Unsurprisingly, Giuseppe Tornatore's dark drama La Sconosciuta / The Unknown Woman was the top winner at this year's Nastri d'Argento (Silver Ribbons) presented by the National Union of Italian Film Journalists at the Teatro Antico di Taormina, Sicily, this past June 23. Even so, as was the case at the Italian Academy's David di Donatello ceremony a week or so earlier, no particular film dominated the awards.
La Sconosciuta, the story of a mysterious foreigner (Ksenia Rappoport) who finds employment at the house of an Italian family, won Tornatore the best director award (there's no Nastro d'Argento for best film), in addition to awards for best supporting actor (Alessandro Haber, also for Le rose del deserto / The Roses of the Desert) and best composer (Ennio Morricone).
Neither the Italian Film Academy nor the Italian Film Journalists hand out awards according to the calendar year. Making things more complicated, both organizations have different qualifying periods for its nominees. As a result, films that were in competition for the 2006 David di Donatello were in the running for several Nastri this year. (By the same token, several films nominated for this year's David will only show up at next year's Nastri d'Argento nominations.)
Thus, the anti-Silvio Berlusconi Il Caimano / The Cayman, winner of the 2006 David, won Nastri for producers Angelo Barbagallo and Nanni Moretti (who also directed), actress Margherita Buy (also for Saturno contro / Saturn in Opposition), and actor Silvio Orlando.
Pedro Almodóvar's mothers-and-daughters comedy-drama Volver was chosen best European film, while Clint Eastwood's World War II drama Letters from Iwo Jima won the best foreign film award.
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