Birthday of Giuseppe Tornatore

May 27 marks the 65th anniversary of the outstanding Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore. Giuseppe Tornatore was born in the small town of Bagheria in the north of the island of Sicily, the son of a trade unionist, one of the leaders of the Italian General Confederation of Labor. Giuseppe's interest in theater and cinema manifested itself in early childhood, and already at school, at the age of 16, he tried his hand as a director of amateur performances.

After graduating from high school, he studied at the literary faculty of the University of Palermo. At the age of 23, he was elected municipal deputy of his hometown from the Italian Communist Party. Then he began to try his hand at documentary films. At the age of 30, Tornatore directed his first full-length feature film "Il camorrista (The Professor)", based on Giuseppe Marazzo's investigative journalism into the activities of the famous Camorra boss Raffaele Cutolo.

By his 65th birthday, Giuseppe Tornatore has 12 full-length feature films on his account, not counting documentaries, video and television films. 4 of these 12 films were included in the Golden Thousand, thanks to which Giuseppe Tornatore was included in the list of the 100 greatest directors of world cinema, compiled by FilmGourmand.

Giuseppe Tornatore's directorial activity was marked by 56 film awards, of which the most prestigious are the British BAFTA Award, the Grand Prix of the Jury of the Cannes International Film Festival, the Special Prize of the European Film Academy, the Silver Saint George of the Moscow International Film Festival, the Grand Prix of the Jury and the Pasinetti Prize of the Venice International Film Festival as well as 4 David di Donatello awards.

As usual, in honor of the birthday of the outstanding director, we would like to remind fans of his work with shots from his best movies included in the Golden Thousand.