biography

Giovanna Mezzogiorno was born in Rome on 9 November 1974, the daughter of actors Vittorio Mezzogiorno and Cecilia Sacchi. Attracted to acting, she trained in Paris at the theater workshop of director Peter Brook at the Centre International de Créations Théâtrales. Brook directed her stage debut of the Bouffes du Nord in the 1995-96 season with the play: Qui est là, based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where she played Ophelia. In 1997 she made her film debut with Sergio Rubini’s The Bride’s Journey, which opened the Midnight section of the 54th Venice International Film Festival and immediately earned her the Targa d’Argento Award for “New Talents of Italian Cinema” at the Grolle d’Oro, as well as the Foreign Press Golden Globe and the Flaiano International Award as Best Female Performer. The following year, with Michele Placido’s Del perduto amore (Of Lost Love), presented out of competition in Venice, she won the Silver Ribbon, the Golden Ciak and the Pasinetti Award as Best Actress in a Leading Role. This was followed by performances in Antonello Grimaldi’s Asini (1999), Maurizio Zaccaro’s A Respectable Man (1999), Eros Puglielli’s All the Knowledge in the World (2000) and Gabriele Muccino’s The Last Kiss (2000), which earned her the Flaiano International Award for Best Female Performance.

In 2002, in The Cruelest Day by Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani, she reconstructs the tragic story of Rai journalist Ilaria Alpi murdered in Mogadishu. In addition to confirming her interest in stories featuring determined female protagonists coupled with a passion for a cinema supporting social engagement, her performance earned her a second Silver Ribbon as Best Actress in a Leading Role. In the same year, she began an important professional partnership with Ferzan Ozpetek, starring in Facing Windows, for witch she won: a David di Donatello, a Silver Ribbon, an Italian Golden Globe and the Best Actress Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The two would meet again in 2017 with Naples in Veils, which earned her the Silver George Award for Best Actress at the 40th Moscow International Film Festival. Her third Ribbon came instead with 2003’s Love Returns, where she co-starred again with Sergio Rubini. In 2005 she returned to the Venice Film Festival with Cristina Comencini’s Don’t Tell, an emotionally intense family drama that earned her the Volpi Cup for Best Female Performance.

She later returned to theater acting in Sarah Kane’s monologue 4.48 Psychosis, directed by Piero Maccarinelli, and in Jon Fosse’s Sogno d’autunno, directed by Valerio Binasco. Her first appearances on television also arrived, with Elisabetta Lodoli’s Più leggero non basta (1998), Josée Dayan’s Les Miserables (2000), Giacomo Battiato’s Entrusted (2002), Alberto Sironi’s Virginia (2004), then continuing with Saverio Costanzo’s In Treatment 3 (2017) up until Francesco Miccichè’s Io ricordo, Piazza Fontana (2019).

Continuing on her career in film, she worked with directors such as Francesca Archibugi (Flying Lessons, 2007), Davide Marengo (Night Bus, 2007), Mike Newell (Love in the Time of Cholera, 2007) and Wim Wenders (Palermo Shooting, 2007). Above all, Marco Bellocchio gave her one of her most important roles with Vincere; in fact, she won, among others, the Silver Ribbon and the Italian Golden Globe as Best Italian Actress, the Silver Hugo for Best Actress at the 45th Chicago International Film Festival, the 2010 Best Actress Award from the U.S. Film Critics Association and the 2011 Sant Jordi as Best Foreign Actress in Spain.

In 2009 she participated, as co-producer and narrator, in the documentary about her father Vittorio: Negli occhi by Daniele Anzellotti and Francesco Del Grosso, which received a Special Mention by the Jury in the Controcampo Italiano section at the 66th Venice Film Festival. This was followed by Renato De Maria’s The Front Line and, in 2010, Rocco Papaleo’s directorial debut with the brilliant Basilicata coast to coast. These were years in which her versatility allowed her to diversify her repertoire, moving from portrayals in dramatic roles as in Ivano De Matteo’s The Dinner (2014), Gianni Amelio’s Tenderness (2016), Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli’s The Time of Indifference (2019, based on Moravia) and Daniele Luchetti’s The Ties (2019) to comedies like Luca Lucini’s How to Grow Up Despite You Parents (2016). During this time, she strengthened some significant artistic partnerships, such as with the aforementioned Ozpetek and with Cristina Comencini in Feel your memories (2019). In 2023 she made her debut as a director and screenwriter with the short film Unfitting, which won the 2024 Italian Golden Globe for Best Short Film and the 2024 Woman In Cinema Award at the 81st Venice Film Festival. A year later came yet another debut, this time as a writer, with the book Ti racconto il mio cinema (Let Me Tell You About My Cinema), published by Mondadori Libri per Ragazzi, receiving the International Flaiano Special Award 2024.

As a versatile artist active across multiple markets, in 2014 she was awarded as a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French Ministry of Culture.

foto di Gianmarco Chieregato – courtesy Saverio Ferragina