Today we’d like to introduce you to Paola Cipollina
Hi Paola, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
At the age of 16 I founded my very first fashion school in Genoa called “Esse Moda” and, in a few years, I gathered over 600 students coming from all over Italy… after such a great success I’ve been encouraged to open other fifteen national schools and three international schools (Japan, Morocco, Korea).
In a short time Esse Moda became the first franchise dedicated to the professional education and many other entrepreneurs asked the help of Paola to successfully launch their businesses.
With a group of over 60 teachers I’ve been managing – for over 7 years – all the most prestigious Italian fashion school, creating a fashion brand of my own, and working side by side with worldwide famous stylists like Elio Fiorucci, Raffaella Curiel, Beppe Modenese, Roberta Di Camerino, Francesco Pellati.
In 1995 I met my future husband, movie director Max Leonida, with whom I created one of the first and most important national school of performing arts: Accademia dello Spettacolo (the first “New Age” professional school in Europe).
In 2001 I bought a building (in the city of Milan, Italy) and gave life, with my hubby Max, to an innovative multi-purpose theater space called “Teatro Estremo”, where we hosted shows from all over the world (Italy, France, Germany, United States, Burkina Faso, etc.)
In 2003 I sold the theater and the performing art school and founded Astarox Srl, an international video production company, that immediately attracted the utmost loyalty of important, internationally renown customers such as: L’Orèal, ATM, Sony Pictures, Milwaukee, GeFi, Roche, Bayer, etc…
In 2007 my husband and I decided (after we worked for many years on lots of TV shows, commercials, shorts, music videos and documentaries) it was the right time to produce our first feature film: “MANDALA – the symbol” (that participated to the 2008 Sundance Festival Selections).
After the very positive critical reception of our first movie we felt ready to produce a way bigger film titled “Backward” (a sport drama, based on a true story, with over 54 different locations and thirty characters) that has been filmed in 2009 and officially presented during the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The movie has been theatrically released by Microcinema and simultaneously distributed on SKY TV pay-per-view streaming service.
In 2011, I moved to Los Angeles thanks to my husband’s working Visa as a filmmaker, and in a few years I gathered the largest Italian-American community in California (with thousands of subscribed members): I also helped organizing events for the Italian Cultural Institute and the Consulate.
In 2016 (when all of us as a family obtained the Green Card) I created my own company called LAfirstep, that became immediately the most successful business point of reference and an actual intercultural bridge between Europe and the United States, offering a complete range of services that span from business venture investments to line producing, from talent management to feature film and TV productions.
In December 2019 my husband signed various contracts to direct three different feature films but, after March 2020, the pandemic started and… all Hell broke loose on the movie industry!
Fortunately during one of his location scouting he flew to Iowa in February (right before the Covid erupted) and met with the President of William Penn University: so in April 2020 he received a proposal to permanently move to Iowa and help create e Filmmaking/New Media Department on Campus (with the assurance of still being able to produce and direct movies once the pandemic would end).
On September 2020 my husband, our daughter and I moved to Oskaloosa (Iowa) where we actually found the best people on the planet!
Since 2021 I opened two Italian shops, creating a new food retail/restaurant franchise called “Rosso & Wine”, I sold my company LAfirstep to a new investor (keeping a small percentage of the shares), and I founded a newborn Astarox Productions company here in Iowa, relying on a fifteen million dollars facility that includes cameras and lenses, editing and post-production stations, soundstages, lights, grips and electronic innovative technologies.
I am currently producing several new feature films and… my life has never been so exciting!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road is never smooth… because life always happens!
But it’s totally up to us, to find a creative and intelligent way to transform a possible negative situation in a positive and productive opportunity.
The struggle, the hustle and the hard work is a fundamental part of the process: it helps to keep you hungry, and motivated.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I love to give birth to new enterprises: most people think that dealing with corporate/financial issues is boring… but I find it extraordinarily exciting!
Creating a budget, producing a movie from the scratch, founding a new company… it takes a lot of creativity, together with some cold blood and a clear mind.
What always sets me apart from the others, I believe, is my everlasting optimism: I never lose hope, never lose focus and – most of all – never lose my temper!
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
It’s a tricky question because on one hand we actually need a little bit of luck in our life, and that’s a fact! But at the same time being in the right place, with the right people at the right moment doesn’t necessarily means success: some of us are so afraid to fail that they lose great chances only because they don’t have an open mind and don’t love to risk…
There’s an old joke, In Italy, about a guy who prays everyday, asking for the grace to win the lottery… and after a week the voice of the Lord answers him: “I can help you winning, my dear, but you have at least to buy the lottery ticket!”
So… some people, in life, even if they had the chance to be lucky, were afraid to but their ticket!
Pricing:
- https://www.astaroxproductions.com
- https://www.rossoandwine.com
- https://www.lafirstep.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.astaroxproductions.com
- Instagram: @paolamariasavoia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paolamaria.savoia
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@astaroxproductions8257
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3235871
