Former Cinecittà chief Nicola Maccanico takes top job at Colorado Film
Nicola Maccanico will lead Rome-based production company Colorado Film as its new chief executive.
Rainbow Group, which owns and operates Colorado Film, confirmed the appointment on its official LinkedIn account on 21 September, with details reported by Variety on 22 September. Maccanico replaces outgoing chief executive Thomas J. Ciampa.
Rainbow Group is led by Iginio Straffi, the creator of the Winx Club animation franchise, according to Variety. Colorado Film has been part of Rainbow since 2017. The company was founded in 1986 and has produced more than 60 films, its own site says.
Maccanico arrives with a long track record in Italian film and television. He is a former senior executive at Warner Bros. and Sky Italia, and the former chief of Cinecittà Studios in Rome. He led the overhaul of Cinecittà’s historic Rome studios for three years before stepping down in 2024 after Italy’s government decided to change the studios’ management team.
Ciampa moves on to another top job in Italian cinema. He has been appointed chief of Vision Distribution, an Italian theatrical distributor — the company that puts films into cinemas — jointly operated by Sky Italia and five Italian production companies.
Colorado Film is best known internationally for The Tearsmith. The 2024 film became the first Netflix Italy original to reach No. 1 on Netflix’s global movie chart in the non-English-language category. That means it was the most-watched non-English film on the service worldwide at the time.
Its next production is Blame It on Rome. The film is directed by Francesco Carrozzini and stars Michele Morrone and Gabrielle Union. It is co-produced by Colorado Film, Nebraska and Amazon MGM Studios as an original for Prime Video Italy.
The new role follows a brief detour for Maccanico in 2024. He was named to the newly created post of chief executive of Fremantle Italy Group on 11 September that year, then decided just days later not to take the job, as reported by Deadline and Screen Daily.
What makes this stand out is the mix of experience. For fans, this means a studio chief who has run a major lot, worked inside Hollywood and pay TV, and now takes charge of a company making films for cinemas and streamers alike.
