Mariagrazia Fanchi is a full professor of Film Studies at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. She is also Director of ALMED, the “Alta Scuola in media Comunicazione e Spettacolo” (School of Advanced Studies in Communication and Performing Arts) and head of the CIMO Master programme (Comunicazione per l’Impresa, i Media e le Organizzazioni Complesse). She graduated in Philosophy from Università Cattolica of Milan in 1993 and took her doctorate in Sociology and Methodology of Social Research at the same university in 1998. She was visiting professor at Università della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, and at the Università Lateranense in Rome, teaching courses on topics such as media and communication, audience studies, reception theories, film studies and cultural history. Since 2009 she has been director of several postgraduate programmes: “Audio-visual Production for Cinema and Digital Media” (2009, 2010, 2013), “Media Relations” (2011), “Digital Communications Specialists” (2012). From 2013 to 2015 she coordinated the IMACS. She is a member of the scientific board of national and international reviews: Comunicazioni Sociali, CINEMA&CIE, L’Avventura (Il Mulino) and Italianist-Cinema; and of the series: Italiana (published by Il Castoro) and Cinegie (published by Mimesis). Between 2002 and 2004, she was the Italian Researchers’ representative in the Consulta Universitaria del Cinema (http://consultacinema.org/), and from 2011-2014 she was the Associate Professors’ representative in the same Council. She was a member of the Steering Committee of the PhD programme in Culture della Comunicazione (Culture of Communication) and she is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the PhD programme in Discipline Umanistiche. Tradizione e Contemporaneità (Humanistic Disciplines. Traditon and Contemporaneity) at the Università Cattolica. She has coordinated a number of research studies, both for public and private institutions, focusing on the role played by cinema and television in the identity construction process. More specifically she has researched topics such as traditional and innovative modes of the filmic experience, visual experiences, cinema and media audiences, gender and generational identities, feminization of Italian cinema and television jobs, grassroots production and creativity. She is currently working on a far-reaching project on children and cinema. Her books include: “I nuovi Cinema Paradiso” (Vita e Pensiero, 2017), “Audience” (Laterza, 2014), “Spettatore” (Il Castoro, 2005), and “Identità mediatiche. Televisione e cinema nelle storie di vita di due generazioni di spettatori” (Franco Angeli 2002). She has also edited some monographic issues of “Bianco e Nero” (2004), “CINEMA&Cie” (2004), and “Comunicazioni Sociali” (2002; 2007; 2008; 2014; 2018), as well as some essays and collective volumes dedicated to the history of the audience in Italy and the new forms of filmic experience.