Ginevra Elkann (born 24 September 1979) is a London-born Italian film producer and director, heiress and socialite. She is a member of the
Agnelli family and granddaughter of Italian industrialist
Gianni Agnelli.[1]
Early life
Elkann was born in
London,[1] on 24 September 1979,[2][3] the daughter of the Italian
Margherita Agnelli and the French-Italian writer
Alain Elkann.[4][5] Her father is Jewish and her mother is Catholic, and she was raised Catholic.[6][7] Her maternal grandparents were princess and socialite
Marella Agnelli and the industrialist
Gianni Agnelli. She is the great-grandniece of
Ettore Ovazza. She has two older brothers
John Elkann, who is chairman of the
Fiat group of companies, and
Lapo Elkann.[8] Her parents divorced when she was young, and she moved first to Rio de Janeiro and then to Paris with her mother and stepfather, the Russian count Serge de Pahlen.[1] She graduated at the
American University of Paris.[9]
Career
Elkann worked as third assistant director on
Bernardo Bertolucci's 1998 film L'assedio, and was video assistant on Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). She later studied
filmmaking at the
London Film School (LFS), where she achieved her master's degree. In 2005, her LFS graduation film, the nine-minute Vado a messa (I Am Going to Mass), was screened during a Cinema Schools special event at the
62nd Venice International Film Festival. Asked whether she had any particular subjects in mind for a feature-length film, she mentioned two: a thriller set in the world of
synchronized swimming, and an adaptation of her father's story Piazza Carignano, which concerns a fascist
Jew. It is inspired by the story of her father's side of the family, the influential Ovazza banking family, who were early allies and important financial patrons of
Benito Mussolini and
Italian fascism.[10]
In 2011, Elkann founded the production and distribution company Good Films,[13] together with Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Luigi Musini, and Lorenzo Mieli.[14] In 2019, her debut feature film as a director Magari (If Only) had its world premiere as the opening film at the
72nd Locarno Film Festival.[15] Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, theatrical distribution of the film could not go ahead as programmed, so the film was made available on
RaiPlay, the streaming platform of Italian national broadcaster
RAI in May 2020.[16] It was nominated for the best first film in 2020 and best new director in 2021 to the
Ciak d'oro.[17]
Personal life
Elkann married Count Giovanni
Gaetani dell'Aquila d'Aragona (b. 1973) in a Roman Catholic ceremony in
Marrakesh,
Morocco, on 25 April 2009.[7] She has two sons and a daughter with her husband; they were named Giacomo (b. 15 August 2009),[18] Pietro (b. 31 October 2012),[19] and Marella (b. 27 May 2014).[20]
^Dell'Arti, Giorgio (30 May 2012).
"Biografia di Ginevra Elkann". Cinquantamila.it (in Italian). Archived from
the original on 19 June 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2023.