When writing the script, Nanni Moretti used what he had written during his mother's sickness.
The scene in which John Turturro's character Barry expresses his frustration at driving in a car that's so laden with cameras he can't see out didn't require much acting from Turturro. He found the rigors of driving in such a car (a stick shift which he wasn't used to), unable to see out properly, all whilst trying to speak in Italian to be quite overwhelming.
This won Margherita Buy her 5th David di Donatello Best Actress award (the Italian equivalent of the Oscars).