Emanuele Crialese was born on 26 July 1965 in Rome to Sicilian parents.
He studied filmmaking at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, from where he graduated in 1995.
His first feature film, Once We Were Strangers (1997), was an Italian-American co-production, funded by a producer who had noticed Crialese during his apprenticeship in the United States.
[4] His fourth feature, Terraferma (2011), premiered at the 68th Venice International Film Festival.
[8] It won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival the equivalent of third place.