Italian Filmmaker Alberto Accettulli

It’s interesting how people get into the movie business. Either they are born into it, that is, their family was in the industry and the opportunities were waiting at their front door, or they were discovered or they had a master plan of how they were going to break into the business since they were very young. There are other ways also and we don’t mean to limit the possibilities for anyone. Another method of becoming an integral part of the entertainment scene is — dare we say it — tumbling into it by accident.

Well, the Italian filmmaker, Alberto Accettulli told us that he fell into directing films and videos quite by accident. His goal had always been to be a champion mountain biker and skateboarder (which he did achieve) and the thought of being an artist in the film world never entered his mind. The only reason he even picked up a camera in the first place was to record his bike and skateboard performances to show potential sponsors. He would ride all day and set up his camera on a tripod and then edit the pieces at night. He taught himself everything about motion picture photography and editing and apparently, he was excellent at it because his videos garnered him a world-renowned sponsor — Nike.

Not too long after that Alberto realized that his passion for directing and cinematography outweighed his desire for action sports and so he went to work making action sport videos for the two huge brands: Nike and Red Bull. They were his very first clients, which not only changed his career path but changed just about everything in his life — in the most positive way.

Alberto has learned a great deal about filmmaking through learning on the job and through other filmmakers along with watching existing films and videos. The Nike and Red Bull companies continued to offer him more sports video jobs and he would always push the envelope of directing and cinematography, which constantly made his projects better and better each time out.

He has shot films in Europe, Indonesia, Russia, UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, South Korea, Kazakhstan, South Africa and China. In September, 2017 he also spent 20 days in the Himalayas shooting at over 17,000 feet with very little oxygen. That series, which included a TVC commercial, a digital campaign and a documentary was focused on the Skoda car from Volkswagen. It also featured mountain bike performances and it blew everyone away when it was announced that over 6 million views had been logged on its first online release. Alberto is currently living in and directing films in Los Angeles.