Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Filmmaker Samantha Casella Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry
…Too often the term “diversity” presupposes beautiful but empty words, lacking in depth. Diversity has a value, of course, but I would like to address a different discussion. Even independent cinema is “different”. Even surreal, dreamlike cinema is different. I believe in the power of sincerity. An honest director writes stories that are in line to his feelings. Do you feel like making a film about integration? About inclusion? Perfect, just be free and sincere. Do you want to make a film about aliens? Excellent. The important thing is that you are sincere. Culture improves when an author tells the truth. His truth…
As a part of our series about Inspirational Women In Hollywood, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Samantha Casella.
Samantha Casella is an Italian filmmaker whose work spans surrealist short films, documentaries, and feature-length psychological dramas. Often centered on internal landscapes and emotional trauma, her films have garnered international recognition, with hundreds of awards from festivals across more than 50 countries.
Raised far from the world of film, Casella was born into a family rooted in practical, working-class professions. Her mother worked as a physiotherapist, while her father served as a firefighter. Their backgrounds — steeped in agriculture, craftsmanship, and hands-on trades — contributed to her early love of nature, sports, and art. Her father introduced her to athletic pursuits like cycling, football, and tennis, while her mother fostered an appreciation for literature, cinema, and visual art through her skills in painting and furniture restoration.
Casella’s path to filmmaking began not through formal exposure but through a chance moment in childhood, when she encountered Ingmar Bergman’s Winter Light on television. A single scene — featuring a theological dialogue between a priest and a woman — left an indelible mark. It was, she later recalled, the moment she first imagined a future in cinema.
Her formal education in film took her through Turin, Florence, Rome, and Los Angeles, where she studied directing, screenwriting, photography, and acting. She began her career directing short films that leaned into surrealism and existential themes. Her early work, Juliette, won 19 awards, including the Massimo Troisi European Award. This was followed by a series of similarly introspective short films such as Interrupted Silence, Memory to the Island of Dead, and Agape.
Casella also ventured into documentary filmmaking, with projects like Via Crucis al Pantheon, which explored the installation of the Stations of the Cross in Rome’s Pantheon. She has frequently collaborated with painters, sculptors, and poets, incorporating their work into her films or working alongside them in multidisciplinary projects.
In 2019, Casella’s I Am Banksy premiered at the Golden State Film Festival at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, where it won Best International Short. The following year, she released To A God Unknown, a triptych short film that pays homage to Sergei Yesenin, John Steinbeck, and Arthur Rimbaud. That film went on to win over 230 festival awards.
Casella’s most acclaimed short to date, The Antithesis of Love, is a personal tribute to The Song of Songs. In addition to directing, she starred in the film, earning 20 awards for her performance.
In recent years, Casella has transitioned into feature filmmaking. Her debut, Santa Guerra, premiered in a special event during the 79th Venice Film Festival Awards. Described as dreamlike and psychologically driven, the film examines a woman’s struggle to process the death of her daughter. The project received wide international acclaim, winning more than 640 festival awards across 53 countries.
Her second feature, Katabasis, continues her thematic exploration of trauma. The film centers on a woman, portrayed by Casella, who, as a survivor of childhood abuse, remains trapped in self-destructive behavioral patterns. The film was previewed at a collateral event during the 81st Venice Film Festival, where it earned the Starlight Award for Innovative Directing, the Cinema and Industry Award, and the Veneto Region Award for Best Emerging Director. Within two months of release, Katabasis had collected 136 international festival awards, including honors for acting, directing, cinematography, and screenwriting.
Casella often refers to these works as part of a “Subconscious Trilogy,” with a third film currently in development. She has described the trilogy as an attempt to navigate the emotional and psychological territory beneath surface-level narratives, aiming for what she terms “free, honest cinema.” She has also expressed a desire to eventually move into production roles, helping other directors bring their visions to life.
Casella’s influences reflect her thematic and stylistic leanings. She frequently cites filmmakers such as Bergman, David Lynch, Terrence Malick, Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Krzysztof Kieślowski as enduring sources of inspiration. Her admiration for literary and philosophical thinkers is also apparent; a favorite quote from Fyodor Dostoevsky — “Above all, don’t lie to yourself…” — guides both her creative and personal decisions.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in a family that was light years away from the world of cinema. My mother worked as a physiotherapist. My father was a firefighter. Both came from families with a lot of land to cultivate. It was an aspect that had a great influence because since I was a child I loved contact with nature, with animals. In addition, my father passed on to me a love for sports: football, cycling, tennis, F1, athletics. My mother, on the other hand, is very good at painting and restoring furniture. By extension, she passed on to me a love for art, literature, and cinema.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
It all started by chance. I was a child and I was watching a movie on TV. I was struck by a dialogue about God between a woman and a priest. It was a movie by Ingmar Bergman, “Winter Light”. I thought: “it would be nice to do something similar one day”.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I don’t know. So many strange things have happened. One thing that always amazes me is how I am a citizen of the world. In Italy they don’t perceive me as Italian but as American. In the United States they don’t think I’m Italian but Russian. In India they think I’m Italian-American. Only in Russia people think I’m Italian.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My directing teacher. Giuseppe Ferlito, a great italian director, always repeated a phrase: “Those who make mistakes don’t learn. Those who make mistakes continue to make mistakes”. This sentence suggested to me to mediate between instinct and reasoning. Anyway, I’ve definitely made a few mistakes. Nothing dramatic or funny, errors of judgment, mistakes made in a hurry. Things that can be fixed.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I should thank many people, starting with my cinema teacher, Giuseppe Ferlito. I have to thank Lamberto Fabbri for introducing me to the world of art. I have to thank Francesca Rettondini for believing in me at the Venice Film Festival. I have to thank many people in the United States who treated me harshly but at the same time helped me along my path. And I have to thank an actress who showed me everything that happens in front of and behind the scenes. She helped me distance myself from illusions.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
I don’t think I’m capable of giving advice. The only thing I would say is to accept the fact that passion is not enough, you also need a spirit of sacrifice. Those who want to be a director or an actor will have to make many sacrifices. They will have to accept that work will take up a lot of their life. But above all I would say that failure does not exist, only life experiences exist.
Every industry iterates and seeks improvement. What changes would you like to see in the industry going forward?
I would like to see more space for independent cinema. And I would like to see people start talking about independent cinema correctly: it is not a cinema with few money, it is a cinema without masters.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
At the moment I am promoting my second film: “Katabasis”. I want to make the third chapter of my “Subconscious Trilogy” that began with Santa Guerra and continued with Katabasis. It will be a very raw film, perhaps the most devastating of all because the love life of the two protagonists is at the mercy of a curse that comes from the past. I couldn’t say where I see myself in the future. I can’t say where I see myself in the future. I wouldn’t rule out directing a film written by someone else to be shot in the United States. I certainly don’t plan on making many films as a director. I would like to get into the production machine and help other directors make their films.
We are very interested in looking at diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture and our youth growing up today?
Too often the term “diversity” presupposes beautiful but empty words, lacking in depth. Diversity has a value, of course, but I would like to address a different discussion. Even independent cinema is “different”. Even surreal, dreamlike cinema is different. I believe in the power of sincerity. An honest director writes stories that are in line to his feelings. Do you feel like making a film about integration? About inclusion? Perfect, just be free and sincere. Do you want to make a film about aliens? Excellent. The important thing is that you are sincere. Culture improves when an author tells the truth. His truth.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
1 . Cinema is first of all hard work. Secondly, it is also creative work.
2 . Your only obsession should be wanting to improve.
3 . In the cinema environment you will find few friends.
4 . Wanting to be a free director has a price to pay. There is always a price.
5 . Don’t confuse dreams with goals. They are two sides of the same coin.
Can you share with our readers any self-care routines, practices or treatments that you do to help your body, mind or heart to thrive? Please share a story for each one if you can.
I try to take care of my body by exercising a lot and eating healthy food. I help my mind by spending a lot of time reading and studying art. As for my heart: I try to spend time with my parents whenever possible, I try to have a few but trustworthy friends, and a romantic relationship that covers my voids.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” A quote by Fedor Dostoevsky.
All of Dostoevsky has been relevant to my life. I think the quote is worth more than a thousand explanations. I always keep it in mind. I try to be sincere in everything I do.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I must repeat myself: authors free from politics or any external influence. This does not mean making superficial cinema. It is the opposite. It means making free, honest cinema. How to do all this? First of all, directors should grow as aware people, capable of seeing the good and the bad in everything. Secondly, productions should, yes, have control over the project, but respecting the author and the story.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Maybe Liv Ullmann because she is one of Bergman’s iconic actresses. Bergman still my favorite director along with Malick, Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Kieslowski and Lynch.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
I have accounts with my name on Facebook, Instagram and X. I have a website and I am present on IMDb.
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
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