The Lost Legacy of Tony Gaudio, directed by Alessandro Nucci, is the only Italian-produced documentary among the 169 films shortlisted for nomination as Best Documentary Feature, at the 97th Academy Awards, to be held on March 2, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Here is a trailer of the documentary.

The film, presented at the 18th Buffalo International Film Festival (NY), a finalist at the 10th Fabrique du Cinéma Awards, recently won a special mention of the jury at the 10th edition of Visioni dal Mondo, the International Documentary Festival of Milan, “for having restored to the history of cinema the figure of a brilliant pioneer of photography, with a narrative that effectively combines through a framework of fiction, testimonies and unpublished archival material.”

The film introduces the story of a young man from Calabria who in 1906 leaves to pursue his American Dream: he is Gaetano 'Tony' Gaudio. In the United States he enhances his talent discovered in the family photography studio, active in the historic center of Cosenza. His passion for film photography will soon lead him to Hollywood, where in '37 he reaches the pinnacle of his career by winning the Oscar for Best Cinematography for the film “Black Ivory,” thus becoming the first Italian to win this recognition and anticipating Vittorio De Sica's victory by 11 years. A statuette, the one won by Gaudio, which is now lost and which the documentary tries to find again, tracing Tony's adventurous life between Calabria, Turin and the United States.

The documentary, produced by Open Fields Productions, was also the opening film of the same Milan festival conceived, founded and directed by Francesco Bizzarri, with artistic direction by Maurizio Nichetti. The Milan premiere featured Mauro Fiore, another Calabrian director of photography who won an Oscar in 2010 for James Cameron's cult film “Avatar.” In fact, Fiore is one of the interviewees in the documentary film, a witness who acts as a trait d'union between the past and the present; between Calabria and the United States; between emigration and return; between the history and the actuality of a profession that cannot disregard the innovations produced by great visionaries such as Tony Gaudio.

The Lost Legacy of Tony Gaudio now enters, therefore, a very prestigious shortlist of titles from around the world that will compete for the five spots available for the 2025 Oscar nominations for best documentary, 88 years after that first Italian statuette won by Gaudio and now mysteriously lost.

The documentary-already screening between December '24 and February '25 in selected theaters in Los Angeles, Calabria and Piedmont-was made in co-production with Officina38, in association with Broken Typewriter Productions, with contributions from the Calabria Film Commission and Film Commission Torino Piemonte, under the patronage of the City of Cosenza, City of Turin and City of Marzi, with the support of The Tony Gaudio Foundation for the Cinematic Arts and the participation of La Molazza and Carpe Naturam companies.