Giorgio Cantarini

Biography

Giorgio Cantarini was born in Orvieto, Italy on April 12, 1992. He has lived in Rome and Paris. He made his cinema debut at just five years old in the role of Joshua in the film “La Vita è Bella” (Life is Beautiful) by Roberto Benigni, a role for which he won the Jackie Coogan Award (Young artist award of Hollywood), becoming the youngest winner of this award and the only Italian to do so. In 1999, sought after by Ridley Scott, he played a cameo role in the American Blockbuster movie “the Gladiator”, winner of five Oscars. In the following years, he worked on two occasions for the American brand, Hallmark, firstly in the film “In Love and War” by John Kent Harrison, a film for American TV, and then in the popular Hallmark card commercial “Bicycle boy”, which was used for several years. He took a break from the world of cinema to concentrate on his studies and sport, but during that time he still made guest appearances on Italian TV, both on the Italian RAI and Mediaset channels. In 2005 he took part in the TV program “Ballando con le Stelle”, a RAI 1 primetime TV show conducted by Milly Carlucci. The program is an Italian adaptation of the “Strictly Come Dancing” BBC format talent show. In 2007, he returned to the big screen with the film “Il giorno, la notte. Poi l’alba” (Day, night. Then dawn) by Paolo Bianchini and “il mattino ha l’oro in bocca” (2008) by Francesco Patierno, starring Elio Germano, while in 2010 he was in the Italian TV series “Distretto di Polizia”(Police Precinct), produced by Mediaset’s Canale 5. In 2012, Cantarini won a place at Rome’s prestigious National School of Cinema (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia), graduating in 2014. After graduation, he was immediately cast in the lead role of the web series “AUS- adotta uno studente” (Adopt a Student), the first ever RAI web series, produced in collaboration with Premio Solinas. A move to Paris and a brief interlude in France to pursue professional openings was followed by a return to Italy and in 2015/2016 he performed, directed and produced Pinter’s play for theater, “The Dumb Waiter”, together with his friend and colleague, Miguel Gobbo Diaz, in Rome and Vicenza. In 2017, he played the lead role in “Il dottore dei pesci” (The fish doctor) by Susanna Della Sala, an Italo-American short film which was presented at numerous film festivals in Europe and Canada. At the beginning of 2018 he moved to New York for a period of study at the New York film Academy. In the same year, he was selected for the cast of “Lamborghini – the Legend”, directed by Bobby Moresco (Academy Award winner for best screenplay for the film “Crash”), filmed in Italy and starring Antonio Banderas and Alec Baldwin.