Gianfranco Rosi (; born 30 November 1963) is an Italian-American

documentary filmmaker A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

. His 2013 film ''

Sacro GRA ''Sacro GRA'' (, Italian language, Italian for "Holy Grande Raccordo Anulare, GRA") is a 2013 Italian documentary film directed by Gianfranco Rosi (director), Gianfranco Rosi. It won the Golden Lion at the 70th Venice International Film Festival. ...

'' won the Golden Lion at the 70th Venice Film Festival, while his 2016 film ''

Fire at Sea ''Fire at Sea'' ( it, Fuocoammare) is a 2016 Italian documentary film directed by Gianfranco Rosi. It won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature ...

'' won the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. History The win ...

at the 66th Berlin Film Festival. Rosi is the only documentary filmmaker to win two highest awards at the three major European film festivals (Venice, Berlin, and

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

) and is the only director besides

Michael Haneke Michael Haneke (; born 23 March 1942) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. His work often examines social issues and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has made films in French, G ...

Ang Lee Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popula ...

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty ('' Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessn ...

, and

Jafar Panahi Jafar Panâhi ( fa, جعفر پناهی, ; born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly associated with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an ass ...

to do so in the 21st century. He was also nominated for an

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

for ''Fire at Sea''.

Early life

Gianfranco Rosi was born in 1963 in Asmara, then

Ethiopian Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...

–occupied Eritrea. His Italian father worked there as foreign section manager for a bank owned by the IRI. Because of the threat posed by the ongoing

Eritrean War of Independence The Eritrean War of Independence was a war for independence which Eritrean independence fighters waged against successive Ethiopian governments from 1 September 1961 to 24 May 1991. Eritrea was an Italian colony from the 1880s until the ...

, his parents brought him back in Italy when he was 11. He grew up in Italy and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. At age 19, Rosi dropped out from

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

, where he was studying medicine, to attend the

New York University Film School The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the ar ...

. He stayed in the United States, eventually gaining

dual citizenship Multiple/dual citizenship (or multiple/dual nationality) is a legal status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a national or citizen of more than one country under the laws of those countries. Conceptually, citizenship is focused on ...

Career

After graduation, Rosi found his first feature project after being told that Miami, where he shot his student film, reminded of

Benares Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic tra ...

, the holy city in India where

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

go to die. He spent five years there documenting life around the banks of the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

, resulting in ''Boatman'' (1993), which was presented at various international film festivals, including Sundance,

Locarno , neighboring_municipalities= Ascona, Avegno, Cadenazzo, Cugnasco, Gerra (Verzasca), Gambarogno, Gordola, Lavertezzo, Losone, Minusio, Muralto, Orselina, Tegna, Tenero-Contra , twintowns =* Gagra, Georgia * Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, and the

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam. Over a period of twelve days, it has screened more than 300 films and sold more than 250,000 tic ...

. His next feature film ''Below Sea Level'' was shot over the course of four years among the residents of the unincorporated community of Slab City, California. It won the Best Documentary Award of the Orizzonti section at the 2008 Venice Film Festival. Gianfranco Rosi

Having befriended author Charles Bowden during the production of ''Below Sea Level'', Rosi was offered to make a film from his 2009 '' Harper's Magazine'' article ''The Sicario'' and directed '' El Sicario, Room 164'', a face-to-face conversation with a

Juárez Cartel The Juárez Cartel (Spanish: ''Cártel de Juárez''), also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, across the Mexico—U.S. border from El Paso, Texas. The cartel is one of ...

sicario claiming over 200 killings. It premiered in competition in the Orizzonti section at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. Rosi then came back to Italy to work on ''

'' (2013), for which he lived for almost three years in a trailer near the

Grande Raccordo Anulare The GRA or Grande Raccordo Anulare (literally, "Great Ring Junction") is a toll-free, ring-shaped long orbital motorway that encircles Rome. GRA is one of the most important roads in Rome, and traffic reaches 160,000 vehicles per day as of 20 ...

, a circular ring road

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

encompassing the center of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, documenting the stories of people around it. The film was the first documentary film to be entered in the main competition at the Venice International Film Festival and ended up winning the Golden Lion, its highest award, becoming both the first documentary in Venice's history and the first Italian film in 15 years to receive the award. Next,

Istituto Luce The Istituto Luce (translation: "Light Institute", with Luce being the acronym for "L’Unione Cinematografica Educativa", i.e. "The Educational Film Union") was an Italian film corporation, created in 1924 during the Fascist era. The Institute, ...

approached him to make a short film about the 2013 migrant shipwreck off the Italian island of

Lampedusa Lampedusa ( , , ; scn, Lampidusa ; grc, Λοπαδοῦσσα and Λοπαδοῦσα and Λοπαδυῦσσα, Lopadoûssa; mt, Lampeduża) is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The ''comune'' of L ...

, but Rosi soon scrapped the project for a full-length documentary on Italy's treatment of the ongoing

European migrant crisis The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the continent to reques ...

. He shot ''

'' (2016) for almost a year in Lampedusa, focusing on the crisis as seen through the people of the island, such as 12-years old Samuele and migrants' doctor Pietro Bartolo. It was entered in competition at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, winning once again the festival's highest award, the

, and receiving widespread international critical acclaim upon its release. The film was the first documentary submitted by Italy for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film category, although it didn't make the final shortlist, and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards. It also won the European Film Award for Best Documentary. His next film '' Notturno'' (2020) was shot over the course of three years among those living in war zones between Syria,

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages ...

, and

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

. It premiered in competition at the

77th Venice International Film Festival The 77th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 2 to 12 September 2020, albeit in a "more restrained format" due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Australian actress Cate Blanchett was appointed as the President of the Jury. '' The Ti ...

Personal life

Rosi has a daughter, Emma (born ), from a previous marriage ended in the late 2000s.

Filmography

Feature films

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosi, Gianfranco 1963 births Living people People from Asmara Italian documentary film directors Italian cinematographers Italian film producers Italian audio engineers Tisch School of the Arts alumni University of Pisa alumni Italian documentary filmmakers Directors of Golden Bear winners Directors of Golden Lion winners Eritrean people of Italian descent Eritrean emigrants to Italy European Film Awards winners (people) Italian emigrants to the United States People with acquired American citizenship