- He was born into a Jewish family. He moved to France in 1938 to escape Italy's fascist racial laws. He eventually returned to Italy and led a Resistance brigade during WWII. After the war, he studied chemistry and worked as a journalist before becoming a film director; he started out making documentaries.
- He would often cast non-professionals in order to fill a role with a person who he thought had the right face for the character.
- Although he made fewer than 20 films, he is regarded as one of Italy's greatest directors.
- As a young man, he was a tennis player who competed in tournaments throughout Europe. This provided his first opportunity to travel outside of his native Italy.
- He was the younger brother of nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo (1913-1993), the Harwell scientist who defected to the Soviet Union in 1950.
- One of seven Italians to have been nominated for the Best Director Oscar. The others are Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo Bertolucci, Lina Wertmüller and Roberto Benigni.
- Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1991
- Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1980.
- Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1982.
- Father of cinematographer/director Marco Pontecorvo, of director Simone Pontecorvo and Ludovico.
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