Trivia

He was born into a Jewish family. He moved to France in 1938 to escape Italy's fascist racial laws. He eventually returned to Italy and led a Resistance brigade during WWII. After the war, he studied chemistry and worked as a journalist before becoming a film director; he started out making documentaries.

He would often cast non-professionals in order to fill a role with a person who he thought had the right face for the character.

He was the younger brother of nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo (1913-1993), the Harwell scientist who defected to the Soviet Union in 1950.

One of seven Italians to have been nominated for the Best Director Oscar. The others are Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo Bertolucci, Lina Wertmüller and Roberto Benigni.

Although he made fewer than 20 films, he is regarded as one of Italy's greatest directors.

As a young man, he was a tennis player who competed in tournaments throughout Europe. This provided his first opportunity to travel outside of his native Italy.

Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1991

Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1980.

Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1982.

Father of cinematographer/director Marco Pontecorvo, of director Simone Pontecorvo and Ludovico.