Elysia Zeccola - Class Of 1995
BUILDING THE ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL FROM SCRATCH
Elysia began her Loreto Toorak education in Year 4. Her fondest memories are of the Year 5 Sovereign Hill Camp, as well as participating in Sports such as fencing, running and swimming, and learning to ski at the Year 10 camp to Mt Buller. She excelled in French while at School and developed a love for the language. The School taught her to be strong, independent and to speak her opinion, all of which are valuable tools in life and within the workplace.
After finishing Year 12, Elysia studied Multimedia at Deakin University, and French Studies at Monash University. Following graduation, she travelled throughout Asia, before returning to Australia to commence work at Palace Cinemas in the Marketing department. The desire to travel was strong, and after several years with her employer, she took a twelve-month sabbatical to study Italian in Bologna and travel around Europe. Her love of foreign cultures and languages flourished while overseas and propelled her determination to further develop international film festivals once she returned home to Melbourne.
Elysia now travels to international film festivals and film markets each year. Her fluency with the French language is helpful when she travels overseas for work: buying films at the Cannes Film Festival, and when collaborating with Alliance Francaise. She also travels to Berlin, Rome, Gothenburg to select films for Australian screens; at the time of writing, Elysia is in Melbourne wrapping up the Italian and British Film Festivals while beginning to plan for the Spanish, German and Scandinavian Film Festivals in 2023.
Given her successful and interesting career journey, it is no surprise that Elysia regards as one of her highlights the creation of the Italian Film Festival from inception to become the biggest Italian Film Festival in the world. Significantly, she has recently been announced as the inaugural winner of the Businesswomen Award for Italo-Australian female innovators by the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Melbourne.
Elysia’s immediate future plans include attracting numerous international movie stars to tour here in Australia, particularly now travel bans and border closures are in the past.
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