Gillo Pontecorvo | |
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| Born | Gilberto Pontecorvo 19 November 1919 Pisa, Italy |
| Died | 12 October 2006 (aged 86) Rome, Italy |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, composer |
| Years active | 1953–2003 |
| Notable work | |
| Spouse | Maria Adele "Picci" Ziino (m. 1964) |
| Children | Marco Pontecorvo |
| Relatives | Bruno Pontecorvo (brother) Guido Pontecorvo (brother) |
Gilberto Pontecorvo Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (Italian: [ˈdʒillo ponteˈkɔrvo]; 19 November 1919 – 12 October 2006) was an Italian filmmaker associated with the political cinema movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for directing the landmark war docudrama The Battle of Algiers (1966). It won the Golden Lion at the 27th Venice Film Festival, and earned him Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
His other films include Kapò (1960), a Holocaust drama; Burn! (1969), a period film about a fictional slave revolt in the Lesser Antilles; and Ogro (1979), a dramatization of the assassination of Spanish Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco by Basque separatists. He also directed several documentaries and short films.
In 2000, he received the Pietro Bianchi Award at the Venice Film Festival. The same year, he was ascended as a Knight's Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.