Gianfranco Rosi moved to New York and graduated from the New York University Film School in 1985. Following a journey to India in 1993, he directed Boatman, which screened with success at major international festivals including Sundance, Locarno, and Toronto. After the short film Afterwords, he directed the documentary Below Sea Level (2008), which won the Best Film Award in the Orizzonti section of the Venice International Film Festival and many other awards at international film festivals. In 2010, he shot El Sicario – Room 164, winning the FIPRESCI Award at Venice and Best Film at DocLisboa. He achieved historic acclaim in 2013, winning the Golden Lion at Venice with Sacro GRA, marking the first time a documentary was honoured with the festival's top prize. In 2016, he won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlinale for Fuocoammare / Fire at Sea, which gained wide recognition and many awards in Italy, earned a European Film Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary. His 2020 feature, Notturno, premiered at Venice and was shortlisted for the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. In 2022, he released In Viaggio. In recognition of his influential body of work, he received the Camerimage Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking in 2024. His most recent film Sotto le nuvole / Pompei: Below the Clouds (2025), which had its world premiere in the main competition of the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, is in the official selection of the 45th Istanbul Film Festival.