Before entering the magical and crazy world of film, Massimo was involved in the whimsical world of advertising. Formerly trained as a graphic designer, he shifted his focus to art direction and hatched commercial work for agencies big and small. Some of them are Y&R, Saatchi & Saatchi and McCann-Erickson. He then founded a boutique agency with two partners, called Thinkando, which did just that. Founder of acalumaFILMS, born in Italy and raised in North America, Massimo Amici grew up with a foot in each culture. Massimo moved back to Rome in 2000 where he directed his first short acaluma which won the Jury Prize from Coming Soon TV. His following shorts collected prizes in Italy and abroad, including the Queens Spirit Award at the Queens International Film Festival in New York, in 2005. In 2007 he was invited to Cinefest Miskolc (Hungary) as jury member, and in 2008 he was a special jury member at the Rome Film Festival. He writes and directs for film, tv and advertising, drawing much of his inspiration from Italian neorealist films.