Gabriella Carlucci: Estimar film festival Belgrad & Palma De Mallorca founder

From "Portobello" to Parliament to international cultural management: how has your definition of a meaningful career shifted, and what core passion has remained unchanged?

"When I was that young woman next to Enzo Tortora on "Portobello," a meaningful career meant connecting with millions of Italians through a screen, giving voice to ordinary people and their stories," Carlucci recalled. "Today, it means building bridges between countries through culture."

She explained that while the scale shifted from national TV to international diplomacy, the core passion remains unchanged: storytelling as a public service. "Whether I’m hosting Sanremo, writing the "Carlucci Law" for tax credits in cinema, or producing "Social Suite" on Amazon Prime, the goal is the same — create platforms where art, heritage, and talent can be seen, valued, and protected," she added. "Culture is development, culture is progress. That belief has guided me from RAI to the Chamber of Deputies to Belgrade and Mallorca."

The 10th Italian-Serbian Film Festival: What drew you to Serbian culture, and how does film heal and unify?

"What drew me to Serbia was recognizing a twin soul," she observed. "Italy and Serbia share a Mediterranean temperament, a respect for history, and a resilience shaped by intense pasts. I saw it first at Expo 2015 with the Serbian Pavilion, and again with "Arts in Motion" alongside Montenegro."

Carlucci emphasized the power of cinema: "Film is the fastest language we have. It doesn’t need translation when the emotion is real." The Italian-Serbian Film Festival, she stated, was born to give value to new voices and let two traditions sit in the same dark room and recognize each other. "When a Serbian director’s story moves an Italian audience, or vice versa, you’ve already started the healing," she continued. "You’ve replaced stereotypes with faces. That’s unification: not politics, but empathy."

The Modigliani co-production: What aspect of him did the world need to see right now?

"Modigliani was not just a painter of long necks," Carlucci clarified. "He was an immigrant, a poor artist in Paris, an Italian Jew who never betrayed his roots while absorbing the world."

She stressed that the public needs to see Modigliani the bridge right now. "He lived between cultures, between poverty and genius, between tradition and modernity." Addressing current times, she said, "In a time of walls, his life reminds us that identity isn’t lost through contamination — it’s enriched." The film, according to Carlucci, presents Amedeo not as a tragic cliché, but as a man who "estimated" beauty in everyone, especially outsiders. "That’s urgent today," she concluded.

Introducing the Italian Tourism Awards before the Oscars: How do you convey Italy’s soul to Hollywood?

"Hollywood has seen everything, except what can’t be copied: authenticity born from centuries," she asserted. "I don’t sell Italy with postcards. I tell them: Italy is the only place where a film set is already there — you just have to turn the camera on."

She painted a picture of the country's offerings: "The light in Puglia, the silence of a restored abbey, the craft of a costume tailor in Rome who learned from his grandfather. That’s our tax credit: 2,000 years of art direction." To creators and investors, her message is clear. "You can shoot anywhere, but only in Italy does every stone have a story that makes your story better. We don’t compete on budget. We compete on soul," Carlucci stated firmly. "And soul is irreplaceable."

"Vanille Mon Amour": What story were you capturing, and how does perfume compare to producing a film?

""Vanille Mon Amour" was born from a memory: the warmth of Italian salons, vanilla pods in a grandmother’s drawer, the elegance that doesn’t shout," she reflected. "I wanted a scent that felt like an embrace after a premiere — intimate, lingering, personal."

When drawing parallels to her other work, she said, "Creating a perfume is like producing a film in 30 seconds: you have top notes, heart notes, base notes. It’s storytelling without images, only emotion." Carlucci elaborated on the distinction: "A film takes you on a journey for two hours. A fragrance takes you home in one breath. Both are about curating memory. Both ask: what do you want people to feel when the lights come up, or when you leave the room?"

"Social Suite" on Amazon Prime: How do we connect now vs. the TV days, and what’s the message?

"Television was a campfire: one program, millions of people, same time, same emotion," she observed. "Today we’re alone together — each with a screen, algorithm-driven, infinite choice."

Regarding her Amazon Prime project, she noted, ""Social Suite" examines that shift. The risk is losing the ritual of sharing. The opportunity is choosing consciously." Carlucci wants viewers to take away a simple truth: "Technology changed the tool, not the need." She emphasized, "We still crave stories that make us feel less alone. So curate your time. Choose content that values you, not just distracts you. The gathering place moved from the living room to the cloud, but the human need to connect through art is unchanged."

Throughout your demanding global schedule, you have your husband Marco and your son Matteo. How do they ground you when international diplomacy pulls you in so many directions, and how does their love shape the art you choose?

"They are my home port and my true north," Carlucci shared warmly. "Diplomacy, festivals, red carpets — it’s all wind. When cultural diplomacy takes me from Rome to Palma, from Los Angeles to Belgrade, they are the home I carry with me."

She spoke of her husband's steadying presence: "Marco, with his legal mind and clear-sightedness as a man far from the spotlight, reminds me every day that politics passes, but values remain. He reminds me that every project needs structure to fly." Regarding her son, born in 1996, she noted he grew up between sets and parliaments. "Matteo, with the eyes of the young on life, forces me to ask: 'Will what I’m doing serve his future?' He taught me to see culture through the eyes of a new generation: faster, but hungry for meaning."

This foundation directly impacts her professional decisions. "Their love has changed the way I choose art," she explained. "I used to look for the perfect work. Today I look for the necessary work. I only say yes to projects that I’d be proud to explain at our dinner table. If it doesn’t create value, beauty, or dialogue, it’s not worth the distance. I prefer projects that speak of roots and bridges: films that unite generations, restorations that return beauty to the suburbs, laws that allow a kid from the South to make cinema without having to emigrate." She reflected affectionately on their impact: "Marco taught me the courage of pragmatism, Matteo the courage of hope. Without them, my agenda would be full of events. With them, it is full of meaning. They keep me rooted in what’s real, and the real is always personal."

The Estimar Italo-Spanish Film Festival in Palma de Mallorca is another jewel in your cultural work. What is it about the shared Mediterranean spirit between Italy and Spain that makes their cinematic dialogue so rich, and what has been your proudest moment from this international film festival?

"Italy and Spain are two sisters gazing into the same sea," she reflected. "We have the same sun on our skin, the same drama in our hearts, the same irony to survive."

Carlucci believes their cinematic dialogue is rich because it requires no translation. "Almodóvar’s mother and Tornatore’s mother weep in the same language. We share the cult of family, the sense of the sacred and the profane, and beauty as resistance to pain," she added. Recalling her proudest moment at Estimar, she described a specific screening: "We screened an Italian film subtitled in Spanish and a Spanish film subtitled in Italian, on the same night, in a square in Palma filled with young people. At the end they all stood up, Italians and Spaniards alike, singing "Volare."" That moment crystallized her mission. "That’s when I understood: we weren’t running a festival. We were reminding two peoples that they share the same blood. When culture is real, it doesn’t need a passport."

You fought hard to introduce tax credits for cinema in Italy, co-authoring the reform of entertainment. Seeing international productions flock to Italy today, what thoughts arise knowing your political efforts directly paved the way for this artistic boom, and what is the next frontier for supporting artists?

"When I see Cinecittà filled with American crews, or Basilicata chosen for a blockbuster, I feel two things: gratitude and unease," she admitted. "Gratitude because that tax credit law, which I fought for in Parliament, now provides work for 60,000 people and has put Italy back at the center of world cinema. We stopped being just a picture-postcard set and became an industry again."

However, she cautioned that a boom is not a cultural policy. Carlucci outlined her vision for the future, which is threefold. "First: training. We need film craft academies in every Region, because tax credits without Italian crews are cultural colonialism," she stated. "Second: protecting authors. The algorithm cannot replace the director. We need a European law on copyright in the current climate of AI. Third: bringing cinema where it doesn’t exist. Every village without a theater is a piece of Italy going dark." Her next dream is a concept she calls "Diffused Cinema," held in squares, deconsecrated churches, and schools. "If we won the battle to produce, now we must win the battle to educate the gaze," she declared.

You hold degrees in Foreign Languages and Art History, and you have literally written the laws that protect the arts. When you envision the next ten years, what is the single artistic dream you still wish to bring into reality, and how do you hope the world remembers the name Gabriella Carlucci?

"My degrees taught me to read the world. The laws I wrote taught me to change it," she stated gracefully. "But there is one dream that still keeps me awake: the "Mediterranean House of the Arts.""

She envisions this not as a static museum, but as a living place in Rome where a young Tunisian director, a Greek poet, a Lebanese restorer, and a Spanish musician can create together, supported by a permanent European fund that moves beyond grants and bureaucracy. "A Bauhaus of the Mediterranean, where beauty becomes a common language against nationalism," Carlucci added. When asked about her legacy, her response was clear. "How do I want to be remembered? Not as the politician who "made the laws for cinema." But as the woman who believed that culture was not a luxury for peacetime, but the only weapon to achieve it." She concluded with a profound sentiment: "If ten years from now a girl in Sicily decides to become a screenwriter because she sees that you can make a living from art in your own country, then the name Gabriella Carlucci will have meant something. The rest is plaques. And I have always preferred people to marble."