Biografi
Supporter of innovation for the entertainment industry and passionate business developer, Alessandro Masi starts his career in digital strategy and moves on through film and television financing, production, marketing, acquisitions, international sales and distribution between Milan, Rome, London, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles.
Alessandro contributes devising sales and distribution strategies, as well as developing, producing or exec producing content, both for television studios such as Banijay Americas and Fremantle US, and leading film studios and sales outfits like Myriad Pictures, Lionsgate’s Sierra/Affinity, Electric Entertainment, American Zoetrope, implementing marketing and global distribution strategies for studios like Cohen Media and Sony Pictures Entertainment, turning around into profit OTT distribution-production startup Own Air with content partners like Rai Cinema, Koch Media, Wild Bunch, Memento, advising on profitable private equity financing for media at Hult Venture Group, conducting digital strategy for major entertainment properties and brands at Italia Brand Group, while with his brand FlexyMovies(TM) pioneering new models in film and television distribution by applying the Smart Moviegoing(TM) approach and engaging audiences with cutting-edge strategies - such as digital day-and-date release, cross-media distribution, reverse windowing, theatrical on-demand, dynamic pricing, unlimited pass, premium VOD, audience-based marketing, and many more - and expanding into market access as producing or exec producing and global selling and licensing of own and third-party content by the way of timely, tailored and direct access to worldwide distribution throughout all media and all in all devising and implementing comprehensive film & TV business strategy.
He plays a critical role - attending all the major markets and festivals such as AFM, TIFF, Cannes/Marché (where he is also regularly part of the Producers Network), Berlin/EFM, Venice, Hong Kong, Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, AFI Fest, MIPCOM, MIPTV, NATPE, besides events like CinemaCon, CineEurope, NABShow, ComicCon, Licensing Expo - in the development, financing, marketing, sales and distribution of global television successes like Wife Swap, The Fugitive Chronicles, American Gods, The Young Pope, The Librarians, The Outpost, award-winning and breakthrough box-office hits such as Enter the Void, Kaboom, Hugo, Italy: Love It or Leave It, Goodbye Solo, Wendy & Lucy, 4:44 Last Day on Earth, Beyond the Mask, Girl Rising, The Last Word, The Curse of Downers Grove, The Girl in the Book, Barney Thomson, Margin Call, Mustang, Rams, The Salesman, Damascus Cover, Interlude in Prague, Gun Shy, Kids in Love, the Rise of the Footsoldier franchise, Captain Fantastic, Manchester by the Sea, Hell or High Water, Molly’s Game, Tully, Atomic Blonde, The Family Whistle, A Father’s Will, We the People of the United States, Living in Naples, Vlad’s Legacy, Voice from the Stone, Bad Samaritan, An Ordinary Man, Robin: Watch for Wishes, Say My Name, Adverse, Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose, Chariot, Presencias, Light Falls, and many others.
Alessandro is also a regular guest speaker as expert in the film business and judges the work of others as jury member or assigning special awards at film festivals and industry events around the globe, such as the first and most prominent in the world for digital content, the LA Web Fest, as well as at the Rio Web West, Rome Web Fest, Roma Tre Film Festival, Francofilm, Ferrara Film Festival, MICI, Lucania Film Festival, Marateale, Nòt Film Fest, River Film Festival, as well as a highly followed film & TV business analyst and PR strategist with his brand The FlixBiz(TM), and a regular contributor for Key4biz. His work and career have been featured in the press including Deadline, Screen International, ABC, NBC, Corriere della Sera, Repubblica, and many others.
As a producer overseeing distribution, he is awarded the Italian Golden Globe for best documentary feature in 2013 for Suicide Italy and produces in 2016 in Los Angeles with an award-winning crew a high-concept sci-fi short named Phenomenon as transmedia proof-of-concept for feature and series. In 2018 he is awarded the prestigious Heraclea Award as illustrious Lucanian born who has distinguished himself internationally in the field of arts and culture and specifically in the film business. In 2019 he founds in his hometown Potenza in southern Italy and runs the first edition of ‘Hollywood Power’ (aka ‘Potenza di Hollywood’) a festival showcasing the best of recent art-house motion pictures from the United States in original language and unseen or barely seen overseas. He is the founder of Basilicata Film to Film for the promotion of filmmaking in his region of origin in Italy. Since 2018, he has been a voting member of the European Film Academy. He teaches film business at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - National Film School of Italy. He is Strategic Advisor and lecturer for the National Film Center of Moldova.
Born in Potenza, Italy, he earns a BS in Business Economics from University of Siena with a thesis on movie marketing featuring - thanks to a close collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment - a case study on the marketing strategy for the Spider-Man franchise, an MS in Economics and Management for Arts, Culture, Media and Entertainment from Bocconi University in Milan - accompanied by campus abroad program at New York University in New York City, NY and exchange program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX - with a thesis on business models for web TV which foresees the exponential growth of the OTTs and the SVOD model in particular, an MBA in strategy and finance from Hult International Business School, and a Certificate in Business & Management of Entertainment from UCLA Extension in Los Angeles, CA. Further training includes a variety of courses such as Technology Entrepreneurship from Stanford University, Google AdWords certification, TechGarage startup competition by dPixel venture capital, Financial Modeling and Valuations from Investment Banking Institute, Bloomberg investments platform Essentials, Film Producer’s Foundations from Raindance Institute, Dov Simens’ 2-Day Film School from Hollywood Film Institute, CSC Lab Contracts in Film & TV Production and CSC Summer School International Co-Production from Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - National Film School, executive courses such as Economics and Financing for Audiovisuals, Line Producing, Soft Money Financing, Business Affairs, from Anica Academy.
