This landmark Italian neorealist drama remains became one of the best-known and most widely acclaimed European movies of all time, winning a special Academy Award for "most outstanding foreign film". Directed by neorealist pioneer Vittorio DeSica and written Cesare Zavattini, also one of the movement's main forces, the movie featured all the hallmarks of the neorealist style: a simple story about the lives of ordinary people, outdoor shooting and lighting, non-stop actors mixed together with actors, and a focus on social problems in the aftermath of World War II.