Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller, who was the first woman to ever be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, passed away at her home in Rome on Thursday morning in the presence of her family and friends. She was 93. Italy's Culture Minister Dario Franceschini issued a statement mourning the iconic director's passing saying she was a woman whose "unmistakable style left an everlasting mark on our and the world's cinema". Hailed by many for revolutionizing Italian cinema in the 1970s, she is best known for her films namely Seven Beauties and the award-winning Swept Away. In 2019, Wertmüller received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement and was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 
 
Born in Rome in 1928, Wertmüller was born Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich and had developed an interest for comic books in her childhood. Intent on making a mark in the world of cinema and entertainment she started her career as a puppeteer with a small theatre group. She began her filmmaking career in the 1960s and went on to join the team of legendary film director Federico Fellini, who served as her mentor. 

Lina Wertmüller, who is also known for her trademark white-framed spectacles, won her first award for Best Director in 1963 for her debut film, The Basilisks. She later went on to win a US foreign film award for her 1974 comedy-drama Swept Away, which revolved around a wealthy woman whose yachting holiday takes a different turn after she gets stranded on a deserted island with another person in the boat's crew. She created history in 1977 when she received an Oscar Award nomination for the film Seven Beauties, which told the story of an Italian man who deserts the army and is sent to a prison camp after being captured by the Germans.