The presentation of the candidates for the "David di Donatello" Awards for the year 2025 took place this morning at the Quirinale Palace, in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.

The ceremony, hosted by Geppi Cucciari, opened with the screening of a video produced by Rai Cultura, followed by a speech by Piera Detassis, President and Artistic Director of the Academy of Italian Cinema - David di Donatello Awards. The reading of the nominations for the "David di Donatello" Awards was interspersed with the performance of some pieces from international film soundtracks, performed by Rita MarcoTulli, on piano, and Carla MarcoTulli, on vocals. After the speech by the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, Cucciari interviewed the winner of the David for Lifetime Achievement, Pupi Avati, and the winner of the Cinecittà David 70 Award, Giuseppe Tornatore. The ceremony concluded with a speech by the President of the Republic.

Present were the nominees for the Awards, the President of the General Italian Association of Entertainment (AGIS), Francesco Giambrone, the President of the National Association of Cinematographic, Audiovisual and Digital Industries (ANICA), Alessandro Usai, as well as representatives of culture, entertainment and the film industry.
Before the ceremony began, President Detassis presented the Head of State with the David Speciale 70 award: "I thank the David Academy for awarding me the Special Award for the seventieth anniversary," she commented. " I trust that I was rather perplexed at the news, having very few merits to claim in the world of cinema. I accepted it only when I learned that it had been awarded to all my closest predecessors and I therefore perceived it as an award not addressed to the person of the President but to the institution of the Presidency of the Republic. An institution that understands the civil and cultural value of cinema and how it constitutes a precious and significant asset, not only for the economy and employment, but also for designing and promoting the Italian identity in our country and in the world."

" Culture and, in it, cinema, is capable of leaving traces beneath the surface. And therefore it can be a decisive tool, an ally of the freedom of individuals and communities in facing epochal change, in understanding it, and therefore living it without passively undergoing it. The awareness of one's roots and, together, the desire to innovate, to experiment with the new, are essential traits of cinema", said Mattarella. " A few years ago, it was feared that television, and then the web, the multiplication of platforms, would compress cinema, its language, its artistic and cultural role. Today we can see that cinema has won the challenge of interdependence or, if you like, of integration with other platforms, of "contamination" with other languages. It has developed new canons, invented new genres, has not remained the same, has been able to bring its narrative culture and the experience gained over the decades into a broader audiovisual system. This is a process that concerns the aesthetics of cinema, its narrative, but also the industrial part, from production to distribution, to the increasingly complex ways of fruition".

Cinema is "a sector that has an important and growing weight in the national economy. Also for this reason, while we appreciate the flourishing of new works - the David Award was born precisely for this, to encourage the dynamism of Italian production - we must also reflect on the open problems, identify the critical points of the system and find solutions that can help cinema overcome its difficulties". " This year too, it must be emphasized that movie theaters are suffering from a dangerous erosion that is taking them away from cities and neighborhoods. Objective circumstances penalize managers, but we cannot resign ourselves to commercial and market logics that do not take cinema into adequate consideration, also understood as a social value, as an opportunity to meet, to gather, to share. Institutions - both national and local - have the responsibility to govern these processes".

The awards ceremony will be held today, live in prime time on Rai1 starting at 9:40 pm, hosted by Elena Sofia Ricci and Mika.

(Online Union)

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