Hij was Italiaans Scenarioschrijver en criticus grondligger van het neorealisme, m.n. bekend door zijn scenario's voor De Sica. O.a. Ladri di biciclette (1948) In zijn scenario's probeerde hij het Italiaanse leven v in alledag te grijpen en hij deed voor zijn eenvoudige gegevens vaak uitgebreide research. Toen de economische en artistieke crisis de Italiaanse cinema deed teruggrijpen naar beproefde oude formules, was er voor Zavattini en zijn ideeën geen plaats meer. Toen hij tenslotte weer terugkwam, was hij gedwongen meer commerciële scenario's te schrijven.

Central architect of Italian neorealist cinema who laid down the blueprint for the movement with writings ranging from screenplays and novels to theory and poetry.
After an uneventful screenwriting debut with I'll Give a Million (1938), Zavattini, a committed Marxist, began to formulate his vision of a cinema of truth, free of artificiality and pretense, which would concern itself with the problems of everyday people. He collaborated with another key figure of the movement, Vittorio De Sica, as early as Teresea Venerdi (1941), but it was with The Children are Watching Us (1943), about a young boy who experiences the separation of his parents, that the foundations for the movement were laid. Zavattini and De Sica went on to collaborate on such classic films as Shoeshine (1946), The Bicycle Thief (1949), Miracle in Milan (1951), Umberto D. (1952), The Roof (1956) and Two Women (1961).

Zavattini also wrote several books (some of which were turned into films) as well as screenplays for other directors, among them Allesandro Blasetti (Four Steps in the Clouds, 1942), René Clément (The Walls of Malapaga, 1949) and Luchino Visconti (Bellissima, 1951). At the age of 80 he directed his first film, the surrealistic The Truth (1982).

Filmography Cesare Zavattini
1938 I'll Give a Million/Daro un Milione story
1941 Teresea Venerdi screenwriter
1942 The Children Are Watching Us/I Bambini ci Guardano screenwriter
1942 Four Steps in the Clouds/Quattro Passi fra la Nuvole screenwriter
1946 Shoeshine/Sciuscia screenwriter
1949 The Bicycle Thief/Ladri di Biciclette screenwriter
1949 The Walls of Malapaga/Au-dela des grilles Le Mure di Malapurga screenwriter, story
1950 Domenica d'Agosto screenwriter
1951 Bellissima screenwriter
1951 Miracle in Milan/Miracolo a Milano screenwriter, story
1952 Buongiorno Elefante! scenes—from subject
1952 Umberto D. screenwriter, story
1953 Indiscretion of an American Wife/Stazione
Termini/Terminal Station screenwriter—from story—"Stazione Termini"
1953 Love in the City/Amore in Citta director, producer, screenwriter—from story—"Tentato Suicidio"—"When Love Fails"
1953 Siamo Donne screenwriter, idea
1954 The Gold of Naples/L'Oro di Napoli screenwriter
1956 The Roof/Il Tetto screenwriter
1957 Suor Letizia screenwriter, story
1957 The Virtuous Bigamist/Sous le Ciel de Provence screenwriter
1961 Two Women/La Ciociara screenwriter
1962 Boccaccio '70 production—from idea— Il lavoro
1962 L'Isola di Arturo screenwriter
1963 The Condemned of Altona/I Sequestrati di Altona screenwriter
1966 After the Fox/Caccia alla Volpe screenwriter
1967 Woman Times Seven screenwriter
1968 Le Streghe screenwriter—from stories—"The Witch Burned Alive," "A Night Like Any Other"
1969 A Place for Lovers/Amanti co-screenwriter
1970 Sunflower/I Girasoli screenwriter
1971 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis/Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini co-screenwriter
1972 Lo Chiameremo Andrea screenwriter
1973 A Brief Vacation/Una Breve Vacanza screenwriter
1978 The Children of Sanchez screenwriter
1978 Ligabue screenwriter—from text
1978 Un Cuore Semplice screenwriter
1982 The Truth/La Veritaaa performer, director, screenwriter, score composer
1989 Strand—Under the Dark Cloth performer