Toni Servillo, Italian Actor

Acclaimed actor Toni Servillo, born in 1959, performs in Italy’s official candidate for the foreign language Oscar race, The Great Beauty, by Paolo Sorrentino. The film, which explores Rome’s decay through the eyes of an aging writer played by Toni Servillo (a veteran of five Sorrentino films), is one of the most decorated films in Italy so far this year: It took home five awards from Italy’s Nastri d’Argento (Silver Ribbon) honors and the best cinematography prize at the Globi d’Oro, Italy’s Golden Globes. The Hollywood Reporter critic Deborah Young praised the film, calling it “an amusing update on Italian society at the end of a cycle” that recalled the “magical atmosphere” of Federico Fellini’s Roma and La Dolce Vita.