The 95th Academy Awards took place Sunday night, March 12th, at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, Ca, where movies released in 2022 will be honored. A number of Italian actors, screenwriters, and hair and makeup artists, as well as Italian language films, were nominated for a 2023 Oscar.
Take a look below at the nominated Italians and Italian movies for the 95th Academy Awards.
“Le Pupille” by Alice Rohrwacher
Alice Rohrwacher’s short film “Le Pupille” was nominated for a 2023 Oscar in the short film categories. The roughly 38-minute short film is set in a Catholic girls’ orphanage in World War II- Italy during Christmas. The plot centers around a zuppa inglese, a luxurious dessert made with custard, sponge cake, and lots of eggs, that is baked and brought to the orphanage by a neighbor as a Christmas gift for the nuns and their wards. However, the orphans are forced by the strict mother superior to sacrifice their slices of cake to God. Rochrwacher, an Italian screenwriter, producer, and director, said “Le Pupille” is “dedicated to all the naughty girls.”
According to a review by the The New Yorker, the movie “packs a panoply of whimsical incidents and delightfully decorative images into its thirty-eight minutes, but its wide-ranging cast of characters—nuns and supplicants, laborers and clergymen—evoke a world of troubles, such as poverty, wartime fears, and religious dogmatism, alongside the children’s vital energies and complex yearnings.”
Take a look at the trailer for “ Le Pupille,” which can be streamed on Disney+ and Hulu..
Aldo Signoretti’s work as makeup artist for “Elvis.”
Legendary Rome-born makeup and hair artist Signoretti was nominated for a 2023 Academy Award for Best Makeup for being part of the hair and makeup team on Baz Luhrman’s biopic “Elvis.” This is Signoretti’s fourth time being nominated for an Oscar for his hairstyle and makeup skills. He was first nominated in 2001 for Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge,” in 2006 for Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto,” and again in 2010 for Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo.”.
Aldo Signoretti working on makeup for the actresses on Elvis (Photo Credit: corriere.it)
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“Nostalgia” by Mario Mortone.
Neapolitan director Mario Mortone’s film “Nostalgia” was nominated for a 2023 Oscar in the best international feature film category. The movie stars Pierfrancesco Favino, an Italian actor who has appeared in dozens of American and European films including “World War Z,”(2013) and “Angels and Demons'' (2009). Favino plays Felice, a businessman who after spending nearly 40 years abroad in Lebanon and Egypt, returns home to Naples. Felice has a complicated relationship with the city, and among flashbacks of his youth, meets the priest Don Luigi who is attempting to fight the Camorra, a Campania-based Mafia criminal organization.
According to a review by The New York Times, “the Italian director Mario Martone creates an expressive, economic depiction of crime and longing in this drama about a man coming home to Naples.”
Take a look at the trailer for Mortone’s “Nostalgia.”
Asia London Palomba
Asia London Palomba is a trilingual freelance journalist from Rome, Italy. In the past, her work on culture, travel, and history has been published in The Boston Globe, Atlas Obscura, The Christian Science Monitor, and Grub Street, New York Magazine's food section. In her free time, Asia enjoys traveling home to Italy to spend time with family and friends, drinking Hugo Spritzes, and making her nonna's homemade cavatelli.