Born in Ferrara, Italy; educated at the University of Bologna (economics) and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Rome (direction). Antonioni began writing about film as a student at Bologna University, mercilessly criticizing the fatuous Italian comedies of the 1930s. In 1940, he studied direction at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome. Two years later, he collaborated on consecutive films as a scriptwriter, first with Roberto Rossellini and then Enrico Fulchignoni. His first directorial effort was a documentary, GENTE DEL PO, begun in 1943 and completed in 1947. For two other documentaries in the late 1940s he solicited music from Giovanni Fusco, whose scores enhanced Antonioni's own pessimism. Antonioni's minimalist, yet poignant style, which critics described as "structured absence," and his disdain for vulgar commercialism, made him an important influence on post-neorealist Italian cinema. His first feature, CRONACA DI UN AMORE / STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR (1950), uses complex camerawork to tell the simple tale of a wealthy woman whose husband dies. The approach would typify his subsequent work. I VINTI / THE VANQUISHED (1953), a portrait of juvenile delinquents in post-war Europe, displeased the Italians by depicting their youngsters as neo-Fascists; censors in France and England banned one portion of the film. Antonioni's episode of the anthology film L'AMORE IN CITTÀ / LOVE IN THE CITY (1953) dealt with suicide, a preoccupation that also provided the uneasy resolution to LE AMICHE / THE GIRL FRIENDS (1955), a study of several women and their disappointing relationships with men. After the release of IL GRIDO / THE OUTCRY (1957), a study of the inept men of the Po Valley, Antonioni's developing assurance with the medium led him to look beyond the proletarian subjects favored by neorealism. L'AVVENTURA (1960) began a phase of non-narrative, psychological cinema, examining the barren eroticism of a bourgeoisie which had abandoned its traditional social and cultural values. The film attracted a political critique that equated Antonioni's work with the writings of AndrŽ Gide. Critics commonly unite the thematic concerns of L'AVVENTURA, LA NOTTE (1961) and L'ECLISSE (1962) as a trilogy in which mankind reaches -- unsuccessfully -- for love as the last refuge in the modern world. A stranded humanist faces the intimidations of technology in IL DESERTO ROSSO / RED DESERT (1964), in which Antonioni had an entire landscape painted red to underline his theme of despair. Heroine Monica Vitti's palpable frustration signaled the end of her four-film collaboration with Antonioni, which had made her an international star. BLOWUP (1966) marked Antonioni's departure from Italy to "swinging London," where he dramatized the paradoxes of its nervous hip consciousness. The film's finale -- a ball-less tennis match -- became a reference point of 60s cinema. The success of BLOWUP (Antonioni won the National Society of Film Critics' best director award) brought the director to California for ZABRISKIE POINT (1970), an elegaic view of the intersection of materialism and hippiedom. THE PASSENGER (1975) features Jack Nicholson as an American reporter who adopts the identity of a deceased fellow guest in a North African hotel. The director's virtuoso use of Gaudi's architecture echoes the unresolved angles of the protagonist's world. Neither MYSTERY OF OBERWALD (1980) nor IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN (1982) found distribution in the US. In 1985, Antonioni suffered a heart attack that left him partially paralyzed. His subsequent credits include KUMBHA MELA (1989), NOTO, MANDORLI, VULCANO, STROMBOLI, CARNEVALE (1993), AL DI LÀ DELLE NUVOLE / BEYOND THE CLOUDS (1995), IL FILO PERCOLOSO DELLE COSE and TANTO PER STARE INSIEME / JUST TO BE TOGETHER (both 2001) and a segment of EROS (2003).

Nominated for Directing 1966: BLOWUP  Nominated for Writing (Best Story and Screenplay written directly for the screen) 1966: BLOWUP (w. Tonino Guerra & Edward Bond)  Honorary Award 1994: "In recognition of his place as one of the cinema's master visual stylists." 2 nominations, 1 Honorary Award