Paolo Virzì

Before becoming one of the premier modern voices in the commedia all'italiana, or "Italian-style comedy," Italian filmmaker Paolo Virzì grew up in the lower-class town of Livorno, a coastal town in Tuscany, with his father, a police officer, and his mother, a singer. As a young boy, his passion for the coming-of-age tales of Mark Twain inspired what would later become his trademark style of intimate and personal stories with a comedic edge. Virzì quickly developed an interest in writing and directing his own material, and while still a teenager he met Francesco Bruni, with whom he formed a screenwriting duo that has lasted throughout all of Virzì's projects. He burst onto the scene with his 1994 directorial debut "The Beautiful Life," a film that won tremendous acclaim at the Venice International Film Festival, along with the Silver Ribbon award and the Best New Director David di Donatallo award. And Virzì hasn't stopped wowing the critics yet; he has continuously proven his talent for directing large ensembles of well-established performers and fresh faces in satirical comedies such as "Tutta la vita davanti." He stretched his dramatic chops with the 2010 critical darling "The First Beautiful Thing," a film following a family over the course of 40 years that was selected as Italy's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at that year's Academy Awards.