Gianni Amelio (born 20 January 1945; Catanzaro) is an Italian film director. His film "The Way We Laughed" (1998) won a Golden Lion at the 55th Venice Film Festival.

Amelio was born in San Pietro di Magisano, province of Catanzaro, Calabria. His father moved to Argentina soon after his birth. He spent his youth and adolescence with his mother and his grandmother. The absence of a paternal figures will be a constant in Amelio's future works. During his university studies of philosophy in Messina, Amelio got interested in cinema, writing as film critic for a local magazine. In 1965 he moved to Rome, where he worked as operator and assistant director for figures such as Liliana Cavani and Vittorio De Seta. He also worked for television, directing documentaries and advertisements.

Amelio's first important work is the TV film "Sun City", directed in 1973 for RAI TV and inspired to Tommaso Campanella's work. This was followed by "The Cinema According to Bertolucci" (1976) a documentary about "1900" shooting, and the thriller "Special Effects" (1978). Two years later he directed the mystery "Death at Work" (1978), which won prizes at Locarno and Hyères festivals. "The Little Archimedes" of 1979 was also critically acclaimed. In 1982 he debuted for cinema proper with "Blow to the Heart" (1982), about Italian terrorism, presented at the Venice Film Festival. In 1987 Amelio released "Via Panisperna Boys", about the lives of 1930 Italian physicists such as Enrico Fermi and Edoardo Amaldi, which won the award for best screenplay at the Bari Film Festival. 1989's "Open Doors", featuring Gian Maria Volonté, confirmed Amelio's status as one of Italy's best film directors and won a nomination as Best Foreign Film at 1991 Academy Awards. The film received also four Felix, two Silver Ribbon, four David di Donatello and three Golden Globes awards. Also successful was "The Stolen Children" in 1992, which won the Special Prize of Jury at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival plus two Silver Ribbon and 5 David di Donatello. In 1994 "Lamerica", about Albanian immigration in Italy, repeated the fate and the success, with 2 Silver Ribbons and 3 Davids. Four years later, "The Way We Laughed" won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Amelio gained another Silver Ribbon as best director for "The Keys to the House", inspired to a novel by Giuseppe Pontiggia, of 2004. Amelio was a member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. In 2006 he released his eighth feature film, "The Missing Star", featuring Sergio Castellitto. From 2009 to 2012 he has been director of Torino Film Festival, Turin.

Amelio came out as gay late in life, shortly before the release of his 2014 documentary "Happy to be Different".

Director de cine italiano, nacido en San Pietro Magisano (Catanzaro). Tras estudiar en el instituto de Catanzaro, pasó por la Universidad de Mesina, en donde cursó Filosofía. En los primeros años sesenta, participó como redactor en la revista de cine Giovane Crítica, publicada por el Centro Universitario Cinematográfico de Catania. En 1965 entró a formar parte del equipo de rodaje de Un uomo a metà, de Vittorio de Seta, para a continuación intervenir en el equipo de otras películas dirigidas por Gianni Puccini y Liliana Cavani, entre otros. Durante unos años trabajó en todo lo que se ponía a su alcance (también anuncios publicitarios y trabajos industriales), hasta que en 1970 pudo dirigir su primera película, La fine del gioco, para la RAI. Su primer largometraje es La città del sole (1973). A partir de los ochenta, va definiendo, en una serie de trabajos, su posición creativa y temática, abordando historias que se centran en las relaciones humanas y la posición del hombre frente a las ideas y estilos de vida, siempre con el trasfondo vital que evoluciona desde la infancia hasta la madurez; padres e hijos, degradación, frustraciones, esperanzas y opresiones. No abandona sus realizaciones para la televisión y trabaja como profesor en el Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografía de Roma. En los noventa, su obra adquiere una mayor repercusión, sobre todo porque los premios se le acumulan en cada título que dirige. El primer paso es Porte aperte, adaptación del libro de Leonardo Sciascia en torno a la pena de muerte, película que recibe, además del Felix (el Oscar europeo), numerosos premios. Después llega Niños robados, una dura historia de dos niños en un mundo hostil -por la que le conceden su segundo Felix-, y Lamerica, una historia inmersa de pleno en el conflicto social y económico que embarga a todo un país, Albania, a mediados de los noventa. Ambas películas fueron premiadas en diversos certámenes internacionales (Cannes, Venecia), además de recibir otros muchos premios. El 13 de septiembre de 1998, el director italiano fue premiado con el León de Oro de la 55º Mostra de Venecia, por su película Cosí ridevano.