David di Donatello Awards

David di Donatello Awards
The Italian former President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi shows the "David di Donatello" Award received at the occasion of the awards ceremony in 2005
Awarded for	The best of Italian and foreign motion picture productions
Date	1955
Country	Italy
Presented by	Accademia del Cinema Italiano (Academy of Italian Cinema)
First awarded	1956
Official website	www.daviddidonatello.it

The David di Donatello Award, named after Donatello's David, is a film award presented each year for cinematic performances and production by L'accademia del Cinema Italiano (ACI) (English: The Academy of Italian Cinema). There are 24 categories as of 2006. Italy is also famed for its annual Venice Film Festival.

It is the motion picture equivalent to the Academy Award for the cinema, Premio Regia Televisiva for television, the Premio Ubu for stage performances, and the Sanremo Music Festival for music.

Following the same criteria of the Oscars, the David di Donatello Awards (known by the moniker "Donatellos") were established in 1955 and first awarded in Rome on July 5, 1956. Created by a cultural club (then called The Open Gate), the aim was to honour the best of each year’s Italian and foreign films.

Similar prizes had already existed in Italy for about a decade (for example, the Silver Ribbons), but these were voted for by film critics and journalists. However, the Donatellos have been and are awarded by the people in the industry: screenwriters, performers, technicians, producers and so on.

After Rome, from 1957 to 1980, the ceremonies were held at the Greek Theatre in Taormina, during Taormina Film Fest, then twice in Florence, and finally returned to Rome, always with the support of the President of the Republic and now with the collaboration of the Rome City Council Cultural Policies Department. During the years the ceremony was held in Taormina during the 1950s, it was organized by journalist and film producer Michael Stern who later went on to found The Michael Stern Parkinson's Research Foundation in New York City.

The founding organization, now called the David di Donatello Organization is fully functional and works in concert with and thanks to the contribution of the Italian Ministry of the Performing Arts and the Ministry for Cultural Properties and Activities.

The presidents have successively been Italo Gemini (the founder), Eitel Monaco and Paolo Grassi. Currently, it is presided over by Gian Luigi Rondi who has worked with the organization since its inception.

The prizes are awarded primarily to Italian films, with a category dedicated to foreign language films.

In 2015, it was announced that both the eligibility period and the award ceremony date would change in the coming years. In 2016, the ceremony was brought forward to April. For the 2017 ceremony, the eligibility period will be March-December 2016. For the 2018 edition, the eligibility period will be the 2017 solar year (January to December).