TORONTO – Named to the Variety 500 list of the global media industry’s most influential figures in 2020, and recognized by Forbes and The Financial Times as one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the last decade, Italian-Canadian film Producer Andrea Iervolino recently announced he is starting The Andrea Iervolino Company. 

The news came days ago as he announced he would be stepping down as President and CEO of ILBE (Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment). The split from ILBE and long-time business partner Monica Bacardi is largely unexpected as the two [through their AMBI Pictures company] currently have 13 films in development and 7 in post-production. Not to mention Johnny Depp’s directorial debut Modi starring Al Pacino, which will be screening this month at the Rome Film Festival.

An upcoming slate was also to include a Maserati biopic and the biopic Ferrari vs. Mercedes, both directed directed by Bobby Moresco – although it remains to be seen how and through which company the projects will be produced.

Although born in Montecassino Frosinone, Andrea’s maternal grandparents moved to Canada after the Second World War for a brief period. They eventually moved back to Italy where Andrea’s mother married and started a family. An entrepreneurial prodigy, Andrea crowd-funded for his own film (The Cavalier of Love) in Montecassino when he was just 13 – and only four years later secured a co-executive producer credit on Al Pacino’s “The Merchant of Venice”.

Today, after 13 years of producing films, Iervolino’s entrepreneurial exploits include taking an ownership stake in Miami FC, constructing Film Studios in Tuscany and running the publicly traded app Tatatu. Iervolino was also awarded a Knighthood of the Italian Republic (Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana) in 2018, by Italian president Sergio Mattarella and the Italian Consulate of Canada.

In a recent statement Iervolino outlined his new Company’s direction: “At The Andrea Iervolino Company, we are dedicated to producing content that not only entertains but also inspires and leaves a lasting impression on audiences. We believe that cinema and television are powerful means of cultural and social expression, and we strive to tell stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of the world we live in”.

Photo of Monica Bacardi and Andrea Iervolino courtesy of Getty Images; Photo of Andrea Iervolino courtesy of Forbes

Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix