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Francesco Calogero was born in Messina, Italy. He graduated in Law with a thesis on film rights and worked in several art houses. After extensive experience as a programme coordinator at the Taormina International Film Festival, he served as Artistic Director for various film events focusing on independent Italian cinema, including the Messina Film Festival (1995-1999), CostaIblea Film Festival (2003-2009), and Valdarno Cinema Fedic (2006-2014). Since 1996, he has been actively involved in teaching, conducting courses and workshops across Italy; from 2005 to 2008, he taught Cinema at the University of Messina.
Calogero began his directing career by creating two amateur Super 8 films: the feature La caviglia di Amelia (Amelia's Ankle) and the short Bionda per un giorno (Blonde for a Day), along with several videos including Lonesome, produced by Salso Film & TV Festival with Rai, the Italian State Television. In 1987, he directed his first 16mm feature, La gentilezza del tocco (The Gentle Touch), which premiered at the San Sebastian Festival and was subsequently screened at festivals in Turin, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Sydney, Hamburg, and Galway. This film won Best Independent Film of the Year at Bellaria, the Laceno d'Oro in Avellino, the Bronze Dolphin and the Fipresci Award in Troia, Portugal, and was nominated for the Italian Silver Ribbons. In 1988, it received the Sacher d'Oro for Best Debut Film, the first edition of this award created by director Nanni Moretti.
His next feature, Visioni private (Private Visions), shot on 16mm alongside Ninni Bruschetta and Donald Ranvaud during the 1988 Taormina Film Festival and completed two years later, gained international acclaim at festivals such as Turin, Smoljan, Rotterdam, Valencia, Troia, Jerusalem, and the International Forum at the Berlinale, due to its unique film festival setting.
Collaborating with stage director Ninni Bruschetta, Calogero co-wrote the play Il battello degli amanti (The Lovers' Boat) in 1988, and later adapted Beniamino Joppolo's I carabinieri, performed at the Orestiadi festival in Gibellina in 1994 and subsequently toured. That same year, Sellerio published La gentilezza del tocco, a collection of screenplays for his three professional films, including Nessuno (Nobody), his first 35mm feature, which was presented in 1992 at EuropaCinema (Viareggio), Saint-Vincent's Grolle d'Oro, and Annecy.
In November 1995, Calogero debuted as an opera director in Messina with Gaetano Donizetti's Rita ou le mari battu, followed by Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in 1997, then Bellini's Norma (1998) and La Sonnambula (2003). He also directed the film documentation for all five productions.
Returning to cinema in 1997, he directed Cinque giorni di tempesta (Five Stormy Days), which premiered at the 54th Venice Film Festival and was later shown in Los Angeles, Moscow, Luxembourg, and Casablanca. The film won the Grand Prix at the Annecy Film Festival, the Young European Cinema Award in Osaka, and the SIAE Award for Best Story (co-written with Giovanni and Sandro Veronesi). The lead actor, Roberto De Francesco, received the Sacher d'Oro for Best Italian Actor in 1998.
After directing Metronotte (Night Watch) in 2000, screened at Mystfest (Cattolica) and in competition at Annecy and Villerupt, as well as other European cities, Calogero debuted as a documentary director in 2002 with L'implacabile tenente Rossi (The Implacable Lieutenant Rossi) for the series "The Sacher Diaries," which premiered in Locarno and was featured in numerous festivals.
In 2004, he directed In the Name of the Godfather, filmed on Francis Ford Coppola’s Sicilian sets and screened at the Taormina Film Festival. This served as a preparatory work for the medium-length film Nella terra del Padrino (In the Land of the Godfather), completed in 2012 with support from Rai Cinema.
In 2013, together with Mia Arfuso, he founded the production company Polittico, which debuted with the documentary Mise en Scène with Arthur Penn (A Conversation), directed by Iranian filmmaker Amir Naderi, co-produced by Alphaville Film and Rai’s Fuori Orario, and screened during the 71st Venice Film Festival. In January 2015, Calogero completed the feature film Seconda primavera (Second Spring), which premiered in Italy at the 26th Trieste Film Festival.
