- The first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Direction.
- Directed one Oscar nominated performance: Giancarlo Giannini in Seven Beauties (1975).
- One of eight Italians to have been nominated for the Academy Award for 'Best Director'. The others are Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Michelangelo Antonioni, Gillo Pontecorvo , Bernardo Bertolucci, Roberto Benigni and Franco Zeffirelli.
- Member of the Official Competition jury at the 45th Venice International Film Festival in 1988.
- Lina and her husband Enrico have a daughter Maria Zulima Job, born in 1991.
- Received an Academy Honorary Award for her career in 2020.
- She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7065 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on October 28, 2019.
- Her father was a lawyer from an aristocratic Swiss lineage.
- Was born into a Roman Catholic Swiss family of aristocratic descent.
- First worked as a teacher before enrolling for studies at the Pietro Sharoff Theatre Academy in Rome.
- Her work inspired so many including Louis C.K., Jodie Foster, Spike Lee, and Amy Heckerling.
- In 1964, she set up her own production company, Liberty Films, in conjunction with the actor Giancarlo Giannini who also often featured in her later films.
- Is entered in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest film title, "Un fatto di sangue nel comune di Siculiana fra due uomini per causa di una vedova. Si sospettano moventi politici. Amore-Morte-Shimmy. Lugano belle. Tarantelle. Tarallucci e vino" which totals 179 characters.
- New York magazine put her on the cover (February 2, 1976), emblazoned with the headline "The Most Important Film Director Since Ingmar Bergman.".
- According to Martin Scorsese, her films "were funny and frighteningly harrowing and big and emotional and over-the-top and popular. And within that register, she was able to do things that nobody else was doing... This was a very special artistic vision.".
- Continued to work as a director in the theater, until her death at her home on 9 December 2021, at the age of 93.
- Produced avant-garde plays, traveling throughout Europe and working as a puppeteer, stage manager, set designer, publicist, and radio/TV scriptwriter.
- Signed a contract with Warner Bros. to make four films and her first for them was her first English language film, titled: A Night Full of Rain (1978). The film was not a success and Warner canceled the contract.
- Her desire to work in the film and theater industries took hold at a young age, as early on in life she developed an appreciation for the works of the Russian playwrights Pietro Sharoff, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, and Konstantin Stanislavsky, drawing her into the world of performing arts.
- Graduated from Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico.
- Federico Fellini was her mentor.
- Her best friend, Flora Carabella, married to Marcello Mastroianni, introduced her to Federico Fellini, who hired her as an assistant director on "8½".
- Abandoned her studies at the age of 16 for a drama college, where she became immersed in the Stanislavski tradition.
- Was the subject of a documentary, Behind the White Glasses (2016), which was made by her assistant Valerio Ruiz.
- Her first job in film was to scout out interesting faces for Federico Fellini. As a result, her own mother and her card circle of elegant socialites went on to be fleetingly immortalized playing canasta on a beach in Otto e Mezzo (1963).
- Was very interested in comics, and her favorite one was Flash Gordon.
- Her directorial debut, The Lizards (1963), made largely with Federico Fellini's crew.
- Started her career studying at Pietro Sharoff Theatre Academy.
- Laraine Newman memorably impersonated her on Saturday Night Live.
- Never seen Guy Ritchie's remake of her film, Swept Away (1974).
- According to Pauline Kael, she was "a playwright-director; her scripts are a succession of dialogue scenes in which characters give vent to ideological positions".
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content