Matteo Garrone was born in Rome, Italy, the son of a theatre critic, Nico Garrone and a photographer, Donatella Rimoldi.
In 1996 Garrone won the Sacher d'Oro, an award sponsored by Nanni Moretti, with the short film Silhouette, that became one of the three episodes that are on his first long feature, Terra di Mezzo in 1997.
Garrone won the European Film Award for Best Director and the David di Donatello for Best Director for Gomorrah (2008). His film Reality (2012) won the Grand Prix at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
His films Tale of Tales (2015) and Dogman (2018) were selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and the 2018 Cannes Film Festival respectively. The Nastro d'Argento awarded Garrone both Best Producer and Best Director with Dogman. He received the latter again for Pinocchio (2019).
In 2024, his film Io capitano (2023) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, representing Italy.
