Ermanno Olmi (24 July 1931 – 7 May 2018)[1][2][3] was an Italian film director and screenwriter best known for directing Il Posto (1961) and The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1977), which won the Palme d'Or.

Throughout his career Olmi blended Italian neorealism with Christian humanism, with many of his films following humble characters through the spiritual trials of harsh conditions.

Olmi was born to a working-class Catholic family in Bergamo, in the Lombardy region in northern Italy, and raised in nearby Treviglio.

[4][5][6] When Olmi was three years old, his family moved to Milan, where his parents found work with the utility company Edison-Volta.

The film drew heavily on Olmi's grandmother's stories about peasant life in agricultural regions of Italy.

In 1988, his La leggenda del santo bevitore (The Legend of the Holy Drinker), based on the novella by Joseph Roth and starring Rutger Hauer, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival as well as a David di Donatello award.