Valentina Signorelli

Dr Valentina Signorelli BA, MA, PhD, FHEA

Associate Professor in Film and TV

I am a British-Italian creative producer and academic based in London. I hold a PhD Film from the University of Westminster focusing on transmedia practices in the digital era. I am the co-founder of the production studio Daitona and its advertising division, DOGODOT. We make films, documentaries, commercials, TV projects, docu-mapping and VR experiences with a transmedia approach. My works as a writer, director and producer have been distributed internationally and showcased in A-list festivals around the world, including the prestigious Venice Film Festival. I joined the University of Greenwich in January 2024 as an Associate Professor in Film and TV. Before that, I served as Senior Lecturer and Course Leader BA Media and Communication at the University of East London for four years and worked as an Associate Lecturer with many academic institutions, including the University of Westminster, the University for the Creative Arts, Bucks New University, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and  Sapienza - University of Rome.

Film, media and sound

Responsibilities within the university
  • Associate Professor in Film and TV
  • Teaching Film and TV modules at both UG and PG level
  • Research in Film and TV
  • Industry outreach

Awards

Academic

  • 2022 UEL Teaching Fellow - University of East London
  • 2022 ACI Staff Awards Wellness Champion -  University of East London
  • 2020 Vice Chancellor and President Awards for In Careers-Led Teaching and Learning - University of East London
  • 2020 Department Awards for Careers-Led Teaching Awards - University of East London

Industry (selected)

  • 2023 Key Award - Best Integrated Campaign for commercial “Amaro del Capo - Capolavoro Ghiacciato”
  • 2021 Best Documentary Short London Independent Film Awards for “The Day I Became a British Citizen”
  • 2019 Winner Rome Independent Cinema Festival, 2019 Matteucci Award, 2019 Prisma Independent Film Awards (Best Documentary Short) and London Independent Film Awards (Best Short Doc) for “Where is Europe?”
  • 2018 ANGI Award as Most Innovative Production Company of the year (with Daitona)

Recognition
  • Founder of production studios Daitona and DOGODOT
  • Founder of Daitona Academy
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Member of EWA European Women's Audiovisual Network
  • Member of ANICA (Italian National Association Cinema and Audiovisual) Digital Creators with Daitona

Research / Scholarly interests
  • Film and TV production in the digital era
  • Transmedia storytelling and docu-mapping
  • Documentary filmmaking and political activism
  • Migration and diaspora
  • Migration and global finance
  • Italian Cinema
  • Italian migration and early Hollywood

Key funded projects

  • 2020-2024 “The Contribution of Migration to Global Finance: the Story of AP Giannini, the Italian Banker Behind the American Dream.” Academic publication and feature-length documentary produced by Daitona (ITA) and Preston Witman Productions (UK). Research and documentary project conducted together with Dr Cecilia Zoppelletto, Visiting Professor of Film at the Academie des Beaux Arts, Kinshasa, DRC.
    Selected funding included:
    - 2021 Italian Ministry of Culture Development Grant, €20.000 (£17.000 circa)
    -2022 Italian Ministry of Culture Production Grant €33.000 (£28.500 circa)
    -2021-2022 University of East London Seed Funding Research Grant £4.000  
    -2023 Italian Ministry of Culture Film Tax Credit Scheme € 56.952,13 (£49.000 circa)

Media activity

Full filmography available on IMDB

Selected Filmography

  • 2023, “A.P. Giannini - Bank To The Future”, writer, director, producer, ITA-UK, 73 min - documentary
  • 2023, “Unbelievers”, producer, ITA, 100 min - feature film
  • 2022, “Urban Symphonies”, producer, ITA, 2022, 60 min - documentary
  • 2022, “The Day I Became a British Citizen”, writer, director, producer, ITA-UK, 12 min - documentary
  • 2019, “Happy Birthday”, writer, ITA, 15 min - short
  • 2019, “Drink Me Out”, director, ITA, 10 episodes x 30 min - TV factual
  • 2019, “Daitona”, writer, producer, ITA, 90 min - feature film
  • 2018, “Where is Europe?”, writer, director, producer, 15 min - documentary
  • 2016 “Anséra - Trace The Future”, writer, director, producer, 70 min - documentary

Recent publications
  • Mancuso, M. and Signorelli, V. (2022),  “Heroes or criminals? The legitimacy of humanitarian organisations rescuing lives in the Central Mediterranean Sea  after 2017”, JICMS Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies,10 (1), pp. 37-58. DOI
  • Signorelli, V. (2020), “Behind the White Glasses, Valerio Ruiz (dir) (2015), Italy, Film Review”, JICMS Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies New York: Intellect 8:3, pp. 441-446  DOI
  • Signorelli, V. (2019), “Famous Last Words:  a comparative focus on resignation speeches to trace contemporary European instability - the case of David Cameronand Matteo Renzi”, Desecrating Celebrity Rome: Nuova Cultura, Nov 2019, pp.109-127
  • Signorelli, V. (2018) “Adaptation as Defense Against Film Censorship: The Case of  Salò – 120 Days of  Sodom in Italy and the UK” Where is Adaptation? Mapping cultures, texts and context.  Ed. by Casie Hermansson and Janet Zepernick Amsterdam: John Benjamins publishing pp. 271-286, DOI

Presentations
  • “How to produce video content in the digital era”, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, ITA, Oct 2023, invited masterclass.
  • “The story of AP Giannini, founder of Bank of america”, The British-Italian Society, London,  UK, Mar 2022, invited masterclass with Dr Cecilia Zoppelletto.
  • “The relationship between finding professional purpose and integrating curriculum content, processes and  practices for wellbeing”, University of East London Symposium, Embedding Wellbeing into the  Curriculum,  London, UK, Sept. 2021
  • “Lina Wertmuller and the Commedia all’Italiana: Gender and Fascism”, The British-Italian Society, London,  UK, Jan 2020, invited masterclass with Dr Cecilia Zoppelletto and Dr Silvia Angeli.
  • “An Introduction to the cinema  of Lina Wertmuller”, Wellesley College, Rome, ITA, Jan 2020, invited masterclass
  • “New Audiences: The British Reception of Lina Wertmuller’s films in 2019”, University of Westminster,  Lina Wertmuller Symposium, London, UK, Dec 2019
  • “Quentin Tarantino and CSI 5x24/25 Grave Danger: A Screenwriting Perspective”, Cattolica University, 11th Screenwriting Research Network  (SRN) International  Conference Writing for Cinema, Writing for TV, Milan, ITA, Sept. 2018
  • “Famous Last Words: a Comparative Focus on Resignation Speeches to Trace Contemporary European   Instability -  The Case of  David Cameron and Matteo Renzi”, Sapienza - University of Rome Desecrating Celebrity - 4th Celebrity Studies Journal Conference, Rome, ITA, June 2018
  • “The Dialogue of Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis” Cardiff University IFCVR – The Interdisciplinary  Film and Visual Culture Conference: ‘You Talkin’ to Me?”, Cardiff, UK, June 2017
  • “David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis: The Metropolis as the Contact Zone”, University of Westminster Study Day:  “Media, Arts and Hybrid Spaces: Experience and Meaning in the Contact Zone”, London, UK, Jan 2017
  • “David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis – What can Adaptations tell us about the End of the Future?”, SAMLA – South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Conference: Utopia/Dystopia: Whose Paradise is it?, Jacksonville (USA), Nov 2016
  • “Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò 1975-2015, Reconsidering 40 Years of Film Censorship”, Drew University Dean Hopper Annual Conference – Crafting Culture: Perspectives on Censorship, Madison, USA, June 2016
Media Activity