DIRECTOR & EDITOR
DOCUMENTARIES
COMMERCIALS
FICTION
About
I was born in a small Tuscan village in the mountains and grew up in the theater wings and stalls because of my parents’ work. The backstage, the mechanism behind the making of a work has always fascinated me. I studied film at IULM University in Milan where I graduated in March with a thesis entitled: “slow cinema: minimalist aesthetics between Mexico and Southeast Asia”. My fascination for “structuralist” combines with an attitude for realism and a priority for the role of the environment inside the plot. Thus my research moves toward a cinema of attentions, instead of attractions, in privileging the documentary form and seeking meaning and significance in everyday events.
BIOGRAPHY
Niccolò Donatini was born in Poggibonsi on 30 June 1998. He grew up in Londa, a small town in the province of Florence, in a family of theatre and entertainment workers. Ever since his high school thesis on Metropolis (Fritz Lang), he cultivated a strong passion for cinema, confirmed by his enrolment at the IULM University in Milan the following year. During his first three university years, Niccolò tried his hand at independent short films and attended various evening courses: comics, theatre improvisation, music lessons, as well as working part-time at the Anteo cinema in Milan. His three-year degree in Communication and Media opened up his first work opportunities as a video maker for various realities (Castellani, Olympic skeet shooting; Cloverthree; 42records for video clips), but it was in 2021 that he really approached directing with Cecità (co-directed with Andrea Bernardi and starring Celeste Dalla Porta).
So he enrolled in the IULM master’s degree in Cinema and New Technologies, under the guidance of professors such as Andrea Caccia, Gianni Canova and Michelangelo Frammartino, and graduated cum laude in March 2023 with a thesis entitled ‘Slow Cinema: Minimalist Aesthetics between Mexico and South-East Asia’. During his six years in Milan, he cohabited with his sister Nina Donatini, a set designer and trusted assistant on all his short films, including La Lastra (2022), winner of first prize at the Sottodiciotto Film Festival & Campus (2023) and his first real cinematographic experiment. In the same year, he directed his first documentaries: Irene (2022) and Heartquakes (2022), as a climate and human rights activist.
Originally from the mountains and curious about cities, Niccolò experiences the true fast-slow combination: independent filmmaker on the one hand and advertising director on the other. In 2023 he worked for the production company Basement Headquarter, with which he directed the first commercials for well-known brands (including Baracuta in Manchester) and documentaries for contemporary artists such as Jacopo Benassi. In the meantime, he participated in some of the most important filmmaking residencies and workshops in Italy: La Guarimba, Occhi sul Lago, Naufragare at Bellaria Film Festival, Nouvelle Bug, Officine IED.
In the film industry, he worked between 2023 and 2024 in the film AmicheMai, directed by Maurizio Nichetti, as assistant director and actively collaborates in Milan with organisations such as Giffoni. He also worked in theatre, in the same year, as director of the video projections for the show Il calamaro gigante with Bruno Storti and Angela Finocchiaro.
His most recent short films are AEOLUS (2024), a documentary about a huge fire in Stromboli in 2022, and Ronzìo (2024), a short film with Paolo Briguglia and Beatrice Fiorentini, produced by IED, Officine IED and Indiana, on learning disorders, currently being distributed. He moved to Rome in January, but continues to maintain working relations with Milan.