A journalist and film critic, he contributed to the magazines Cinema and Bianco e Negro and was among the early theoreticians of Italy's neorealism. He entered films in 1946 as an assistant director and was screenwriter on many Italian productions during the late 40s. He directed several documentaries before turning out his first feature film, ACHTUNG! BANDITI!, in 1951. The film, a WW II resistance drama, which provided Gina Lollobrigida with her first major role, remains his most important work along with CRONACHE DI POVERI AMANTI / CHRONICLE OF POOR LOVERS (1954), a love story set against the background of the struggle between the Fascists and their political rivals in the mid-20s. Many of Lizzani's well-intentioned social dramas have been marred, however, by the director's overly dogmatic Marxist ideology on the one hand and by commercial requirements on the other. His FONTAMARA won the Grand Prix at the 1980 Montreal Festival. He wrote an important critical survey of Italian film, Il Cinema Italiano (1953). He has collaborated on the scripts of most of his own films. Visit the Internet Movie Database for a listing of Lizzani's writing, directing and producing credits.  Nominated for Writing (Motion Picture Story) 1950: RISO AMARO (w. Giuseppe De Santis) 1 nomination