Giuliano Squitieri: The Visionary Behind Outdoor Film Festival

Photography: Daniele Longobardi

Giuliano Squitieri turned a personal vision into reality by founding the Outdoor Film Festival in his hometown of San Valentino Torio. Rather than building his platform in an established cinematic capital, he chose to bring an international network directly to the community that shaped him. Over the past three years, the festival has grown into a space where global stars and local youth connect on the exact same level. Here, Squitieri shares his personal journey of building the event, navigating structural growth, and maintaining a strict focus on authentic human connection.

Choosing to bring your international network back to San Valentino Torio instead of a massive cinematic capital was a deeply personal move. What specific emotional pull drew you home to launch the Outdoor Film Festival?

"Coming back to San Valentino Torio was never a 'strategic choice' in the traditional sense - it was emotional before it was anything else," he explains. "There's a strong pull that comes from places that shaped you before you even understood what ambition was. I didn't want to build the Outdoor Film Festival in a place where cinema already dominates every corner of life. I wanted to build it where it felt almost impossible, but exactly for that reason, meaningful."

He reflects further, "San Valentino Torio is home. It's identity, memory, and responsibility all at once. I felt the need to give something back to the place that gave me my first sense of community and imagination. Bringing an international network here wasn't about relocation - it was about translation: turning everything I had seen and learned abroad into something that could belong here."

Observing a generation of young people feeling disconnected gave you the spark to build this platform. How has seeing them find community over the last three years validated that initial leap of faith?

"What I've seen over these three years is that the feeling of disconnection was never the real story - lack of spaces was," he observes. "Young people don't lack ideas, energy, or ambition. They lack places where those things can actually meet other people and become something collective."

He adds, "Watching them come to the Outdoor Film Festival and slowly shift from being spectators to being part of a community has been the clearest validation of the original intuition. It confirmed that the leap of faith wasn't about cinema at all - it was about belonging. And when you see people who felt invisible start recognizing themselves in a shared space, you understand that the project is doing exactly what it was meant to do."

Welcoming global stars to a quiet town completely changes the local energy. What exactly goes through your mind when you stand on that hometown red carpet and witness this intersection of worlds?

"Seeing the place where I grew up as a child suddenly become a stage for some of the most recognized names in the world is something that still feels almost unreal," he admits. "It's not pride in a loud sense - it's a very quiet shock. I remember what that town used to feel like, how small the world seemed back then, and then I look at it now and see cameras, artists, international guests walking the same streets."

"In that moment, I don't think about cinema or success," he notes. "I think about time. And about how something so ordinary in my memory has become a place where different worlds now meet."

Crafting an annual event out of a raw idea requires incredible mental endurance. What was the absolute hardest personal hurdle you had to get past during your first year?

"The hardest hurdle wasn't operational - it was internal," he shares. "In the first year, there is a constant tension between what you clearly see in your mind and what doesn't yet exist in reality. You're asking people to believe in something they cannot touch, in a place that isn't used to thinking on that scale. And at times, that gap becomes mentally exhausting."

He recalls, "The real challenge was staying steady when everything around you suggests it might be easier to scale down, to make it 'more realistic.' I had to learn not to confuse early resistance with failure. What I had to overcome was the instinct to protect myself from disappointment - and instead keep building as if the idea was already real, even when nothing around me confirmed it yet."

Overcoming unpredictable setbacks is a constant reality when running a major event. Looking back at the last three years, which specific challenge forced you to find a completely new approach?

"One challenge that really forced a complete change of approach was the moment we realized that growth itself could become a risk," he explains. "In the second year, the scale of attention and expectations started increasing faster than the structure behind the festival. What worked when it was small - relationships, intuition, informal coordination - was no longer enough. A single delay or misalignment could affect the entire ecosystem."

"That forced me to shift from building like a founder to thinking like an operator: more systems, more delegation, and more trust in people who could take ownership of entire pieces of the project," he points out. "It wasn't a creative challenge - it was a structural one. And it changed how I lead everything today."

Human connection is clearly the core focus of your vision. How do you intentionally shape the atmosphere so the festival feels like a close gathering rather than a standard industry mixer?

"For me, human connection is the most important thing," he emphasizes. "Big stars can come, and of course that's powerful, but what really matters to me are the young people who show up, take part, and sometimes leave with something that actually changes how they see themselves and their future. That's the real impact."

He continues, "At the Outdoor Film Festival, I don't separate people into 'important guests' and 'audience.' I deliberately put everyone on the same level. An international guest and a student sitting in the crowd are part of the same space, the same conversation, the same energy. Because if there's hierarchy, you lose the point. The moment someone feels 'less important' in that space, the festival stops being what it's meant to be."

Emerging creators now look at what you built as a direct guide. When they ask how to find a unique creative voice, what core truth do you share?

"I always tell them this: I don't believe I've done anything 'special' in the sense of being out of reach," he states. "If I've managed to build what I've built, coming from a small town and starting with just an idea, then there's nothing that makes it impossible for anyone else to do something meaningful in their own way."

"So I say it very clearly to young people: if I got here, you can do anything," he encourages. "The only real difference is whether you decide to start and keep going when it's still uncertain, uncomfortable, and invisible to others. And your voice - your real creative voice - comes out exactly in that process."

Looking toward future editions, you have successfully connected your local community to global cinema. What is the single most important feeling you want every single guest to take home with them?

"The single most important feeling I want every guest to take home is hope - and the sense that they can dare more than they thought possible," he says. "Not just inspiration in a vague sense, but real confidence: the idea that change is within reach, that their voice matters, and that this world is not something to observe from a distance, but something they can actively shape."

He concludes, "If someone leaves the festival with more courage than when they arrived - with a bit more trust in themselves - then everything we built has meaning."

Outdoor Film Festival website