Gianni DiGregorio

Gianni Di Gregorio was born in Rome, Italy, in the popular Trastevere neighborhood, on February 19, 1949, where he still lives and works today. As a child he loved movies, and after school he often went to the neighborhood cinema, where it was not uncommon for him to see three titles in a row at one sitting.

Although he began studies in Modern Literature at the University, he dropped out to study at the Roman Academy of Dramatic Art with Alessandro Fersen , where he obtained a degree in theater directing and acting. From there he would go on to work for three years in Fersen’s experimental theater company, which led to works such as “Leviathan”, presented at the Spoleto Festival in 1976.

His thing in the professional field seemed to be the theater, as an actor and assistant director. But according to his own account, the viewing of Mean Streets by Martin Scorsese would impact him to the point of leaving the stage to become an assistant film director, while he began to write scripts. The first to be made into a film was Sembra morto… ma è solo svenuto (1986).

In 2000 he began his collaboration as Matteo Garrone ‘s assistant director with Estate romana , which was followed by L’imbalsamatore (2002) and Primo amore (2004), and this made it easier for him to be credited as co-writer of the Cannes award-winning Gomorrah (2007) . ).

In 2008 the moment of truth arrives, to get behind the camera as a director. He is almost sixty years old, that is, it takes courage, rewarded with the David de Donatello for best new director. The fact is that he surprises and pleases with a minimalist film like Ferragosto Holidays , where Garrone produces, and we follow the vicissitudes of a character played by himself, who in the hot Roman summer must take care of his elderly mother. For this role, he recruited Valeria De Franciscis , a ninety-year-old debutante, who will repeat in Di Gregorio’s next film, Gianni y sus mujeres by him, modeled by the same pattern, although less round.