バイオグラフィー
Born in Rome on June 7, 1953, to an Italo-Swiss father and an Italo-Greco-Brazilian mother, he pursued university and postgraduate studies from 1971 to 1977, focusing on orientalism and anthropology in Italy, followed by specialization and a state doctorate in China. From 1977 to 1980, he engaged in research and teaching in Italy, producing ethnological publications, exploring ethnomusicology and visual anthropology, and leading seminars and university courses in ethnomusicology.
Beginning in 1980, he worked as a film critic and historian, contributing articles and essays to newspapers and periodicals across Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, as well as authoring books and essays on cinema histories in Italy, France, and Spain. Since 1982, he has created and directed multiple book series on cinema for various publishers in Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, curated monographic publications, and consistently written essays and articles on film.
As an author and documentary writer about cinema for RAI and TSR, between 1982 and 1989, he also gained experience as an assistant and actor on feature film sets, working with prominent New Cinema pioneers such as Jean Rouch from France and Allen Fong from Hong Kong.
From 1978 onward, he established himself as a "festival maker." After collaborating with several European festivals, including curating monographic programs, he founded and directed Turin’s first major film festival, "Electric Shadows," which featured a comprehensive retrospective of Chinese cinema with 135 films. He then moved to the International Exhibition of New Cinema in Pesaro, serving as programming manager from 1983 to 1985 and festival director from 1986 to 1989. He also contributed to the Venice Film Festival’s selections from 1980 to 1994, notably focusing on Asian films.
He directed the Rotterdam International Film Festival in the Netherlands from 1989 to 1991, where he established the Huub Bals Fund and the Coproduction Workshop (now "Cinemart Projects"), initiatives pivotal in Europe and beyond for supporting independent films from the South and East both financially and culturally.
Between 1991 and 2000, he led the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, revolutionizing programming from the ground up. His tenure featured numerous discoveries of now-renowned directors, along with significant retrospectives such as Jean-Luc Godard’s centennial cinema screenings and world premiere of his Histoire(s) du cinéma series; a 50-year American cinema survey featuring works and original texts by Coppola, Scorsese, Eastwood, Allen, Bigelow, Jarmusch, Carpenter, Lynch, Van Sant, Ferrara, Woo, and others; full screenings of Joe Dante’s work alongside "second-generation" directors from Roger Corman’s school; exclusive full-length exhibitions of Marco Bellocchio’s sketches and preparatory drawings, Abbas Kiarostami’s watercolors and photographs, and Youssef Chahine’s films; and the unveiling of 30 Soviet film masterpieces previously suppressed by censors.
During his Locarno directorship, from 1992 to 2002, he founded and directed the Fondazione Montecinemaverità, which renewed the objectives of the Huub Bals Fund in light of evolving film cooperation prospects.
From 1998 to 2002, he headed the Film and Video Department at Fabrica, the Benetton Group's communication research center, where he focused on training emerging filmmakers and launched Fabrica Cinema, the production unit under his department. His productions include two shorts by Fabrica scholars—Afterwords (Venice 2000) and First Death Experience (Cannes 2002)—and nine feature films. Among these, three were co-produced: Viaggio verso il sole by Yesim Ustaoglu (Turkey; two prizes in Berlin, 1999), Moloch by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia; screenplay prize in Cannes, 1999), and Adanggaman by Roger Gnoan M'Bala (Ivory Coast; Venice 2001, two awards at Panafrican Festival, Ouagadougou, 2000). Six feature films produced for Fabrica Cinema include Seventeen Years by Zhang Yuan (China; directing prize, Venice 1999), Blackboards by Samira Makhmalbaf (Iran; special jury prize, Cannes 2000), La bestia dalle sette teste by Lais Bodansky (Brazil; youth award, Locarno 2000, and 32 prizes across Brazil and Latin America), No Man's Land by Danis Tanovic (Bosnia; screenplay prize, Cannes 2001, and Oscar 2002 for Best Foreign Film), Secret Ballot by Babak Payami (Iran; screenplay award, Venice 2001), and Angel on the Right by Jamshed Usmonov (Tajikistan; Cannes 2002, Critics' Award at London Film Festival, Special Jury Prize at Filmex Tokyo).
After a one-year hiatus spent establishing two new production companies—Downtown Pictures in Italy and Riforma Film in Switzerland—he resumed directing Fabrica Cinema in January 2004.
From spring 2002 to spring 2004, he served as president of Downtown Pictures (Bologna), a production house and audiovisual initiative center emphasizing emerging filmmakers and contemporary cinema and audiovisual works. His initial Downtown productions include Çamur (Mud) by Darvish Zaim (Turkish-Greek-Cypriot; UNESCO Prize, Venice 2003), Solnce (The Sun) by Aleksandr Sokurov (Berlin 2005), Face Addict by Edo Bertoglio (Locarno 2005), Kanshangqu hen mei (Little Red Flowers) by Zhang Yuan (Sundance/Berlin 2006), and Grido (Shout) by Pippo Delbono (Cinema-Rome Fest 2006). In spring 2009, he was slated to serve as creative producer for Egidio Eronico's 5 Numero Perfetto (5 Is The Perfect Number) for Bruno Benetti's OneArt, based on Igort's internationally acclaimed graphic novel.
His initiative led to the establishment of the Fondazione Officina Cinema Sud Est in Italy in winter 2002, modeled after foundations he had created and directed in the Netherlands and Switzerland. Serving as vice-president until April 2004, the foundation aims to foster partnerships between the Italian film industry and cinemas in Southern and Eastern countries.
In 2002, Mario Botta invited him to teach a History of Art course (History of Film Styles) at the Accademia d'Architettura of the University of Southern Switzerland. This evolved into the Production Design Institute project. He currently teaches Style and Technique of Cinema at the Accademia and History of Cinema at SUPSI - University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland.
In early summer 2003, together with a group of "business angels," he founded Riforma Film, a Swiss production company based in Lugano. Alongside four other producers from Ticino Canton, he helped form APICE, a group of independent Italian-speaking Swiss producers. For Riforma Film, which he left in 2007, he produced Le Valli della Paura (The Valleys of Fear), the debut feature by Mihaly Gyorik.
Throughout 2003, he organized the "Barbarano Cine Lab," a practical and theoretical cinema workshop running from early spring 2004 to late winter 2005 in Barbarano Romano, supported by the Lazio Region, the Province of Viterbo, and the European Social Fund.
Since April 2004, he has been Director of the Cinema section of the Venice Biennale Foundation and Director of the Venice International Film Festival (Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica).
He has received numerous awards recognizing his contributions to discovering and promoting filmmakers and cinema. Notable recent honors (2007-2008) include a Special Award for his long-standing promotion of Russian cinematography (Sochi, 2007), the Person of the Year Award from The Centenario Foundation (Lugano, 2007), and the Arts and Culture Prize from The Japan Foundation (Tokyo, 2008).
