Aurelio De Laurentiis

AURELIO DE LAURENTIIS is one of the most successful businessmen in Italy, equally divided among film production and distribution, and management of SSC Napoli, the glorious Soccer team based in the city of Naples. An absolute passion for movies and soccer, great determination and an undisputable talent, led Aurelio De Laurentiis to the achievement of astonishing results in the artistic and sports field.
De Laurentiis' success starts and continues in movies: he is one of the most important producers on the Italian film scene. In 1975 he founded with his father Luigi FILMAURO, which has more than 400 films to its credit in terms of production and distribution, ranging from Mario Monicelli's Un Borghese Piccolo Piccolo to Pupi Avati's Il Testimone dello Sposo; Roberto Benigni's THE MONSTER; Pedro Almodóvar's High Heels and Kika; Damiano Damiani's IO HO PAURA; Pasquale Festa Campanile's QUA LA MANO; Cristina Comencini's Matrimoni; Bigas Luna's Jamon Jamon; David Lynch's BluE Velvet and Wild at Heart; Peter Weir's THE LAST WAVE; Joel and Ethan Coen's Barton Fink; Roman Polanski's Pirates and Bitter Moon; Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez's The Blair Witch Project; Ridley Scott's Hannibal; Peter Webber's Hannibal Rising; Giovanni Veronesi's Per Amore solo per Amore and Che ne sarà di noi; Kerry Conran's Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow; David Cronenberg's CRASH; the Oscar® winner Crash by Paul Haggis (Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Screenplay, Best Achievement in Editing, and David di Donatello 2006 for the Best Foreign Picture); Woody Allen's BULLETS OVER BROADWAY and Cassandra's Dream; Marc Forster's The Kite Runner, based on Khaled Hosseini's best-seller book; PARANORMAL ACTIVITY by Oren Peli; LET ME IN by Matt Reeves; INSIDIOUS by James Wan; ATTACK THE BLOCK by Joe Cornish; THE LAST STAND by Kim Jee-woon with Arnold Schwarzenegger; DISCONNECT by Henry-Alex Rubin.
Aurelio De Laurentiis is active in every field of the movie business: he has his own chain of theatres, and his own line of home-video and digital distribution. He is the mind behind some series of movies that have been real blockbusters, reaching the top positions at the box office every year, including the series MY FRIENDS and Vacanze di Natale. After bringing millions of people into theatres, these films have enjoyed very high television ratings and video sales, from the initial and legendary VACANZEI DI NATALE in 1983 to the most recent hits Natale sul Nilo, Natale in India, Christmas in Love (Italy's most successful films of 2002, 2003, 2004). Natale a Miami earned the highest revenues in the Italian movie market for 2005, outperforming in Italy "King-Kong", "Harry Potter", "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Madagascar". Natale a New York earned US $ 36,000.000 and was the highest box office result for the 2006 Christmas holidays: this was also the first movie that Aurelio produced together with his son Luigi, who had just finished his studies at USC and had been working inside the family business for three years. The success of the brand "Aurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis" (that recalls the original and founding team father-son Luigi and Aurelio) continues with Natale in Crociera, the best box office gross for 2007; Natale a Rio, that hit the top for 2008, Natale a Beverly Hills, that was again the highest box office result for 2009; NATALE IN SUDAFRICA, released in December 2010, and VACANZE DI NATALE A CORTINA, that hit theatres during Christmas 2011. With his great talent and understanding of the people's taste, Aurelio De Laurentiis decided to change the format for Christmas 2012, and he chose to revive the movie-movie formula with COLPI DI FULMINE: the movie was again number one at the Christmas box office. COLPI DI FORTUNA was the 2013 Christmas' comedy, in three episodes instead of two but always number one at the end-of-the-year box office.
With Vittorio De Sica's son, Christian, he hit the record for the actor with the longest success, from 1983 to 2013: 30 years of great achievements with the directors Carlo and Enrico Vanzina, Enrico Oldoini and Neri Parenti. Moreover in the United States, the Guinness Book of World Records introduced the Christmas comedies in the category longest-running movie series, beating the James Bond franchise.
At the beginning of the 21st Century Aurelio De Laurentiis signed an exclusive deal with Carlo Verdone, who wrote, directed and acted in various movies: from Il Mio Miglior Nemico (My best enemy) that earned the third place in the 2006's Italian box office, to Grande grosso e. Verdone; from POSTI IN PIEDI IN PARADISO (A FLAT FOR THREE) that won the Nastro d'Argento Award (given by the Association of Italian Journalist) as the Best Comedy of 2012, to the recent SOTTO UNA BUONA STELLA, that came out in theatres on February 13th 2014.
De Laurentiis had an important collaboration with French cinema, starting with director Luc Besson for the movies LEON, THE FIFTH ELEMENT and LE GRAND BLEU (THE BIG BUE); he also worked with director Jean-Marie Poiré for the movies LES VISITEURS and LES VISITERUS 2, that hit an attendance record in France. The collaboration continued with Francis Veber for LE DINER DES CONS (THE DINNER GAME), LE PLACARD (RUBY & QUENTIN) and TAIS-TOI, with Mathieu Kasovitz for LES RIVIERES POURPRES (THE CRIMSON RIVERS) and with Oliver Dahan for LES RIVIERES POURPRES 2 (CRIMSON RIVERS: ANGELS OF THE APOCALYPSE). This important relationship with French film industry, led Aurelio De Laurentiis to being appointed by the French Minister of Culture Jean-Jacques Aillagon "Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" in 2002.
From 1993 to 2003 Aurelio De Laurentiis was President of the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF, 26 member countries) and was then elected Honorary Life President. Since 2008 he has been a shareholder of Italian Entertainment Group (a society that controls - among others - Cinecittà Studios Inc, Cinecittà Parchi Inc, Luneur Park Inc and he is a shareholder of Filmmaster Group Inc). From October 2001 to June 2006 he has been President of the National Union of Film Producers (UNPF).
For his work as a producer and a distributor Aurelio De Laurentiis has received many prizes: more than 40 "Biglietti d'Oro" (the awards given to the most successful movies at the box office) and 15 David di Donatello (the most important awards for Italian cinema). In 2000 he won a new prize at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for his activities as movie producer and distributor. In December 2002 he was also awarded with the Vittorio De Sica's Prize for the Italian cinema. In 2003 the traditional power list of the Italian cinema (drawn up each year by the Italian film industry's most prominent magazines, Ciak and Box Office) placed Aurelio De Laurentiis as number one. In February 2005 he won the Nastro D'Argento Award (given by the Association of Italian Journalist) as Best Producer for the movies Che ne sarà di noi and Tutto in quella notte.
In June 2005 Aurelio De Laurentiis received the Golden Ciak as Best Producer for Manuale d'Amore (THE AGES OF LOVE). In November 2005 the 24th edition of the annual "Rassegna sull'autore" (a retrospective of the best Italian cinema authors that takes place in Assisi) was completely dedicated to Aurelio De Laurentiis: it was the first time for a producer.
In June 2006 De Laurentiis received the Golden Globe from the Foreign Press in Italy.
In July 2006 he received the Giffoni Award from the Giffoni Film Festival.
During the same month he won the Nastro d'Argento Award for the movie Grande grosso e. Verdone.
In September 2010, during the Venice Film Festival, he was awarded with the "Variety Profile in Excellence", an award given by the prestigious magazine for the following reasons: "Aurelio De Laurentiis has always been able to stay in touch with the taste of the audience. He is really the only Italian producer with an authentic grandeur that results by his symbiotic relationship with a wide audience. Aurelio has innate radar for pop instincts, has business acumen and a real willingness to take risks". In July 2012, together with his son Luigi, he won the Nastro d'Argento for the Best Comedy of the Year POSTI IN PIEDI IN PARADISO (A FLAT FOR THREE) directed by Carlo Verdone.
In August 2004 Aurelio De Laurentiis won the auction to buy the Naples Football team directly from a bankruptcy sale at the Naples Court: his will was to get the team back to success and to restart the company activities: as of today, the team owns some of the most talented and famous top players. When de Laurentiis bought the Team, Naples was playing in the Third Division (Serie C1), and in only three years the President was able to bring it to the First division (Serie A). In 2012 the Team won the Coppa Italia against Juventus and the same year was admitted to the Champions League, together with Manchester City and Bayern Munich. In 2013 the Team finished in second place in the First Division, and was admitted again to the Champions League, this time qualifying directly: Naples had to play against big teams like Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal and Olympique Marseille, and got an incredible score of 12 points. In 2014 the Team won its fifth Coppa Italia, winning against Fiorentina in the final.
Through a very sharp and brilliant market activity, De Laurentiis was also able to put his team among the first 30 best teams in the world.
Aurelio De Laurentiis has received many awards for his activities, from the most important Italian and International Institutions: in June 1995 he is appointed "Commendatore dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana", the most relevant achievement given by the Italian Council of Ministers. In April 2005 Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the President of the Italian Republic, has honoured him with the title of "Grand Officer of the Italian Republic". In January 2007 he was nominated "Ambassador of Rome" by the Mayor Walter Veltroni. In June 2008 he was awarded "Knight of Labor" by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano. In December of the same year he received the "Leonardo Qualità Italia Award". In October in Washington he received the prestigious "United States-Italy Friendship Award" given by the NIAF (National Italian American Foundation). In February 2011 he received the prestigious "Excellent Award", yearly given to high level businessmen who excelled in their professional field: Aurelio de Laurentiis got this award "for producing and distributing some of the most important movies of contemporary cinema, contributing to the promotion of Italian cinema all over the world." In January 2012 he received from the British Government the prestigious "Career Recognition Award", during the 5th edition of UK-ITALY Business Awards (UKTI)

 

(May 2014)