Roberto Rossellini

Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (Rome, May 8, 1906 – Rome, June 3, 1977) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was one of the most important directors in the history of Italian cinema, known worldwide for films such as “Rome, Open City” (1945), “Paisan” (1946), and “Germany, Year Zero” (1948), making him one of the fathers of neorealism. Throughout his career, he won several prestigious film awards, including the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and five Silver Ribbons, along with an Oscar nomination. Directors like François Truffaut and Martin Scorsese have acknowledged being influenced by Rossellini’s cinema, considering him a master, while Otto Preminger once said, “The history of cinema is divided into two eras: one before and one after ‘Rome, Open City’.”