Roberto Herlitzka

Winner of the FIPRESCI award, this haunting portmanteau from director Marco Bellocchio is a shrewd social commentary steeped in striking gothic imagery. Set in a convent-prison, the film shifts from past to present, crafting a story that is a love letter to Italy’s past and a critique of its stasis.

Lina Wertmuller became the first woman ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director in this picaresque film about an Italian small-time crook whose ill-fated pursuits land him in jail, then a psych ward, then the army, and finally a German prison camp. "Seven Beauties" was also nominated for three more Academy Awards as well as received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film.

Three Italian pensioners in their seventies decide to leave their lifelong, comfortable neighborhood in Rome behind for the unfamiliar abroad.