Valerio Zurlini (19 March 1926 – 26 October 1982) was an Italian stage and film director and screenwriter.

During his law studies in Rome , he started working in the theatre. In 1943, he joined the Italian resistance . Zurlini became a member of the Italian Communist Party . He filmed short documentaries in the immediate post-war period before he directed his first feature film in 1954, The Girls of San Frediano . In 1958, Zurlini won the Nastro d'Argento together with Leonardo Benvenuti , Piero De Bernardi and Alberto Lattuada for Best Script for Lattuada's Guendalina . Zurlini made his name as a director with his second feature film, Violent Summer (1959), starring Eleonora Rossi Drago and Jean Louis Trintignant . In 1961, Zurlini filmed Girl with a Suitcase , starring Claudia Cardinale , who became a film star in Italy, and Jacques Perrin , who would become Zurlini's favorite actor. His 1962 film Family Diary earned Zurlini the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (it tied with Tarkovsky 's Ivan's Childhood ). Both The Girls of San Frediano and Family Diary were based on Vasco Pratolini 's work.