from 1982, where it is still held today.
In 1957, the awards ceremony moved to Taormina, in the Ancient Theatre, in agreement with the Messina Provincial Tourist Board. To the Davids, made of gold and silver, plaques were added, as those of gold and silver,
In 1958, ANICA was added to AGIS, and the two decided to combine the Taormina awards ceremonies with the Messina International Film Festival events. In 1963, David became completely independent from the Open Gate from which, in 1955, they had started. The awards ceremonies, until 1977, took place in Taormina, first as part of the International Film Festival of Messina, then in that of the Festival of Nations, also at the Ancient Theatre. In 1978, they were held in Florence, at Piazzale Michelangelo; in 1979, in Rome, at the Opera Theatre; in 1980, again in the Ancient Theater of Taormina, to definitively move from 1981 to Rome as the official venue, in close collaboration with the Municipality.
Ingrid Bergman receives the best actress award for Anastasia
Federico Fellini director of The Nights of Cabiria, winner in the best director category
As the years went by, Gemini, the founder, E. Monaco, Paolo Grassi, and Gian Luigi Rondi alternated as presidents of the David Institute. At the same time, the founding aim was increasingly defined as “to promote knowledge and diffusion in Italy of the best cinema by stimulating the most appropriate forms of competition in the field of national and international film production”. The juries were opened not only to those who were gradually awarded the Davids each year but to a significant number of social and cultural personalities, up to over three hundred. The awards, starting from the last decade of the 20th century, have been definitively awarded to the best film, the best director, the best debut director, the author of the best screenplay, the best producer, the best leading actress, best leading actor, best supporting actress, best supporting actor, best director of photography, best musician, best-set designer, best costume designer, best editor, best sound engineer, best short film, to the best foreign film.
Since June 2003, a David voted by a jury of secondary school and university students has been added (the David Giovani) and, to give prominence to European cinema, as already in the decade 1973-1983, also a David for the best film European. At the same time, by analogy with the other prizes awarded in Europe, the Césars in France, the Goyas in Spain, the Baftas in Great Britain, emanations of the respective national film academies, the Ente David, with resolution of its Board of Directors, it gave itself as its second name “Academy of Italian Cinema”, with the awareness of now representing in Italy the institution that has contributed most to the knowledge and diffusion of national cinematography.
Vittorio Gassman and Alberto Sordi are currently the actors with the most statuettes ever (seven), followed by Marcello Mastroianni (five) and Toni Servillo, Nino Manfredi, Giancarlo Giannini and Elio Germano (four). For the best actresses, however, Sofia Loren still holds the record with seven awards, followed by Monica Vitti and Margherita Buy (five statuettes), Mariangela Melato and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (four), Gina Lollobrigida and Silvana Mangano (three). The most awarded director overall is Francesco Rosi, with six Davids in total, followed by Mario Monicelli and Giuseppe Tornatore (four), and in the third position, we find Matteo Garrone, Marco Bellocchio, Ettore Scola, Ermanno Olmi and Federico Fellini (four).
Over the years, the Davids have been able to celebrate unforgettable characters of Italian and international cinema, from Bernardo Bertolucci to Silvio Soldini, Federico Fellini to Dario Argento, Anna Magnani to Roberto Benigni, and then Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Sean Connery, Diane Keaton, and Tim Burton, just to name a few.
