Marco Bellocchio's Esterno Notte (External Night) is the film to have received most nominations for the 68th David di Donatello cinema awards, Italy's version of the Oscars, with 18 nods. The movie is about the kidnapping of former Italian premier and Christian Democracy bigwig Aldo Moro, who was murdered by Red Brigades terrorists in 1978 after being held captive for 55 days.

It is Bellocchio's second film about the Moro kidnapping after the moving 2003 picture Buongiorno, Notte (Good Morning, Night). Roberto Andò's La Stranezza (The Strangeness) and Le Otto Montagne (The Eight Mountains) by Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersh both got 14 nominations.