JULY 22
Biography
Born on March 25, 1982 in Palermo, Francesco Scianna has achieved international fame thanks to the film "Baària" by Giuseppe Tornatore, selected for the Academy Awards of that year. He then stengthened his success with "Vallanzasca" by Michele Placido, presented at the Venice Film Festival. In the film, Scianna plays the criminal Francis Turatello. After the great appreciation, by critics and public, of the fiction "Le cose che restano" by Gianluca Tavarelli, broadcast on Rai Uno with almost 12 million viewers, Francesco returned to cinema with the film by Giuliano Montaldo, "L’industriale", and with "Itaker" directed by Tony Trupia, for which he was nominated for the Nastri D’Argento as Best Actor. His film career continues alongside Valeria Golino in "Come il Vento" by Marco Simon Puccioni, and with "Allacciate le cinture" by Ferzan Özpetek. In autumn he was back on Canale 5 with the tv movie "Ti amo troppo per dirtelo", directed by Marco Ponti, along with Carolina Crescentini and Jasmine Trinca, while in theaters he is still protagonist with "Latin Lover" (directed by Cristina Comencini), "Una storia sbagliata" (directed by Gianluca Tavarelli together with Isabella Ragonese) and "I Milionari", directed by Alessandro Piva.
After the end of the second season of the show "Betrayal" by Harold Pinter, directed by Michele Placido, on September 29 he hit theaters with the American blockbuster "Ben Hur" together with Morgan Freeman. After working with Marco Bellocchio in "Fai bei sogni", on March 21 he was again in theaters with the film "Mary Magdalene", another American production with Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix, directed by Garth Davis. Another great success on TV was the series, aired on Raiuno, "La Mafia uccide solo d’estate", directed by Luca Ribuoli. On April 26 he was back again on Rai Uno with the second season that turned out to be a massive hit. He gave another great performance also by Kim Rossi Stuart’s side in the series "Il Commissario Maltese", directed by Gianluca Tavarelli, in the role of the journalist Mauro Licata, a figure freely inspired by that of Mauro Rostagno, who died at the hands of mafia.
PHOTO CREDITS: Giovanni Gastel