The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, honouring the best films of 2020, is due to take place on 25 April. I recently watched the film ‘The Life Ahead’ (‘La vita davanti a sé’) by Edoardo Ponti and starring Sophia Loren. Set in Bari, it is based in the novel ‘The Life Before Us’, which is set in Paris instead. Although the film has not been nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, the song ‘Io sì (Seen)’ written by Diane Warren and performed by Laura Pausini has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Inspired by ‘The Life Ahead’, I have been reflecting on some…