Giada Mazzoleni is a producer, film educator, and founder of Paguro Film and Red Sled Films, with extensive experience in low and medium-budget productions featured at major festivals, including Venice and Sitges. Active in the creative industry since 2011, she collaborates with leading companies, delivers workshops, and champions local talent through Red Sled Films in Italy's Valle d'Aosta region.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background in filmmaking? What inspired you to pursue a career in the film industry?
I'm a film producer and film educator ‒ BFI X BAFTA Crew 2021 ‒ of Italian origin, based in the UK with credits at A and B-rated festivals and a strong expertise in low and medium-budget production. I have been active in the creative industries since 2011, collaborating with the main Italian film and advertising production companies such as CATTLEYA, BWS, FREEMANTLE and many more.
In 2018, after moving to the UK, I founded PAGURO FILM and produced the short film MOTHS TO FLAME (2018 - Studio Universal Prize at Alice Nella Città and Italian Silver Ribbon awarded), feature doc FULCI FOR FAKE (2019) selected at Mostra Internazionale del Cinema di Venezia and screened at Sitges Fantastic Film Festival and DARIO ARGENTO PANICO (2023) a feature doc directed by Simone Scafidi, starring Dario Argento himself, Asia Argento, Guillermo Del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn and Gaspar Noè, acquired by Shudder, Plaion and Nonstop Entertainment.
I believe in the power of images and how a story can inspire many other stories.
What does being part of Berlinale Talents mean to you? Is there something about the city that resonates with your creative process?
It's a very prestigious programme, with an incredible recognition at an international level. I'm so happy about this selection and to discover Berlin in his film industry's inner side.
How do you balance expressing your unique voice while creating work that resonates with audiences around the world?
I try to express different points of view, far from the standard ones. I love to find different angles to discover topics to challenge the audience.
The key is to describe exactly what's around you, in its paradox and its esthetic. As a producer that's my goal, in order to represent the diversity around me.
This year’s theme is 'Listen Courageously – Cinematic Narratives in Times of Dissonance.' How does the theme connect to your work and the stories you want to tell?
I think that listening, in this historical period more than ever, is extremely difficult, because it brings with it the choice of a voice, the identification of a point of view and direction among countless points of view, but above all the difficulty in providing consistency of listening, in not succumbing to prejudices or immediate conclusions. I listen to the world around me every day, giving priority to those voices, to those stories that too few have had the courage to listen to until the end. The result is human richness, the recognition of the beauty of its complexity and the great truth that everything has an explanation, a historical development and a consequence. Absolutely basic concepts for those who want to tell important and necessary stories, which explain the present and contextualize the past.