After a long apprenticeship in television as a set designer (working on, amongst other things, the television series Sheridan, squadra omicidi), Capuano debuted in the world of cinema. In 1991, he started with the feature film Vito e gli altri, a film about the difficult life of street children in Naples, winner of the eighth Settimana Internazionale della Critica at the Venice Film Festival. Success came in 1996 with the film Pianese Nunzio, 14 anni a maggio, which tells the story of a young altar boy abused by his parish priest.
Thereafter, he directed other films such as Polvere di Napoli (1998) and Luna Rossa (2001), which won a golden lion nomination at the 58th Venice Film Festival. Another success was La guerra di Mario (2005), for which Capuano won the critics prize at the David di Donatello in 2006. He also directed segments in the collective films L'unico paese al mondo (1994) and I vesuviani (1997), and then Giallo? and L'amore buio.
