Biography
Massimiliano "Max" Musina is an Italian and American film producer and entrepreneur, founder and CEO of The MAP Group, born in Florence, Italy, on March 8, 1982. He is known for producing Not Without Hope, Triumph, Primal, Birth of the Dragon, and In Dubious Battle.
Max founded The MAP Group in Malibu, California in 2013, as a production and financing company for feature films, television series, and documentaries. The MAP Group has produced several entertainment projects, including award-winning documentaries raising awareness for world peace, and has invested in and is in production on several films and television series at various stages of development and production.
In 2023 Max produced Not Without Hope (2025), a feature film shot in Malta, based on the true story and New York Times best-selling book by the same name, written by Nick Schuyler, directed by Joe Carnahan, and starring Zachary Levi and Josh Duhamel. This survival and rescue film tells the story of real events of February 2009, when a 24-year-old Nick Schuyler went fishing in the Gulf of Mexico with three friends, two of them NFL players. When the boat capsized, the four men were forced to cling to the hull to survive. The US Coast Guard mounted a plane, boat and helicopter search and found the upturned boat after 43 hours. Nick was the only one alive. Not Without Hope was released in 2025 and is streaming on Paramount+.
In 2020 and 2021 Max produced the inspirational feature film Triumph (2021), during the challenging lockdown caused by Covid, starring RJ Mitte, Oscar nominee Terrence Howard, Johnathon Schaech and Colton Haynes. This true story follows an ambitious teenager with cerebral palsy as he attempts to make his high school wrestling team, and win over the girl of his dreams' heart. Triumph won the Ruderman Seal of Authentic Representation, the premier recognition for those in the entertainment creative community who show commitment toward full inclusiveness in popular culture. Triumph was made in partnership with United Cerebral Palsy with a percentage of the film's profits going to families who have children with cerebral palsy.
Massimiliano executive produced the action film Primal (2019), starring Nicolas Cage, in Puerto Rico in 2018/2019; and director George Nolfi's Birth of the Dragon (2016) in 2016, the epic story of upcoming martial artist Bruce Lee, and his legendary fight with kung fu master Wong Jack Man, the battle that gave birth to Bruce Lee's legend, selected for TIFF Special Presentations.
In 2016 Max executive produced the feature film In Dubious Battle (2016), directed by and starring Oscar nominee James Franco, along with Selena Gomez, Oscar winner Robert Duvall, Oscar nominees Bryan Cranston, Ed Harris, Sam Shepard and Vincent D'Onofrio; Nat Wolff, John Savage, Zach Braff, and Josh Hutcherson. The film, based on Pulitzer Prize winning author John Steinbeck's first major work, published in 1936 by the same name as the film, won the Fondazione Mimmo Rotella Award at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, highlighting the author's philosophy on "having the courage to never submit or yield" in times of unfair adversity.
In 2016 and 2017, The MAP Group and Massimiliano produced the first ever Golden Globe Awards: China Film and Entertainment Summit, in Beijing. He acquired the streaming and broadcast rights to the Golden Globe Awards for the Chinese market, first for the 74th ceremony (2017) and again for the 77th (2020), working with Dick Clark Productions and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and later produced the Live from the Red Carpet and Winners Circle interviews for the Golden Globe Awards show in China.
In 2015 Max produced One Rock Three Religions (2015), traveling the world interviewing world leaders such as His Holiness Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, ex-Director of the CIA James Woolsey, and many more featured in the award-winning documentary, beginning from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, discussing and exploring the impact of the three major Abrahamic faiths on world peace. One Rock Three Religions' efforts in peace-making through storytelling won the Jury Prize at the Global Nonviolent Film Festival, the most important and renowned nonviolent film festival in the world, and the film was screened at the United States Congress, recognized for its peace and interfaith-dialogue efforts. Max also received a Special Thanks credit on The Square (2013), the Academy Award nominated documentary on the Egyptian revolution.
In 2013 he worked closely with director, writer, producer, actor, poet and philosopher Yılmaz Erdoğan and producer and actress Belçim Bilgin on The Butterfly's Dream (2013). Max was profoundly impacted by the philosophical depth and poetry in the director's storytelling, and his unique ability of turning themes such as the meaning and poetry of life and death into main characters for his film. The Butterfly's Dream went on to win fifteen awards, and was Turkey's official submission to the 2014 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
Massimiliano began his career in entertainment around 2010, working with best friend Francesco Quinn, co-star of Oliver Stone's Platoon and son of Oscar-winning actor Anthony Quinn. Max was co-founder and CEO of Quinn Studios. Max and Francesco were teammates on their own triathlon team, entering races together, and sharing a passion for competitive training and adventures of all types, spending hours every day attempting often impossible feats of setting cycling records up the most challenging climbs in the Santa Monica and Malibu mountains. In one of many memorable and brotherly "race you to the top" moments between the two, while walking from their hotel to a black-tie red carpet award ceremony at the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily, Francesco challenged Max to a sprint up a steep mountain on a cobblestone side street just outside the entrance to the film festival, resulting in both of them destroying their new tuxedos and getting injured, having to hitchhike down the mountain to the emergency room at the Taormina hospital for x-rays. Max broke his foot. Francesco was first to the top of the mountain, and later received his award at the festival. Max was mostly proud to learn he kept racing with a fractured foot that night. It was a great race.
Early Life
Max was born to Florentine father Libero, a fashion industry entrepreneur and accessory manufacturer and licensee to most Italian designer label brands, and mother Sheila, from Nashville, Tennessee, also a fashion industry entrepreneur. He grew up in Florence, Italy, with dual citizenship, and bilingual, speaking Italian to his father and English to his mother.
He excelled in several sports from a young age, and fell in love with baseball, making the Italian national team at the age of 12, and traveling the world playing tournaments with Team Italy, as the starting shortstop until the age of 20, where he also served as captain. Max won multiple European championships with Team Italy, and placed as high as 4th in World Championship tournaments. At 15 he began playing for his local minor league team, Antella. At 16 he joined the local major league team, the Fiorentina Baseball Club, where he played alongside Major League Baseball veterans who moved to Italy. At 17 he accepted a scholarship to Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, where he continued to play. Max later completed a semester abroad in international business at New York University in Florence, then moved to Malibu, California, and began traveling internationally while consulting for various Italian, British and Japanese fashion brands, traveling often between London, Tokyo and Milan. He began working in the entertainment industry shortly thereafter with friend Francesco Quinn.
He is still a passionate athlete at heart, participating in extreme races of all types and local fitness events whenever he has a chance. He attributes his commitment to the core values he applies to all his businesses and projects - hard work, dedication, perseverance, loyalty, teamwork, and never giving up - to lessons learned in team sports and extreme races. Max served on the board of directors of the charity Raincatcher (2012-2016), helping bring clean water to villages in Africa and India.
Max is based between Los Angeles and Italy. New film projects are in development, and he is increasingly focused on where entertainment meets artificial intelligence, the next structural shift in how films are made and financed.
