---
name: "Giuseppe Tornatore"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/giuseppe-tornatore"
fi1m_id: "giuseppe-tornatore"
imdb_id: "nm0868153"
tmdb_id: 65314
wikidata_id: "Q53045"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "27 May 1956"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-17T23:11:25.732062+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Giuseppe Tornatore

## Identity

Giuseppe Tornatore

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/giuseppe-tornatore
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** giuseppe-tornatore
- **IMDb ID:** nm0868153
- **TMDB ID:** 65314
- **Wikidata ID:** Q53045
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Tornatore, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q53045, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0868153/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/65314

Director. Born 27 May 1956 in Bagheria, Sicilia, Italia.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 27 May 1956, Bagheria, Sicilia, Italia
- **Also known as:** Peppuccio Tornatore
- **BAFTA Film Awards:** 2 BAFTAs (2 won)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Tornatore, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q53045, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0868153/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/65314

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Cinema Paradiso*](https://film.one/film/cinema-paradiso.md) (84)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Giuseppe Tornatore

> Giuseppe Tornatore is persuasive about the people and places we miss, particularly in *Cinema Paradiso*. We value his warmth and his work with actors; we are less convinced when the music insists on telling us how much to feel.

A boy’s attachment to a projectionist makes the village cinema in *Cinema Paradiso* (1988) matter before there is any need to miss it. Tornatore, who also wrote the screenplay, takes care to show the place serving a whole community. Salvatore Cascio and Philippe Noiret make the central friendship persuasive enough to withstand some determined encouragement towards tears. We were moved by that friendship because the affection between the boy and the older man feels sufficient without any help from nostalgia. This is Tornatore’s warmth at its most convincing.

*Cinema Paradiso* was his breakthrough, following his first feature, *Il camorrista* (1986), and remembered lives remained an important part of his work. *Malena* (2000) sets its coming-of-age story in Sicily during the Second World War; *Baaria* (2009) draws on his hometown and stretches across decades. But the English-language psychological drama *The Best Offer* (2013) is a useful reminder that his interests extend beyond recalling Sicily. That breadth matters, even if the village cinema remains our clearest reason to recommend him.

Ennio Morricone contributes much of the pleasure of *Cinema Paradiso*, as well as some of its excess. His romantic score suits the film’s affection, but it sometimes continues urging a response after Cascio and Noiret have already secured it. We wanted the music to leave them alone on those occasions; the actors need no further assistance. Morricone scored thirteen Tornatore features from 1988 onwards, and became the subject of the director’s documentary *Ennio* (2022).

We would not ask Tornatore to become a colder director. *Cinema Paradiso* is funny and tender because he takes a child’s attachment seriously, and his handling of Cascio is as important to its effect as the remembered setting. Start there, with a little tolerance for a director reluctant to let a tender moment pass quietly.

## Biography

Giuseppe Tornatore is an Italian film director and screenwriter. Born on 27 May 1956 in Bagheria, Sicily, he began his career as a freelance photographer before moving into documentary filmmaking. His first feature, *Il Camorrista* (1986), received the Nastro d'Argento for best new director.

Tornatore achieved international recognition with *Cinema Paradiso* (1988), which he wrote and directed. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He has maintained a long collaboration with composer Ennio Morricone on multiple projects.

His other notable films include *A Pure Formality* (1994), *The Legend of 1900* (1998), *Malena* (2000), *The Unknown Woman* (2006), *Baaria* (2009) and *The Best Offer* (2013). In 2007 he received the Silver George for Best Director at the Moscow International Film Festival for *The Unknown Woman*.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, allmovie.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Cinema Paradiso* (1988), Fi1m 84, as Projectionist (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/cinema-paradiso.md)

## Complete filmography (38)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Brunello: The Gracious Visionary* (2025), Director, Writer
- *Il camorrista - Una serie di Giuseppe Tornatore* (2025), series, Director, Writer, Creator
- *Steno* (2022), as Sé stesso
- *Ennio* (2022), Director, Screenplay, Story
- *All Star - Ritorno al cinema* (2021), as Proiezionista
- *Devotion* (2020), Director
- *Correspondence* (2016), Writer, Director
- *I Don't Know the Men of this City* (2015), Actor
- *Mafia Millionaires* (2014), Thanks
- *Tutte le storie di Piera* (2014), Actor
- *The Best Offer* (2013), Director, Writer
- *Il Mago di Esselunga* (2011), Director, Writer
- *L'ultimo gattopardo - Ritratto di Goffredo Lombardo* (2010), Director
- *Everybody's Fine* (2009), Original Film Writer
- *Baaria* (2009), Director, Writer
- *Franco Cristaldi e il suo cinema Paradiso* (2009), Actor
- *Intervista a Riccardo Freda sul suo cinema* (2007), Actor
- *The Unknown Woman* (2006), Director, Screenplay
- *Under a False Name* (2004), Thanks
- *Malena* (2000), Director, Screenplay
- *The Prince's Manuscript* (2000), Producer
- *The Legend of 1900* (1998), Director, Screenplay, Writer
- *Bakunin's Son* (1997), Producer
- *The Star Maker* (1995), Director, Story, Screenplay
- *Lo schermo a tre punte* (1995), Director, Screenplay
- *A Pure Formality* (1994), Director, Story, Screenplay, Editor
- *The King of Ads* (1991), Director
- *Especially on Sunday* (1991), Director, Adaptation
- *Everybody's Fine* (1990), Director, Writer
- *Cinema Paradiso* (1988), as Projectionist (uncredited) · Director, Screenplay, Story — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/cinema-paradiso.md)
- *The Professor* (1986), Director, Story, Screenplay
- *One Hundred Days in Palermo* (1984), Screenplay, Second Unit Director
- *Diario di Guttuso* (1982), Director
- *With Her Eyes*, Writer
- *Il sognatore indiscreto*, Director
- *Paradiso*, series, Director, Writer, Creator
- *The Kissing Sequence - Cinema Paradiso*, Actor
- *The First Dollar*, Director, Writer

## Gallery

- ![Giuseppe Tornatore](https://film.one/media/person/102548/gallery-6ab4e5208d97.jpg) Giuseppe Tornatore — Giuseppe Tornatore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Giuseppe_Tornatore.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Giuseppe Tornatore at the Cannes film festival (1994)](https://film.one/media/person/102548/gallery-f53c3b82023d.jpg) Giuseppe Tornatore at the Cannes film festival (1994) — Olivier Strecker, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/Giuseppe_Tornatore_Cannes_1994.jpg/1280px-Giuseppe_Tornatore_Cannes_1994.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Giuseppe Tornatore at the Cannes film festival (1994)](https://film.one/media/person/102548/gallery-6cc82b705b39.jpg) Giuseppe Tornatore at the Cannes film festival (1994) — Olivier Strecker, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Giuseppe_Tornatore_Cannes_1994_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-Giuseppe_Tornatore_Cannes_1994_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Giuseppe Tornatore, Leo Gullotta (2006)](https://film.one/media/person/102548/gallery-c9cc5b57b62f.jpg) Giuseppe Tornatore, Leo Gullotta (2006) — Alexander Galiano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Premio_Internazionale_Cinearti_%22La_Chioma_di_Berenice%22_%282006%29.jpg/1280px-Premio_Internazionale_Cinearti_%22La_Chioma_di_Berenice%22_%282006%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Giuseppe Tornatore](https://film.one/media/person/102548/gallery-69d35bcabda0.jpg) Giuseppe Tornatore — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### BAFTA Film Awards — 2 won

- 1990: Best Original Screenplay (won), for *Cinema Paradiso*
- 1990: Best Film Not in the English Language (won), for *Cinema Paradiso*

### Golden Globes — 1 won

- 1989: Best Non-English Language Film (won)

### Cannes Film Festival — 1 won

- 1989: Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix (won), for *Cinema Paradiso*

### Other awards — 3 won, 8 nominated

- European Film Award for Best Director 2013: European Film Award for Best Director (nominated), for *The Best Offer*
- European Film Award for Best Film 2013: European Film Award for Best Film (nominated), for *The Best Offer*
- European Film Award for Best Screenwriter 2013: European Film Award for Best Screenwriter (nominated), for *The Best Offer*
- European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film 2013: European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film (nominated), for *The Best Offer*
- European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film 2010: European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film (nominated), for *Baarìa*
- European Film Award for Best Director 2007: European Film Award for Best Director (nominated), for *The Unknown Woman*
- European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film 2007: European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film (won), for *The Unknown Woman*
- European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director 2001: European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director (nominated), for *Malèna*
- Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival 1995: Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival (won), for *The Star Maker*
- European Film Academy Special Jury Award 1989: European Film Academy Special Jury Award (won), for *Cinema Paradiso*
- Young European Film of the Year 1989: Young European Film of the Year (nominated), for *Cinema Paradiso*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/giuseppe-tornatore