Lara Celenza

I was born in 1982 in Vasto, a picturesque seaside town in Abruzzo, Italy, renowned for its delectable fish soup – celebrated by many, although not by me, as I tend to avoid Lovecraftian dishes with cruel, empty eyes staring back at us.

A hopeless Russian literature and fairy tale fanatic for as long as I can remember, my dream of receiving the nerdiest education possible began in Bologna – one of the oldest universities in the world – where I earned my BA in Modern Languages. After several fascinating exchange programs in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and London, my academic journey culminated with my MPhil in Russian Studies at the University of Cambridge – the closest you can get to Hogwarts in real life.

In 2008, following a string of square jobs that left me exhausted, bored, and uninspired, I decided to finally pursue a filmmaking career and completed professional training in directing at the Raindance Film School in London. In 2010, I founded Kalifilm Productions – an indie brand dedicated to producing compelling and thought-provoking content from music videos to documentaries and experimental shorts. Since then, it’s been a rollercoaster ride of guerrilla shoots in abandoned hospitals, red carpet ceremonies at film festivals, meeting and collaborating with crazy talented people from all over the world, and never failing to deliver memorable, powerful, award-winning audiovisual art.

In 2022, I released my debut feature “Lost in the City” – a poignant drama with splashes of dark comedy that follows the journey of a deranged homeless man struggling for survival on the unforgiving streets of Berlin. Despite being made independently by a volunteer crew on a budget of 6000 euros, “Lost in the City” went on to win awards at multiple festivals and gain DVD, BluRay, and online distribution on a variety of platforms including Amazon Prime, Tubi, Xumo, and Vudu by Fandango. It was an intense experience, nothing short of a miracle, that served as an essential launching pad for the development of my next, more ambitious screenplays spanning genres as diverse as road movie, supernatural horror, and sci-fi.

In parallel with my filmmaking career, I became a certified life coach, NLP practitioner, and holistic therapist. I started coaching and mentoring fellow creatives on the path to leading more productive, happy, and successful lives. It is an honor for me to give back to the community and share what I have learned so far, both through my own experience and by studying hundreds of books on spirituality, psychology, mindset, and conscious creation.

I am very excited to start the next chapter in my journey because I believe that cinematic art can help bring forth a new stage of consciousness – a true “Renaissance of Beauty” in a world that needs beauty like never before.