Alena Shumakova

Curator. Born in Moscow in 1972 and residing in Italy since 1997, Shumakova graduated from the University of Urbinoand worked at the Bologna Cinematheque. Since 2002, she has served as a programmer for leading international film festivals, focusing on works from the former USSR and Eastern Europe. Her festival collaborations include the Venice Film Festival, Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, as well as the Rome, Beijing, Pingyao, Trieste, and Turin film festivals. She has curated retrospectives of Soviet cinema both in Italy and abroad and authored numerous articles. From 2007 to 2020, she lectured at the University of Bologna. She also collaborates with theatre festivals and groups, and continues her work in translation and film production.