The Eight Mountains wins four Italian Oscars

The Eight Mountains, a movie by Belgian filmmakers Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, took home four awards on Wednesday night at the David di Donatella Awards, the Italian Oscars.

The film is an adaptation of Le Otto Montagne, the novel by Paolo Cognetti, and tells the story of city boy Pietro and mountain boy Bruno, who become friends in the Italian Alps.

Van Groeningen and his wife Vandermeersch are responsible for both the screenplay and the direction of the adaptation. The film won the award for best picture, best adapted screenplay, best cinematography (Ruben Impens) and best sound (Alessandro Palmerini, Alessandro Feletti and Marco Falloni).

It is unusual for the most important Italian film prize to be won by non-Italian directors, Van Groeningen acknowledged. "It is quite incredible," he told entertainment magazine Variety, "two Belgians winning this award in Italy for an Italian film." Vandermeersch expressed her thanks for "this declaration of love".

The Eight Mountains premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, where Van Groeningen and Vandermeersch won the Jury Prize. The film has been shown in Belgian cinemas since 13 December and is still running in a few theatres. It has recently been released in the US and will be released in the UK on Thursday.

^{Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch © IMAGO}