Swamy Rotolo was nine years old when she was cast as the 15-year-old protagonist of Jonas Carpignano’s engrossing coming-of-age thriller A Chiara. Not that she knew it at the time. In 2014, Rotolo was auditioning for the blink-and-you-miss-it role of Chiara in Carpignano’s second feature, A Ciambra;

in private, though, the Italian-American director envisioned a follow-up movie with Chiara in every scene. The Boyhood-esque gamble worked: for her expressive, believable turn in A Chiara, Rotolo, now 17, became the youngest-ever Best Actress winner at the David di Donatello Awards – effectively Italy’s version of the Oscars.