Michelangelo Antonioni Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI 29 September 1912 30 July 2007 was an Italian modernist film director screenwriter editor and short story writer Best known for his trilogy on modernity and its discontents LAvventura 1960 La Notte 1961 and LEclisse 1962 as well as the Englishlanguage Blowup 1966 Antonioni redefined the concept of narrative cinema and challenged traditional approaches to storytelling realism drama and the world at large He produced enigmatic and intricate mood pieces and rejected action in favor of contemplation focusing on image and design over character and story His films defined a cinema of possibilities Antonioni received numerous awards and nominations throughout his career including the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize 1960 1962 Palme dOr 1966 and 35th Anniversary Prize 1982 the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion 1955 Golden Lion 1964 FIPRESCI Prize 1964 1995 and Pietro Bianchi Award 1998 the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon eight times and an honorary Academy Award in 1995 He is one of three directors to have won the Palme dOr the Golden Lion and the Golden Bear and the only director to have won these three and the Golden Leopard