Top 100 Italian Directors

1. Alessandro Blasetti

Alessandro Blasetti was born on July 3, 1900 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for First Communion (1950), La corona di ferro (1941) and Me, Me, Me... and the Others (1966). He was married to Maria Laura Quagliotti. He died on February 1, 1987 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

2. Luchino Visconti

Writer | Il gattopardo

Born in his ancestral palazzo, situated in the same Milanese square as both the opera house La Scala and the Milan Cathedral, Luchino Visconti (1906 - 1976) was raised under the auspices of aristocratic privilege, theater and Catholicism. This triangulation of monuments would create an equally ...

3. Vittorio De Sica

Director | Ladri di biciclette

Vittorio De Sica grew up in Naples, and started out as an office clerk in order to raise money to support his poor family. He was increasingly drawn towards acting, and made his screen debut while still in his teens, joining a stage company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee ...

4. Roberto Rossellini

Writer | Roma città aperta

The master filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, as one of the creators of neo-realism, is one of the most influential directors of all time. His neo-realist films influenced France's nouvelle vague movement in the 1950s and '60s that changed the face of international cinema. He also influenced American ...

5. Luigi Zampa

Writer | Processo alla città

Abandoning earlier studies in architecture and engineering, Luigi Zampa learned screenwriting and directing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, between 1932 and 1937. He went on to make military training films for the Italian army during World War II, as well as collaborating on ...

6. Giuseppe De Santis

Writer | Caccia tragica

Giuseppe De Santis was born on February 11, 1917 in Fondi, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Tragic Hunt (1947), Giorni d'amore (1954) and Bitter Rice (1949). He was married to Gordana Miletic. He died on May 16, 1997 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

7. Raffaello Matarazzo

Writer | Dora la espía

Raffaello Matarazzo started writing film reviews for the Roman newspaper Il Tevere before re-editing scripts for the Italian film company Cines. His first films were comedies until he shifted to making melodramas. With Chains (1949), produced by Titanus in 1949, he became the most successful ...

8. Michelangelo Antonioni

Writer | Blow-Up

Together with Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni is credited with defining the modern art film. And yet Antonioni's cinema is also recognized today for defying any easy categorization, with his films ultimately seeming to belong to their own distinctive genre. Indeed, the ...

9. Pietro Germi

Writer | Il ferroviere

Pietro Germi was born on September 14, 1914 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Railroad Man (1956), Divorce Italian Style (1961) and The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966). He was married to Olga D'Aiello and Anna Bancio. He died on December 5, 1974 in Rome, ...

10. Alberto Lattuada

Writer | Guendalina

Alberto Lattuada was born on November 13, 1914 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Guendalina (1957), Flesh Will Surrender (1947) and Bambina (1974). He was married to Carla Del Poggio. He died on July 3, 2005 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

11. Federico Fellini

Writer | Le notti di Cabiria

The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the ...

12. Mario Monicelli

Writer | I compagni

Mario Monicelli was born on May 16, 1915 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Organizer (1963), Speriamo che sia femmina (1986) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). He was married to Chiara Rapaccini and Antonella Salerni. He died on November 29, 2010 in Rome, Lazio,...

13. Steno

Writer | La polizia ringrazia

Steno was born on January 19, 1917 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Execution Squad (1972), Cops and Robbers (1951) and La patata bollente (1979). He died on March 12, 1988 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

14. Renato Castellani

Writer | Romeo and Juliet

Renato Castellani was born on September 4, 1913 in Finale Ligure, Liguria, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Romeo and Juliet (1954), Two Cents Worth of Hope (1952) and Sotto il sole di Roma (1948). He died on December 28, 1985 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

15. Mario Soldati

Writer | La provinciale

Mario Soldati studied by the Jesuits and in the 1920s was acquainted with liberal intellectuals who gathered around Piero Gobetti. He wrote his first play ("Pilatus") when he was 18, and published hist first short story collection ("Salmace") in 1929. In 1935 he reached literary success with "...

16. Antonio Pietrangeli

Writer | Io la conoscevo bene

Antonio Pietrangeli was born on January 19, 1919 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for I Knew Her Well (1965), The Visit (1963) and March's Child (1958). He was married to Margherita Ferroni. He died on July 12, 1968 in Gaeta, Lazio, Italy.

17. Luigi Comencini

Writer | Voltati Eugenio

Luigi Comencini was born on June 8, 1916 in Salò, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Voltati Eugenio (1980), Everybody Go Home! (1960) and Bread, Love and Dreams (1953). He was married to Giulia Grifeo. He died on April 6, 2007 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

18. Vittorio Cottafavi

Director | Traviata '53

The son of an army officer and landowner, Cottafavi (christened Benedetto Vittorio Emmanuele Secondo) was already endowed with a university education in law, philosophy and literature by the time he graduated from the famous Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome in 1938.

He began his ...

19. Dino Risi

Director | Il sorpasso

Dino Risi became a movie director by chance. In 1940 he met Alberto Lattuada at a friend's boutique. Lattuada told him they needed an assistant director for the movie Piccolo mondo antico (1941). Risi accepted just for fun, not for work. Later, he became a psychiatrist and wrote some articles for a...

20. Mauro Bolognini

Director | Madamigella di Maupin

Mauro Bolognini was born on February 28, 1922 in Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Madamigella di Maupin (1966), Mosca addio (1987) and Careless (1962). He died on May 14, 2001 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

21. Francesco Rosi

Writer | Cadaveri eccellenti

His father was a shipowner. After school, Rosi initially began studying law, which he soon dropped out to work as a broadcast journalist and book illustrator in Naples. From 1944 to 1945 he worked for "Radio Napoli". In the immediate post-war years, Rosi moved to Rome, where he came into contact ...

22. Florestano Vancini

Director | Le stagioni del nostro amore

Florestano Vancini was born on August 24, 1926 in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Seasons of Our Love (1966), It Happened in '43 (1960) and The Assassination of Matteotti (1973). He was married to Liliana Ferrari. He died on September 18, 2008 in Rome, Lazio,...

23. Valerio Zurlini

Writer | Cronaca familiare

Valerio Zurlini was born on March 19, 1926. During his law studies in Rome, he started working in the theatre. In 1943, he joined the Italian resistance. Zurlini became a member of the Italian Communist Party. He filmed short documentaries in the immediate post-war period and in 1954 directed his ...

24. Ermanno Olmi

Director | L'albero degli zoccoli

Ermanno Olmi was born on July 24, 1931 in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978), The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988) and Il posto (1961). He was married to Loredana Detto. He died on May 5, 2018 in Asiago, Veneto, Italy.

25. Pier Paolo Pasolini

Writer | Il Decameron

Pier Paolo Pasolini achieved fame and notoriety long before he entered the film industry. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. His first film Accattone (1961) was based on his own novel and its violent depiction of the life ...

26. Tinto Brass

Writer | La vacanza

Giovanni Brass was born on 26 March 1933 into the family of a famous artist, Italico Brass, who was his grandfather. Italico gave his grandson a nickname "Tintoretto," which Giovanni later adapted into his cinematic name, Tinto Brass.

Tinto inherited his grandfather's artistic skills, but he applied...

27. Marco Ferreri

Writer | Storie di ordinaria follia

Marco Ferreri was born on May 11, 1928 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981), L'udienza (1972) and El cochecito (1960). He was married to Jacqueline Ferreri. He died on May 9, 1997 in Paris, France.

28. Marco Bellocchio

Writer | Il traditore

Marco Bellocchio is one of the most consistent and most adventurous of today's Italian directors-an achievement all the more remarkable given that he made his feature debut almost fifty years ago. Over those years, he has amassed a body of films that encompasses a large number of original ...

29. Carlo Lizzani

Director | Banditi a Milano

Carlo Lizzani was born on April 3, 1922 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Violent Four (1968), Chronicle of Poor Lovers (1954) and Celluloide (1996). He was married to Edith Bieber. He died on October 5, 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

30. Gillo Pontecorvo

Director | La battaglia di Algeri

Gillo Pontecorvo was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for his 1966 masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers, widely viewed as one of the finest films of its genre: realistic though fictionalized documentary. Its portrayal of the Algerian resistance during the Algerian War uses the neorealist style ...

31. Elio Petri

Writer | Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto

Elio Petri was born on January 29, 1929 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970), We Still Kill the Old Way (1967) and His Days Are Numbered (1962). He was married to Paola Pegoraro. He died on November 10, 1982 in Rome, Lazio,...

32. Bernardo Bertolucci

Writer | Il conformista

Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films were known for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy. He attended Rome University and became famous as a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film Accattone (1961) and directed The Grim Reaper (...

33. Vittorio De Seta

Director | Banditi a Orgosolo

Vittorio De Seta was born on October 15, 1923 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Bandits of Orgosolo (1961), Un uomo a metà (1966) and Islands of Fire (1955). He died on November 28, 2011 in Sellia Marina, Calabria, Italy.

34. Ettore Scola

Writer | Una giornata particolare

Ettore Scola was born on May 10, 1931 in Trevico, Campania, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for A Special Day (1977), The Family (1987) and Passion of Love (1981). He was married to Gigliola. He died on January 19, 2016 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

35. Luciano Salce

Director | Colpo di stato

Luciano Salce was born on September 25, 1922 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was an actor and director, known for Colpo di stato (1969), La voglia matta (1962) and Alla mia cara mamma nel giorno del suo compleanno (1974). He was married to Jole Bertolazzi and Diletta D'Andrea. He died on December 17, ...

36. Paolo Taviani

Director | La notte di San Lorenzo

Paolo Taviani studied liberal arts at the University of Pisa, becoming interested in the cinema after seeing Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946). After writing and directing short films and plays with his brother Vittorio, he made his first feature in 1962. The brothers have continued to work ...

37. Vittorio Taviani