MIA

“I have a fifteen-year-old daughter, which is the first reason I wanted to turn the script for Mia into a film. Next, I’m a man. This is the second reason. It hurt to read it, and it hurts every time I do. I was dealing with a story in which, being a man, I could be either the positive figure (the father) or the negative figure (the boyfriend); I could perceive both perfectly. The heroic side and the dark side. All too often, teenage girls get depressed and lose the will to live. They lose weight, keep to themselves, hurt all the time – and the fact that all this happens in the silence of their own rooms, without bothering others, makes them invisible. With this film I want to hug them and live alongside my characters.” (Ivano De Matteo, Coming Soon)

Ivano De Matteo got his start in 1990, with a diploma from the theater workshop Il Mulino di Fiora, directed by Perla Peragallo. An actor, director and documentarian, he founded the theater troupe Il Cantiere with Valentina Ferlan (author and screenwriter) in 1993. In 1995, he founded the small production company Utopia Film. After making his first short film, Grazietante (1997), he directed the documentary Prigionieri di una fede (Special Mention at the Torino Film Festival). In 2002 he made his first narrative feature, Ultimo Stadio. His 2008 film La bella gente won the Grand Prix and the CICAE Award at the Annecy Film Festival. In 2012, his film Gli equilibristi premiered at the Venice Film Festival. De Matteo was back in Venice in 2014 and in 2021, at Giornate degli Autori, with I nostri ragazzi and the short film Trastwest respectively.