Dogman, Matteo Garrone's award-winning film, will be present at the ninety-first edition of the Oscars, and will represent Italian cinema. The ANICA commission has decided that it will be this film that has already been awarded and that has been very successful to represent us and the conditions are all there. Definitely, as it happened to Cannes , it will be the face full of wonder and healthy naivety of Marcello Fonte, protagonist of the film to act as frontman. It was in Cannes that Dogman received the award for best male interpretation at the festival, all well deserved. Dogman is a work inspired by a very controversial crime story that happened about thirty years ago.
Among the folds of the offended asphalt of the Magliana, the vague dark memory still lingers, of the grim crime story of the Canaro, which re-emerges in the film. Matteo Garrone, a director of indisputable talent, with an international flair, deserves the acclaim he is receiving and the support of the Italian public.
Dogman at the Oscars
The story shot by Matteo Garrone could have been written and shot anywhere else in the world. The protagonist, alone among the dogs, with the actor Edoardo Pesce for a friend, a term that is not exactly right, bully of the neighborhood, sets up a crazy plan. He has the idea of breaking into a neighbor's safe, but when the odds are reversed, the weak want revenge. In madness, he will rid the neighborhood of the villain, foolishly believing that he will become the hero of Magliana. Garrone with a past as a painter, maybe it took twelve years to prepare this film, to find the actor with a face that looks like Cimabue.
Marcello Fonte is the right man, and that ancient and absolutely cinematic face proves it. The outskirts are also suitable, full of chasms in which the same emptiness that Pasolini found us. We see the darkness of the puddles, dark lights and the indifference of those who have never seen any beauty.
Matteo Garrone in the Olympus of Cinema
About the Italian cinema, Dogman is undoubtedly the most beautiful and successful film of 2018. It is a very well written film, inspired by the suburbs that today in Italy as in other countries, cry out a void that is filled with nothing. Marcello, the dog groomer protagonist, files the nails of a Great Dane who holds out his paw as if it were a beautician. Written by Garrone with Chiti and Massimo Gaudioso, without indulging in violent splatter scenes, it hints at Canaro della Magliana and the terrible tortures. The Silver Palm, won by the actor Marcello Fonte, who had such a great response from the public, already seems golden.
That coveted Hollywood statuette that Bet Davys found resembling her uncle Oscar doesn't seem that far off, even if the competition will be fierce. Dogman really deserves to win the Oscar too, especially now that he has been chosen to represent Italy in the USA
From Cannes to the USA lost the Oscars
Garrone and his team will be in Los Angeles on February 24, 2019, and we will cheer on a director who makes excellent cinema. Certainly the designation is not having victory in your pocket and the competition will have a knife in their teeth. However being atAcademy it is the first step of a long road, but we are happy to start this new Italian journey. Great is the credit recognized to Marcello Fonte, for his great proof of humanity, and for the passion that everyone has put into this project. The commission selected the film or to be nominated for an Oscar, established byAnica on behalf of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Composed by Nicola Borrelli, Marta Donzelli, Gian Luca Farinelli, Antonio Medici, Silvio Soldini, Maria Carolina Terzi, Maria Sole Tognazzi, Stefania Ulivi, Enrico Vanzina in front of a notary, she decided for Dogman.
Matteo Garrone's film will represent us in the selection of the Oscar for the best foreign language film at the Academy Awards. The nominations will be announced on January 22, 2019, while the Oscars ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 24, 2019. Good luck!