[3][4] Born in Ravenna, Italy, and raised in Milan, Bendazzi started his career as a journalist and at the same time a self-funded scholar.

[5] In 2016 Asifa (Association internationale du Film d'animation) granted him the Life Achievement Award.

[7][8] He is probably best known for his book Cartoons − 100 Years of Cinema Animation, a history of the medium, published in Italian, English, French, Spanish and Persian.

[1][9][10] In 2016, the three-tome Animation - A World History was published by CRC Press (Italian version Animazione - una storia globale, Milan, Utet, 2017).

Bendazzi also edited Alexeieff – Itinéraire d’un maître / Itinerary of a Master[11][12] (2001, in English and French, about the well-known author of avant-garde short films), and Quirino Cristiani, pionero del cine de animación (2008, in Spanish, about the author of the first animated feature-length films (English version Twice the First - Quirino Cristiani and the Animated Feature Film, CRC Press).