Premio Prospettiva 2023 goes to Massimiliano Caiazzo

Massimiliano Caiazzo / Premio Prospettiva 2023

Massimiliano Caiazzo has vision and presence, nuance and verve, expressed with an unaffected and precocious maturity. Natural rather than instinctive, with awareness rather than forward planning, his timing in the interpretation of different characters is elastic, also with the comedic subtleties typical of the anthropological humus in which he grew. Besides this, his public presence is professional and empathetic. The tall twenty-six-year-old, very Mediterranean, Caiazzo loves (and knows how) to tackle professional choices with a taste for discovering new experiences, carefully considering how to approach them. Born and raised in the Sorrento peninsula, the virtually Neapolitan Caiazzo opted to study drama at high school – the great Gianfelice Imparato trained him well – and in recent years his impact, stature and popularity have really taken off, thanks first and foremost to the multifaceted role of Carmine, the anti-Macho dreamer spotted in the Rai series Mare fuori, now in its third season, which has gradually been rewarded by the ratings and recently also by a specific and prestigious Nastro d’Argento award. He was also seen in two other not so straightforward roles: the impulsive, sensitive and seductive shirtmaker, the father in the convincing TV film Filumena Marturano by Francesco Amato, and the many-sided, prickly but fragile suburban corner boy in search of an identity in the complex Naples of the fateful year 1987 recounted by Nicola Prosatore in Piano piano, applauded at the 2022 Locarno Festival. He has also worked on the as yet unreleased Disney+ series (urban fantasy genre) Uonderboys by Andrea De Sica and Giorgio Romano, set amid magic and mystery in a mostly subterranean Naples in which he embodies a sort of Robin Hood who acts as a bridge between adult and juvenile worlds. And then? As soon as the filming of the very… rough Mare fuori 4 is completed, Caiazzo is expected on a major international film set. In brief, this Prospettiva is very much in focus.

Maurizio di Rienzo

Biography

Born in Vico Equense in 1996, Massimiliano Caiazzo began studying drama at the age of eighteen at the Méliès film school directed by Gianfelice Imparato, before continuing his studies in Rome.
In 2020 he received the Kinèo Giovani Rivelazioni Award at the 77th Venice Film Festival. In the same year, he played the role of Carmine Di Salvo in the Rai series Mare fuori, in the course of which his impact, stature and popularity took off and for which in 2021 he won the Meno di Trenta Best Actor in a TV Series Award. The series, now in its third season and increasingly acclaimed by ratings and critics, was recently awarded a specific and prestigious Nastro d’Argento.
In 2022 he played the impulsive seducer and sensitive shirtmaker Riccardo, one of the three unsuspecting brothers of the same mother in Filumena Marturano, the RAI TV film directed by Francesco Amato and starring Vanessa Scalera and Massimiliano Gallo. While in the drama and educational tableau Piano piano by Nicola Prosatore, presented last year at the Locarno Festival in Piazza Grande and in Rome in Alice nella Città, he plays a multilayered suburbanite in search of an identity in the festive and complex Naples of the fateful year 1987.
He is currently on the set of Mare fuori 4 and has recently finished filming the Disney series Uonderbois by Andrea De Sica and Giorgio Romano, in which he is a sort of Robin Hood bridging the worlds of children and adults.