Maddalena Crespi
Directing
Biography
Maddalena Crespi is an Italian director and screenwriter. Born in Milan in 1989, she moved to Scotland during her adolescence to finish high school and continue her university studies in Edinburgh, in 2011 she graduated with a BA in English Literature. After returning to Italy, she began working as a writer and editor for publishing houses and newspapers. Since 2013, she has been active in film production, collaborating as a writer on documentaries, feature films, and short films. In 2019, she deepened her interest in Nordic cinema by attending a course on Scandinavian film at the University of Copenhagen. In 2022, she wrote and directed her first short film, Miranda’s Mind, which completed its festival run two years later, receiving several national and international awards. Her second short film, I Sassi, premiered in 2026 and was produced by Salice Production and Pistacchio Film in collaboration with the Emilia-Romagna Film Commission. The film continues and expands her exploration of contemporary themes, further developing themes of identity, growth, and femininity. She’s currently working on her next project.
Known For
Alessandra and Elisa are fifteen, bound by an intense connection that shifts between closeness, desire, and subtle jealousy. Elisa is about to move abroad, and the looming distance charges every gesture with new weight. They tease, provoke, and cling to each other, as if holding on and pushing away were the same thing. What they can’t express surfaces in silences, in glances, in the fragile balance between them. Over the course of a long afternoon, following the path of a river, they drift along the edges of their world: boys who bully, men who blur boundaries, glimpses of an adult world they observe without fully understanding. In that uncertain space - shaped by fear, confusion, and desire - something cracks. An extreme act begins to take shape, driven by something deep, unspoken, and unresolved.
I Sassi
Miranda, a twenty-nine years old melancholic character, is struggling to find her place in the world. After having her book proposal rejected, Miranda is trying to find peace with the fact that she might never achieve her purpose. Thanks to encounters with various characters and multiple daydreams, Miranda will bring the audience with her on a journey to find something that was right in front of her all along: herself.
Miranda's Mind
During a mountain trip, three children spend the afternoon playing war. When a local child asks to join them, he is given the role of the "enemy". This innocent choice will lead to unexpected consequences.