After spending his early childhood in Turin in the north of Italy, Virzì's family moved back to Livorno where he grew up in the working class area of "Le Sorgenti".

As a small boy, he started to cultivate his lifelong passion for literature: Mark Twain and Charles Dickens were among his favourite authors and their classic "coming of age" novels would later serve as a model for his screenplays.

Paolo co-wrote with Scarpelli the screenplay for Giuliano Montaldo's Tempo di uccidere, based on the novel by Ennio Flaiano and starring Nicolas Cage.

Virzì's first feature film stars Sabrina Ferilli and Massimo Ghini, and tells the story of a love triangle set against the backdrop of the irreversible identity crisis of the Italian working class.

In his next film Ferie d'agosto (1995), featuring a stunning cast (Silvio Orlando, Laura Morante, Ennio Fantastichini, Sabrina Ferilli and Piero Natoli), the island of Ventotene sets the scene for a feud between two families on holiday.

In 1999, Virzì directed Baci e abbracci (Kisses and Hugs), a blend of fable, social comedy and a Christmas tale à la Dickens.

The main actor was once again a newcomer, Corrado Fortuna, who plays a young man who escapes from his native Sicily to go to the United States in pursuit of the American dream.

Young newcomer Alice Teghil plays the part of Caterina, a naive, provincial girl with a candid and disoriented view of the world.

The film focuses on the relationship between intellectuals and power and the 19th century plot is peppered with allusions to the present day: the parallel between Napoleon and Silvio Berlusconi is at times quite explicit.

In this grotesque comedy with its apocalyptic vision of the world of work, the real main issue of the movie set in a call center, is the theme of insecurity: in jobs, in love, in life.

In August of the same year, Virzi and his film crew returned to his hometown of Livorno to shoot L’uomo che aveva picchiato la testa, a documentary about local singer-songwriter Bobo Rondelli.

The film tells the story of the Michelucci family, from the 1970s to the present day: the central character is the stunningly beautiful Anna, the lively, frivolous and sometimes embarrassing mother of Bruno and Valeria.

In July 2010, La prima cosa bella won 4 Silver Ribbon awards: Director of the Best Film of the Year (Paolo Virzì), Best Actress Micaela Ramazzotti and Stefania Sandrelli, Best Screenplay Paolo Virzì, Francesco Bruni, Francesco Piccolo) and Best Costume Design to the Oscar winner Gabriella Pescucci.

La prima cosa bella was the Italian Oscar nomination as Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.

Loosely based on the novel La generazione by Simone Lenzi (who is also the lead singer and composer of the alternative rock band Virginiana Miller), the film follows the lives of Guido and Antonia, played by Luca Marinelli and the singer-songwriter Thony, and their attempts to start a family.

The movie, an adaptation of the novel by the American writer Stephen Amidon, uses the financial crisis as its backdrop but more broadly raises the question of values, monetary and intangible, in the modern world.

The critic then praised both the "extraordinary alchemy of the protagonists" who give themselves "without reservations to the characters, yet always maintain perfect control" and the script, "which condenses entire worlds in a single one-liner, offering non-trivial food for thought in the slew of misunderstandings between these two women, who represent two irreconcilable Italies".

He is scatterbrained yet strong, she is full of ailments but razor-sharp – they give each other the gift of an adventure on the roads of America, from Massachusetts to Key West, on board their old camper.