A counter-guide to leadership Carlo Cresto-Dina is one of the most important producers in Italian cinema. I met him in Turin for a conversation for the column I curate for Perimetro, exploring independent and auteur cinema. In 2009 he founded Tempesta, the production company through which he built one of the most recognizable catalogues in European auteur cinema. He has produced all of Alice Rohrwacher's films, from Corpo Celeste to Le meraviglie, from Happy as Lazzaro to La Chimera. This...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Making films is an act of faith Hello Reader,last January 2025 I was in Trieste for When East Meets West, one of the most important co-production forums in Europe. There I met Andrea Magnani of Pilgrim Film, and from that informal conversation a collaboration was born. I had a story in mind for a short film and turned it into a screenplay: a father and a daughter, the same summer road trip every year to Friuli. A distraction at the gas station, petrol instead of diesel, and they find...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Five unconventional people around Seattle Ciao Reader, in March I woke up at 5:00 in the morning for ten days straight. Every time in a different place in the Pacific Northwest. It was one of the most beautiful trips I've ever taken. After Japan, the new Fay Archive campaign brought me to Seattle, the San Juan Islands, Orcas Island, and Oregon, to tell the stories of five people living in radical ways. That area has a soft, diffused light, almost suspended. The sky changes constantly: low...
6 months ago • 1 min read
Why I'd only shoot on film (or with an iPhone) Every executive producer would hate me. Higher costs, higher risks, zero guarantees. And yet today, if I had to choose, I'd only shoot on film. Not for nostalgia. Not for the look. Not to play the vintage filmmaker. Film brings imperfection. It brings the unexpected. It forces you to limit your takes, to know what you want before you turn the camera on. It demands a clear, strong vision, because you can't afford to be vague. At a time when...
7 months ago • 1 min read
One Battle After Another "One battle after another" — I kept telling myself this throughout the year as a reminder: this work has never been easy. It's always been a battle. Creative work is changing shape. At a time when everyone's looking for ways to stand out, bringing narrative depth to a brand brief makes the difference in a complex, saturated landscape. So I stopped waiting for the phone to ring to shoot. I structured something I was already doing informally: working with brands and...
9 months ago • 1 min read
I met Virgilio Villoresi in Milan. We spent two hours talking about stop motion, 16mm film, optical effects. About making handmade cinema in a world racing towards AI. He's the latest filmmaker I interviewed for Cinema Club, my column for Perimetro exploring independent, auteur cinema. It's my way of building a network of people to exchange ideas with and grow as an author. Over the past year and a half, I've spoken with Carlo Sironi, Tommaso Santambrogio, Giacomo Abbruzzese, Beniamino...
10 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader a few months ago I discovered I was adopted, so a few weeks ago I went to Berlin to meet my real parents. Just kidding :) I was in Berlin to attend a workshop and I discovered something enlightening while working on the screenplay for Anno Zero. Solace 23 is a workshop led by Franz Rodenkirchen and Françoise von Roy. For three days I sat in a circle around a large table with them and five other filmmakers from around the world — Malaysia, Brazil, the Netherlands — and we shared our...
11 months ago • 3 min read
AIDA now streaming After 18 months of work, AIDA—the documentary I wrote and directed—has just launched on RaiPlay, Italy's national streaming platform. I spent a year following a group of young researchers at Politecnico di Milano as they developed autonomous vehicles. It's been a long and intense journey, but seeing the story of AIDA arrive on RaiPlay is a great satisfaction. You can watch the trailer here. 55 minutes capturing the tests the challenges, and a vision that could change how we...
11 months ago • 1 min read
From Hamlet to Neon Lights What happens when Shakespeare's most famous line meets a skull-shaped perfume bottle? A client asked me to take 'To be or not to be?' and gave it a Gen Z makeover for POLICE. Pretentious? Maybe. Blasphemy? Possibly both. In a world that forces us to choose between being authentic and being accepted, we chose to question the question itself. From existential doubt to empowered choice. The eternal question becomes 'WHO to be?' From Hamlet's castle to neon lights. The...
about 1 year ago • 1 min read