Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani was BOTD in 1933. Born in Carpi to a prosperous middle-class family, she studied literature at Bologna University before moving to Rome to study film. After graduation, she worked for RAI, Italy’s national television network, making documentaries on the rise of Nazism and Stalinism. Her first two feature film, biopics of Francis of Assisi and Galilei, became controversial for their criticisms of the Catholic Church. She is best known for her 1974 film The Night Porter, a disturbing drama about a concentration camp survivor engaging in a sado-masochistic relationship with a Nazi officer. Condemned by some critics as “Nazi porn”, it was championed by others as a groundbreaking attempt to understand trauma. She continued her interest in sexual perversity with Beyond Good and Evil, a biopic about the erotically charged friendship of Friedrich Nietzsche and Paul Paul Rée, and The Berlin Affair about a German couple who are seduced by a young Japanese woman. Cavani has also directed a number of operas for La Scala and other European opera houses. Her 2002 film Ripley’s Game, adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s novel, starred John Malkovich as a middle-aged version of bisexual psychopath Tom Ripley. Her most recent film, The Order of Time, screened at the 2023 Venice Biennale.