The 21st edition of the Rome Film Festival will introduce the Banca Ifis Music Award, a new and important honour celebrating the inseparable relationship between music and cinema. The first recipient of the award will be Oscar®-winning composer Nicola Piovani, one of the most distinguished figures in Italian and international music. He will receive the award during the Festival’s opening ceremony on Tuesday 13 October.
The award has been established through a collaboration between Banca Ifis, Fondazione Cinema per Roma and Fondazione Musica per Roma, with the aim of highlighting the contribution of music to film culture and recognising the work of composers whose works have helped shape the identity and lasting memory of numerous films.
The choice of Nicola Piovani recognises a remarkable career spanning decades. Throughout his career, he has written more than 250 film scores, working with some of the leading figures in Italian cinema, including Marco Bellocchio, Mario Monicelli, the Taviani brothers, Giuseppe Tornatore, Gabriele Muccino and Gianni Amelio, as well as internationally acclaimed directors such as Dušan Makavejev, Jos Stelling, John Irvin, Bigas Luna and Sergei Bodrov.
Among the many accolades he has received over the course of his long career, one of the most prestigious is the 1999 Academy Award® for Best Original Dramatic Score for Life Is Beautiful, directed by Roberto Benigni. Piovani has also received several David di Donatello awards, including those for Dear Diary and The Son’s Room, both directed by Nanni Moretti, The De Filippo Siblings, directed by Sergio Rubini, and Ginger and Fred, directed by Federico Fellini. With the celebrated Rimini-born filmmaker, Piovani also collaborated on the scores for The Voice of the Moon and Interview.
Particularly significant is Piovani’s professional and personal relationship with Marco Bellocchio, who will present him with the award. Their collaboration dates back to the early 1970s and has continued for more than five decades, accompanying some of the most important stages of Bellocchio’s filmography. Piovani composed the scores for Slap the Monster on Page One, In the Name of the Father and Victory March, before returning to collaborate with Bellocchio on The Traitor, further demonstrating the enduring strength of an artistic partnership grounded in shared sensitivity and a commitment to expressive exploration.
The presentation of the first Banca Ifis Music Award therefore carries particular significance: it celebrates a central figure in film music while also recognising the fundamental role of composition in shaping the identity of an audiovisual work.
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