Nights of Cabiria

Nights Of Cabiria (Italian: Le notti di Cabiria) is a 1957 Italian comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Federico Fellini. The film features Giulietta Masina as Cabiria, a kind-hearted sex worker living in Rome and her adventures and misfortunes trying to find happiness. The cast also features François Périer and Amedeo Nazzari. The film is based on a story by Fellini, who expanded it into a screenplay along with his co-writers Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Pier Paolo Pasolini. In addition to the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Giulietta Masina, Nights of Cabiria won the 1958 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This marked the second consecutive year that both Italy and Fellini won the award, following the previous year's win for La Strada, which also featured Masina. In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978". The film is widely considered to be one of Fellini's best works, as well as one of the greatest films of 1957, of the 1950s, of the 20th century and one of the best Italian films of all time. Masina's performance is widely regarded as one of the finest female performances in movie history.