Italy's "Oscars" are riddled with nepotism and corruption, according to an article in a leading Italian newspaper yesterday. The famous David di Donatello awards, widely regarded as the country's top film honours, are, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano, in urgent need of drastic overhaul.

Il Fatto Quotidiano, which launched in 2009 as an independent newspaper free of the state funding which is responsible for keeping many Italian papers in business, said the awards were selected by a jury of "the relatives [of important industry figures], politicians, building contractors, and the usual suspects" and were unworthy to be called the "Italian Oscars". The 1,600 members of the Italian Academy which votes each year included politicians linked to Silvio Berlusconi, a rubbish collection manager from Rome's famous Cinema Adriano, the wife of the twin brother of controversial senator Marcello Dell'Utri, and several members of the powerful De Laurentiis family, the newspaper alleged. National film academies are usually composed of eminent professionals from particular film-making disciplines: cinematographers to decide the best cinematography award; film editors to decide the winner of that particular gong, and so on and so forth.

The paper said changes were needed immediately to restore the awards' honour ahead of the 2012 ceremony. First launched in 1995, the David di Donatellos are named after the twin renaissance sculptures by Donatello, and are handed out in May each year. They usually honour mainly films of Italian origin, but there is also a best foreign language film category. The current president is Gian Luigi Rondi, the 90-year-old critic who recently stepped down as president of the Rome film festival.

Organisers have not so far made any public response to the article.