Marco Bellocchio

Marco Bellocchio was born in Piacenza in 1939. In 1959 he broke off his study of philosophy at the Catholic University of Milan and enrolled at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. Between 1961 and 1962 he made the short films Abbasso lo zio, La colpa e la pena, and Ginepro fatto uomo. He then moved to London, where he attended the Slade School of Fine Arts. His debut feature film, I pugni in tasca (Fists in the Pocket), won an award at Locarno in 1965 and brought him international recognition. In 2011 he received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice International Film Festival. His work has been the subject of dozens of retrospectives around the world, including at MoMA (New York) in 2014 to commemorate his 50-years in filmmaking at that time, at the 43rd Festival International du Film de la Rochelle, and in 2018 at the British Film Institute (London). Bellocchio has been president of the Cineteca di Bologna since 2014. In 2016 Fai bei sogni (Sweet Dreams) was the opening film of the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Festival. In 2019 Il Traditore (The Traitor) was In Competition at Cannes; it won six Donatellos and seven Silver Ribbons. In 2021, he presented the documentary Marx può aspettare (Marx Can Wait) Out of Competition at Cannes, receiving the Palme d'Honneur in the same year. In 2022, he was back at Cannes for the premiere of Esterno notte (Exterior Night), which won a European Film Award and was nominated for 18 Donatellos.