Daniele Massaccesi has recently been elected President of the Italian Society of Cinematographers, AIC, together with a newly appointed board that will lead the association into its next chapter. The AIC, one of IMAGO’s founding members, continues to be an important voice for Italian cinematographers and a long-standing partner within our international community. As Massaccesi steps into this role, IMAGO is pleased to reaffirm its support and looks forward to continuing the close cooperation between our organisations, working side by side on projects and shared goals for the field.
His appointment marks an important milestone in the history of the Association, which warmly welcomes a figure who brings together extensive experience, artistic sensitivity, and a contemporary vision of the cinematographer’s role.
To assume the role of President of AIC — the Italian Association of Cinematographers — is for me a profound honor and a responsibility. I accept with the deepest respect. I do not consider as a personal recognition, but as a mandate to serve our community and our history.
Before looking to the future, it is both right and necessary to pay tribute to the one who preceded me. Luciano Tovoli has guided AIC with authority, moral integrity and an extraordinary artistic and cultural vision. His commitment has strengthened the identity and prestige of our Association, consolidating its role within the national and international cinematic landscape. To him I express my deepest respect and my heartfelt gratitude, on behalf of us all.
AIC is not merely a professional institution: it is a cultural stronghold, a guardian of memory and, at the same time, a workshop of the future. Within it lives the thought, the vision and the sensitivity of those who have shaped the visual identity of Italian cinema, transforming light into language, images into narrative, vision into collective emotion.
We are living in an era of profound transformation. Technologies are redefining creative and production processes, modes of distribution and perception are evolving, and new tools are emerging, including artificial intelligence. In this scenario, the role of the Director of Photography remains an irreplaceable pillar: the one who interprets, translates and gives visual form to the soul of a film. To protect and enhance this role will be one of the main priorities of my mandate.
We will work to strengthen the protection of our profession, to promote continuous education, to encourage dialogue between generations, to support young cinematographers, and to foster a conscious, ethical and responsible development of new visual languages. We envision an AIC that is increasingly authoritative, inclusive, present in cultural discourse, and capable of representing its members with strength and dignity.
In this journey, our relationship with IMAGO — the International Federation of Cinematographers — takes on a central value. Through IMAGO, AIC is an integral part of a global community that brings together the leading associations of cinematographers from around the world. This is not only an institutional bond, but a profoundly cultural one: a continuous dialogue between traditions, experiences and visions, united by a universal language made of light, composition and visual storytelling.
Strengthening our role within IMAGO means bringing to the world the voice, the history and the excellence of Italian Cinematography; it means actively participating in the construction of a shared future for our profession, founded on respect, collaboration and the exchange of knowledge.
I am fully aware that this mandate cannot, and must not, be an individual journey. It will be a collective path, built together with the Board, with our members, and with all those who work with passion, integrity and dedication in our field. The true strength of AIC lies in its sense of belonging, in professional solidarity, and in the shared values that go beyond any individual.
I promise you commitment, attentiveness, dedication and loyalty to the principles that have made our Association a point of reference. Together, we will continue to honor the past, to fully live the present, and to shape, with responsibility and vision, the future of Italian Cinematatography.
With deep gratitude and a profound sense of duty,
Daniele Massaccesi
