Italian director, Lina Wertmüller, honored at the Governors Awards
Amidst a star-studded Governors Awards ceremony on October 20, 91-year-old Italian director and filmmaker Lina Wertmüller made history, becoming the first woman to receive an Honorary Academy Award for the provocative and ironic films she produced throughout her career.
Wertmüller is best known for films like “The Seduction of Mimi” (1972), “Love and Anarchy” (1973) and “Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August” (1974). She was the first woman nominated for Best Director after her film “Seven Beauties” in 1976, which also led to a nomination for the Best Original Screenplay.
Many of Wertmüller’s movies showcased her true love and adoration of Italy with complex and colorful scenes shot in a theatrical cinematic style.
“Her filmmaking is personal, specific and idiosyncratic but also global cinema in the truest sense – they are epic and take place on a vast stage which translates to viewers around the world. Her movies deserve to be 30 feet tall,” tweeted Greta Gerwig, director of upcoming film “Little Women.”
Wearing her signature white-rimmed glasses, Wertmüller was introduced on stage by Italian actress Sophia Loren following a tribute from both Gerwig and New Zealand director Jane Campion (two of four women who have since been nominated for Best Director since Wertmüller).
After their speeches Wertmüller wasted no time to say a few words, in her classically charismatic style. She also noted that the name of the “Oscar” award was male, and criticized the name’s connotations in the context of the film industry’s history of discrimination and sexism.
“This Oscar is chauvinist in itself, we should change its name to Anna,” she announced through her translator. Later she said, “I dedicate the Oscar to my husband Enrico, to my daughter Maria Zulina, who came to me very well. And I thank America. America is a serious thing, we are a small boot, this is a continent, there is no proportion, so I thank America, all those who loved my films, who are all like my children. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of passion. And now I greet you, but you have to shout all together: we want an Oscar called Anna.”
Becca Most
