Born in Forlì, a graduate in Political Sciences at the University of Bologna, after having been assistant at the Department of Sociology of Mass Communications, she became a journalist, a member of the editorial board of the Cineforum magazine and a contributor to the Sunday cultural supplement of Il Sole 24 Ore, with which she continues to cooperate.
She has been a film critic for several magazines: Film Tv, Cinema e Cinema, Vivilcinema, Lo Straniero, Giudizio Universale, Drammaturgia, Cinecritica, and was one of the conductors of Hollywood Party, a radio show of Rai Radio 3.
She collaborated with the Festival of New Cinema of Pesaro, was a member of the selection committee of the Venice Film Festival International Critics’ Week, curator of the sections Officina and La Finestra sulle Immagini and member of the selection committee of the Venice Film Festival in 1992 and from 1999 to 2001.
From 1987 to 2007 she was co-director of the international festival Bergamo Film Meeting, for which she also curated numerous retrospectives.
From 1999 to 2007 she was editor of the weekly magazine FilmTv.
From 2007 to 2013 she was deputy director and curator of the retrospectives of the Torino Film Festival, of which she became director in 2014.
She has been dedicating herself to Anglo-American cinema for a long time, and has written numerous articles, essays and books, including History of British Film, The Long Goodbye: Robert Altman’s America, Walking Shadows: Shakespeare and Cinema, and monographies on Free Cinema, British Renaissance, Powell and Pressburger, Gianni Amelio, John Cassavetes, Franca Valeri, Nicholas Ray, John Huston, Roger Corman, Hammer Films, Peter Sellers, Joseph Losey, and many others.
She also collaborated on numerous collective volumes and drafted entries of the History of World Cinema curated by Gian Piero Brunetta (Einaudi, 2000) and of the Dictionary of Directors of World Cinema curated by Gian Piero Brunetta (Einaudi, 2005-2006), the Treccani Encyclopedia of Movies (2003-2004), as well as of Cinema & Film. The Wonderful History of Film Art curated by Lino Miccichè (Armando Curcio ed., 1988), Cinema from Around the World curated by Alfonso Canziani (Mondadori, 1978).
