Giorni e nuvole, one of Soldini's more serious efforts after romantic comedies such as Pane e Tulipani (Bread and Tulips) and Agata e la tempesta (Agata and the Storm), and Molaioli's La ragazza del lago, an adaptation of a Norwegian crime novel by Karin Fossum, both scored 15 nominations, including Best Director (Best New Director for Molaioli), Best Producer and Best Screenplay as well as nominations for Best Actress (Margherita Buy and Anna Bonaiuto respectively); Best Actor (Antonio Albanese and Toni Servillo) and Best Supporting Actor (Giuseppe Battiston and Fabrizio Gifuni). 

La giusta distanza, which tells the story of a teacher who arrives in a small town in the Po valley, has a total of nine nominations including Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress for Valentina Lodovini as the teacher and Best Supporting Actor for Ahmed Hafiene, who plays a mechanic of Tunesian descent who becomes obsessed with Lodovini's character.

The real success story of all the films nominated for the Davids is Giorgio Diritti's E il vento fa il suo giro ("The Wind Blows 'Round"), the first fiction feature of the documentarymaker that looks at life in a small village in the Occitan Alps, with the film's dialogues mostly in that almost extinct language as well (the proper title of the film in Occitan is E l'aura fai son vir). The film has a total of five nominations including the prestigious Best Picture slot as well as Best New Director, Best Screenplay, Best Producer and Best Editing.

Films with several nominations that did not make the Best Picture category include Roberto Faenza's I vicerè (The Viceroys), a sumptuous costume drama adapted from a novel by Federico De Roberto with six nominations; the romantic comedy Parlami d'amore ("Talk to Me about Love") from actor-turned-director Silvio Muccino with five nominations and actor Fabrizio Bentivoglio's first feature as a director, Lascia perdere, Johnny! (Don't Wast Your Time, Johnny!), with four nominations. Both Muccino and Bentivoglio were nominated in the Best New Director category.

The Best European film category consists of nominations for Cannes winner 4 luni, 3 saptamini si 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days); France's César winner La graine et le mulet (The Secret of the Grain); Rome Film Festival opener Elizabeth: The Golden Age from Shekhar Kapur, Cannes Best Director winner Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) from Julian Schnabel and Berlinale favourite Irina Palm from Sam Gabarski.

A full list of nominations can be found on the website of the Italian Academy that decides on the nominations and winners. Winners will be announced on April 18 in Rome.