Marco Bellocchio, one of the most anti-conformist filmmakers in Italian history, debuted in 1965 with his film Fists in the Pocket, a desecrating portrait of the provincial Italian family. The wish to delve into bourgeois passiveness and hypocrisy through the complexity of personal conflicts is further investigated in his subsequent works, from China Is Near (1967), Nel nome del padre (“In the Name of the Father”, 1972) and Slap the Monster on Page One (1972) to Fit to be Untied (1974), a documentary investigation into psychiatric hospitals, and Victory March (1976). In the eighties the themes of his earlier films reappear in A Leap in the Dark (1980), The Eyes, the Mouth (1982), a chronicle of resentment and humiliation intertwined with the drama of suicide; Henry IV (1984); Devil in the Flesh (1986); The Witches' Sabbath (1988); The Conviction (1991), a ruthless reflection on rape, Silver Bear Grand Jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival. With The Butterfly's Dream (1994), The Prince of Homburg (1997) and The Nanny (1999), directed with an essential rigorous style, Bellocchio continues his personal analysis, with a psychoanalytical stance, of his characters’ inability to love. In 2002 he made My Mother’s Smile, winner of four Nastri d’Argento (Italian Film Critics Award) and a Globo d'Oro for Best Film. Later films are Good Morning, Night (2003), on the kidnapping of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro; The Wedding Director (2006); Vincere (“To Win”, 2009), a reconstruction of the tragic story of Ida Dalser and the son of Benito Albino, winner of a David di Donatello for Best Director in 2010; Sorelle Mai (2010); Dormant Beauty (2012), on the case of Eluana Englaro and the issue of euthanasia; Blood of my Blood (2015). His 2016 film, Fai bei sogni (“Sweet Dreams”) is based on the novel of the same name by Gramellini. In 2017, after his successful theatre experimentations with Rigoletto (2010) and Clowns (2014), Bellocchio stages Andrea Chénier by Leoncavallo. Currently in the screenwriting phase is Il traditore (“The Traitor”), a film based on Mafia super-grass Tommaso Buscetta. In 2011 Bellocchio received the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at the 68th Venice Film Festival.