Barbara Cupisti (24 January 1962) is an Italian director and actress. As a director, she focuses mainly on human rights documentaries.

Career as actress

Cupisti started her career as a dancer with the Luis Falcó company. In 1981, she enrolled at the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico, which she left two years later to make her film debut in

Tinto Brass Giovanni "Tinto" Brass (born 26 March 1933) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. In the 1960s and 1970s, he directed many critically acclaimed avant-garde films of various genres. Today, he is mainly known for his later work in the Erot ...

' '' The Key''. In 1989, she was the lead actress in Carlo Verdone's '' Il bambino e il poliziotto''. She also worked on television, notably in the series '' Châteauvallon'', ''Edera'' and '' Caro maestro''.

Career as director

Since 2002 she started to work as director for Rai Cinema. Her first documentary film ''Mothers'' premiered at the

64th Venice International Film Festival The 64th annual Venice Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival, was held from 29 August to 8 September 2007, at Venice Lido in Italy. Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou was the jury president for the main competition. Italian actress Ambra ...

and won the

David di Donatello The David di Donatello Awards, named after Donatello's ''David (Donatello, bronze), David'', a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance, are film awards given out each year by the ''Accademia del Cinema Italiano'' (the Academy of Italian Cin ...

for Best Documentary of the year. Her second documentary, ''Forbidden Childhood'', was screened in the festival circuit and has received the Audience Award for the Best Documentary Film at the Bahrein International Human Rights Film Festival (May 2009) and the

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

Cinema and Human Rights Award at the

Pesaro Pesaro (; ) is a (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Marche, capital of the province of Pesaro and Urbino, on the Adriatic Sea. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the ...

International Film Festival for the New Cinema (June 2009), and at the

Bobbio Bobbio (Emilian language#Dialects, Bobbiese: ; ; ) is a small town and ''comune'' in the province of Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is located in the Trebbia River valley southwest of the town Piacenza. There is also an abbey and a ...

Film Festival of

Marco Bellocchio Marco Bellocchio (; born 9 November 1939) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Life and career Born in Bobbio, near Piacenza, Marco Bellocchio had a strict Catholic upbringing – his father was a lawyer, his mother a schooltea ...

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

Italia gave to this movie the High Patronage. ' (I am - Stories of slavery), her third film, is about human trafficking in Italy. It was presented at the 2011 Venice Film Festival with the patronage of Amnesty International Italy and was a finalist at the

Monte-Carlo Television Festival The Monte-Carlo Television Festival is held every year in June in the Monaco, Principality of Monaco at the Grimaldi Forum, under the Honorary Presidency of H.S.H. Albert II, Prince of Monaco, Prince Albert II of Monaco. The opening ceremony ...

. Fratelli e Sorelle-storie di carcere is a two-episode documentary about the dramatic situation in Italian prisons. The film has been awarded with Premio Ilaria Alpi 2012, for the best documentary of the year and got the nomination for David di Donatello 2013. Interferenze Rom 2013 was shot in the Republic of Macedonia, Italy, and France and talks about the Gipsy community in Europe. Cupisti made a series of three documentaries about refugees from all over the word and the reasons for their exile, titled ''Exiles: The wars'', ''Exiles: Tibet'', and ''Exiles: The Environment''. In 2016 Exiles: The wars wins the Special

Nastro d'argento The (plural: ''Nastri d'Argento''; English: Silver Ribbon) is an Italian film award, held since 1946 by the ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani'' (Italian National Union of Film Journalists). Awards are given annually in ...

of the National Syndicate of Italian Film Journalists. In 2018, ''Womanity'' is released. The film tells the story of thirty-six hours of four women in India, Egypt and the United States. It attended the

Rome Film Festival International Rome Film Fest is a film festival that takes place in Rome during the month of October. The name in Italian is Festa del Cinema di Roma. From 2022, the festival was officially recognized as a competitive festival by the Internation ...

and won at the Italian Film Festival in Madrid. In 2020, ''My America'' was released and shown at the Turin Film Festival and broadcast on RAI TV In 2022 and 2023, she filmed "Hotel Sarajevo" and "Wartime notes", the first reflecting on the 30th anniversary since the siege of Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia, and the latter on the ongoing

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

and the role played by Ukrainian women.

Filmography

Actress

Director

References

External links

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Secret Garden Productions home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cupisti, Barbara Italian film actresses Italian television actresses Living people Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico alumni 1962 births Italian women film directors Actresses from Tuscany