What does a casting director do?

The David di Donatello awards in 2025 will, for the first time, honor the best casting directors. For years, the category has fought for recognition that is not only rightful but also holds practical and union-related significance—less glamorous aspects, yet very present within the entertainment industry. The fact that the Italian Academy has taken a first step toward acknowledging these figures marks a huge change for the industry, anticipating the American counterpart by a year—it will be during the 2026 Oscars that U.S. colleagues will, for the first time, be nominated by the American Academy. In recent years, the discussion around the possibility of creating a dedicated nomination for casting has been a topic of debate both in Italy and abroad, especially after a few missteps on both sides when it came to awarding categories outside directing or acting. In 2022, the Academy made the poor decision to present some of the awards (from editing to soundtrack, from makeup to production design) outside the official ceremony, thinking it was the ideal solution to fix the problems of an event considered too long, where the spotlight is mainly on the stars. That same year, the technical categories of set design and costume at the David di Donatello were relegated to a scenic basement meant to echo their profession but instead prevented them from experiencing the moment of the award alongside their peers.

The point is that sometimes, dazzled by the glitz and glam, we tend to forget that an industry like film and television doesn’t survive solely on those in front of the camera. And it might surprise you how many performers, beyond thanking their directors, owe their careers to a casting director. In the U.S., it was thanks to Sarah Halley Finn that the MCU could count on the iconic faces of its superheroes, now part of the collective comic-book imagination. In Italy, local examples show how fundamental the casting director role is. A prime example is Gabriel Montesi, an actor many remember for his breakout performance with the D’Innocenzo brothers in Bad Tales (Favolacce), with whom he later collaborated again for the series Dostoevskij. While thanking the Italian cinema twins for introducing him to the limelight, he never misses a chance to remember who truly gave him his first opportunity in the industry. In an interview with Rolling Stone, when asked why he always thanks casting directors, the actor responds: “I say it first and foremost for the actors. They need to know that it's important to get to know and be known by casting directors, to build a productive working relationship so that casting sees as many cards as possible and can propose you. There are so many of us actors, and directors alone can’t have the full picture to find the right character.”

So why is the casting director role so important? And more importantly, what do they do? It starts with the term casting, which refers to a research process that in film and television begins with the script and is aimed at finding the right people to fill the various roles. The casting director leads this process, working alongside the director and operating on two levels: suggesting which face and personality they believe best suits a role, while also respecting the needs and requests of the project’s director. It’s a profession that requires sensitivity and skill, as well as the ability to seek innovative solutions that meet the artistic and/or commercial needs of a production. Armando Pizzuti, a casting director who has worked in the field for about ten years, helped us understand this better through a masterclass he gave at the Cortinametraggio Festival. «Not everyone knows who a casting director is or what they do, even within the entertainment world—let alone the audience,» says the casting director. «Which is absurd because people don’t realize that if the cast is wrong, the film will never work.» Pizzuti started as an actor and began working in casting with the international hit series The Young Pope by Paolo Sorrentino. «It’s a role that makes me feel very close to actors, because I remember what it feels like to get the call saying you got the part. But in my position, I have to help an actor emerge just as much as I help a director find the right person—and it’s amazing when you can give them exactly who they had envisioned as their character.»

The work still largely happens in person with live auditions, but the practice of self-taping has been increasingly adopted, especially appreciated by international productions. Knowing what the role entails and what a casting director does also helps to avoid the inevitable scams that this kind of work can attract—with promises of success and actors being tricked. «I say it all the time, especially to the younger ones, and I’ll never stop: be careful of those trying to profit off people wanting to act. If an agency signs you, there are no fees to pay. You don’t need to spend a cent on a photo book, and you’re not required to pay to attend auditions or castings. It sounds ridiculous to have to say this nowadays, especially since people should be better informed than when I was a 13-year-old in an isolated village in Molise—but it’s still necessary.» This kind of awareness is also crucial to understand what an audition is, what’s acceptable or not, especially when it involves nudity or simulated intimate scenes.

On the website of the Italian Union of Casting Directors, of which Armando Pizzuti is a member, you can find all the information and guidelines to follow when participating in castings, auditions, and workshops. It’s an association that is gaining more ground in the audiovisual industry, especially regarding safety in a job that puts entertainment professionals in increasingly precarious situations. «It’s hugely important to us,» says Pizzuti. «We’ve fought hard to be recognized. For many years, whenever we proposed adding casting directors to the David di Donatello awards, we were met with a no—without even being given a real reason. We hope the introduction of this category also encourages better conditions for entertainment workers, who are becoming more and more vulnerable.»