Ninety years of diva Sophia Loren. The world famous actress will be celebrated today in Rome at The Space Moderno cinema on the initiative of the Italian Ministry of Culture, Cinecittà and Archivio Luce.
On the occasion, an unprecedented award will be presented to her by the Sottosegretario di Stato al Ministero della Cultura Lucia Borgonzoni and Chiara Sbarigia, President of Cinecittà.
The event is part of a series of initiatives that see her as a protagonist all over the world, from the Lincoln Center in New York through the Academy Motion Pictures in Los Angeles to Naples. The Academy museum in collaboration with Cinecittà has organised a retrospective of his films from November 7th to 30th 2024.
The Roman actress, Neapolitan by adoption, began her career at a very young age, first as an extra, then participating in various photostories, until the turning point: her meeting with Carlo Ponti, who later became her husband. In 1954 she took part in no less than ten films, including “Miseria e nobiltà”, “L’oro di Napoli” directed by Vittorio De Sica and “Peccato che sia una canaglia” by Alessandro Blasetti, which started her partnership with Marcello Mastroianni.
In the 1960s came her international breakthrough and she worked in Hollywood with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin and John Wayne.
In Italy, she worked with Ettore Scola, Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi and Vittorio De Sica, who, by entrusting her with the role of Cesira in “La Ciociara”, allowed her, at only twenty-five years of age, to win numerous awards.
Throughout her career Sophia Loren received nine David di Donatello awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999, a Coppa Volpi, a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice International Film Festival, a Grammy Award in 2004 and another Oscar nomination for Best Actress in “Marriage Italian Style”. In 1991 she was awarded an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.
Ninety years of success with the hope that her immense contribution to cinema will continue for a long time to come.
Photo credits: Jules Vogt, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/>, via Wikimedia Common, adapted size
