Daria D’Antonio CCS received the Best Director of Photography Award as part of the first edition of ELLE BNP Paribas Women in Venice, an initiative dedicated to women whose talent and vision, both in front of and behind the camera, contribute to shaping contemporary cinema.
The award recognises a visual approach that combines rigour and sensitivity, using light to give texture and presence to faces, bodies and spaces. It reflects a consistent artistic vision developed over a career that has seen Daria D’Antonio work with some of the most significant voices in Italian cinema.
Having developed professionally alongside Luca Bigazzi CCS, Daria D’Antonio has forged her own path, collaborating with the likes of Cristina Comencini, Jasmine Trinca, Pietro Marcello, and Damiano Michieletto. Particularly significant is her partnership with Paolo Sorrentino, for whom she served as cinematographer on The Hand of God, Parthenope, and La grazia.
It was with The Hand of God, in 2022, that she became the first woman to win the David di Donatello for Best Cinematography, marking an important breakthrough in a profession in which women remain significantly underrepresented. An achievement whose significance extended beyond her own career, helping to bring greater visibility to women working in the technical and creative departments of the film industry.
Over the past season, Daria D’Antonio has shot Paolo Sorrentino’s La grazia — for which she won the Nastro d’Argento for Best Cinematography — and Damiano Michieletto’s Primavera. In the former, she creates a restrained visual language deeply attuned to the characters’ inner conflicts; in the latter, she shapes a female world defined by chiaroscuro, painterly reds and a quality of light that evokes eighteenth-century Venice.
Daria D’Antonio is also present at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival with Francesca Archibugi’s Carla Lonzi, dentro e fuori dal mondo, a documentary selected as a Special Event at Giornate degli Autori.
The ELLE BNP Paribas Women in Venice Award recognises not only a firmly established cinematic talent, but also a career that has made a tangible contribution to breaking down barriers and opening up new opportunities for women working in cinematography.
Watch the thank-you video: https://www.instagram.com/reels/Dc1wha5osfj/
Collettivo Chiaroscuro congratulates… Daria D’Antonio CCS on this important new recognition. Echoing her acceptance speech, in which she expressed the hope that more and more women will work behind the camera, broadening our cultural horizons through a plurality of perspectives, we would also like to highlight that there are now thirteen female cinematographers among the CCS associate members: Francesca Amitrano, Vittoria Campaner, Valentina Caniglia, Camilla Cattabriga, Martina Cocco, Eleonora Contessi, Daria D’Antonio, Maura Morales Bergmann (Vice-President), Sara Purgatorio (Board Member), Lucia Rinaldi, Claudia Sicuranza, Debora Vrizzi e Francesca ZonarsProfessionals from different generations and with different career paths, united by a personal approach to image-making and by work spanning film, documentary, television and international productions.
