Fabio Mollo was born in Reggio Calabria in 1980. In 2002 he graduated in England in Visual Theory: Film History at the University of East London. His first short film “Troppo Vento” in 2003 allowed him to win some national prizes and be admitted to the Experimental Centre of Cinematography in Rome, where he graduated in Direction in 2006. Over the years he directed several short films, at the Centro Sperimentale, including “Al buio” (62nd Venice International Film Festival, Kodak Visioni Italiane Award) and “Giganti” (in competition at the 58th Berlin Film Festival, Best Short Film at the Turin Film Festival, special mention for directing at the Nastri d’Argento, Special Mention of the Press at the 30th Clermont-Ferrand). In 2005 he participated in a Screenplay workshop at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Tv of Cuba directed by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. After completing his studies, he began to work as an assistant director on several films and TV series, including “Alza la Testa” by A. Angelini, “Scialla” by F. Bruni, “Boris” by L. Vendruscolo, M. Torre, G. Ciarrapico, “Non Pensarci” by G. Zanasi and L. Pellegrini. At the same time he worked as a Filmmaker for MTV, directing six episodes of the “Black Box” series. In 2009 he was selected by the French actress Jeanne Moreau at the Atelier d’Anger which he directed for the development of the screenplay for her first feature film. In the following years, Fabio was selected by other important workshops, such as the Atelier of the Cinéfondation of the Cannes Film Festival (2011), the Talent Project Market of the Berlinale (2011), the Talent Lab of the Toronto International Film Festival (2014) and was twice the finalist at the Solinas Prize (2005 and 2015). He also won the Cinemaster Universal at Universal Studios in Los Angeles (2010), the “Young Italian Director” award at the Institute of Italian Culture in New York (2011) and the Nipkow Program in Berlin (2013). In 2013 he made his debut with “Il Sud è Niente”, his first feature film, an Italy-France co-production, produced by b24film and distributed by Istituto Luce, written with Josella Porto. The film had its International premiere at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival, its national premiere at the 8th International Rome Film Festival in the Alice nella Città section, where it received the Golden Chamber award for best first feature film for production, and its European premiere at the 64th Berlin Film Festival, where the main character Miriam Karlkvist received the Shooting Star award among the best European actresses. Fabio received, among other national and international awards, the nomination for Best New Director at the Nastri d’Argento and the Globi d’Oro. The film was selected at several other festivals including the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival 2014, Annecy Cinema Italien (Best Actress Award), Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2014, Tokyo Italian Film Festival 2014, Jerusalem Film Festival 2014, Raindance Film Festival, Bobbio Film Festival (Best Debut Film and Best Actress Award) and others. In 2015 he made “Vincenzo da Crosia”, his first feature documentary film produced by Wildside, which competed at the 33rd Torino Film Festival. The film was bought by Discovery, who took care of its airing in December of the same year. In 2016 he directed “The Young Pope – a Tale of Filmmaking”, the documentary film that follows the production of the TV series “The Young Pope” by Paolo Sorrentino produced by HBO, Sky, Canal + and Wildside, receiving the nomination for best documentary at the Nastri d’Argento. In the same year he directed the series of documentaries for Sky Arte “Artists in Love”, with Samantha Morton. In 2017 he made his second film for the cinema: “Il Padre d’Italia”. The film, always written with Josella Porto and starring Luca Marinelli and Isabella Ragonese, is produced by Bianca Film and Rai Cinema and distributed by GoodFilms. The film has had a great success with critics and audiences, and has been selected in various international festivals, receiving numerous awards, including the award for best actress, and the nomination for best actor at the Golden Globes 2017, 4 nominations for the Silver Ribbon 2017 (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress), Jury Prize and Young Jury Prize at the Festival du Film Italien de Villerupt 2017, Critics’ Prize Les rencontres du cinéma italien à Toulouse 2017, Audience Prize at the Festival du Cinema Italien de Bastia 2017, Audience Prize at the Festival del Cinema Italiano in Ajaccio 2018. The film is also distributed in France where it was received with great warmth by the public. IL PADRE D’ITALIA won the prize for best film at N.I.C.E. (New Italian Cinema Event), thus obtaining a wide diffusion in the United States and Russia. In addition, the film received the Diversity Media Award 2018 as best film of the year with an LGBT theme. The year 2018 is entirely dedicated to television projects. Fabio signs the direction of the Film Tv for Channel 5 “A Woman Against All – Renata Fonte”, with: Cristiana Capotondi, Peppino Mazzotta and Giorgio Marchesi and produced by Tao Due and Mediaset. Also in 2018 he was one of the directors of the third season of Rai 1’s prime-time series “Tutto Può Succedere”, produced by Cattleya and starring Maya Sansa, Pietro Sermonti, Matilde de Angelis, Camilla Filippi, Giorgio Colangeli, Benedetta Porcaroli, Licia Maglietta. In the same year he also directed the 12-episode TV series “Come Quando Fuori Piove” with Virginia Raffaele, produced for Discovery by Beppe Caschetto (ItMovie) and Ballandi, with premiere in the autumn. He is currently working on the preparation of his third feature film for cinema. In addition to his career as a director and screenwriter, Fabio spends a lot of time training young filmmakers and carrying out various cultural projects. Since 2015 he has been teaching Cinematography at the RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts and since 2018 he has been the tutor of the M.A. course in Film Studies at the University of Malta. For 3 years he was also curator of the Filmmaking Laboratory of the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo and art director of the cultural association Reggio Cinema and the Cinema Teatro “Gentile” of Novigrad. Since 2017 he has been the art director of the “Estate a Casa Berto” festival. He has also been a member of important juries, including the Golden Chamber Award of the Rome Film Festival, and festivals such as the Lovers Film Festival in Turin and the Filmschool Fest in Monaco. Since 2018 he has also been a member of the European Film Academy.
