Gabriele Mainetti (born November 7, 1976) is an Italian actor, director, composer and a film producer. He attended courses in directing, screenwriting and cinematography at the Tisch School of the Arts NY and improved his acting skills under the guide of important masters as Beatrice Bracco, Francesca De Sapio, Nikolaj Karpov, Irina Promptova and Michael Margotta in Italy. He began his career at theatre in 1998. In that period, Gabriele played important roles in different movies and TV shows (few examples: Stiamo bene insieme, La omicidi, Briciole, Rapidamente, Il cielo in una stanza, Un altro anno e poi cresco, etc.). After this successful experience he focused on short films direction achieving important results: his last release, entitled Tiger Boy (2012), has won important prizes around the world as the Renault Award for Best International Short Film (Academy® Accredited) at the Flickerfest International Film Festival 2013 (in Australia), as well as the Grand Prix du Film Court de la Ville de Brest at the 27° Brest European Short Film Festival (in Bretagne, North of France). Tiger Boy has also competed with other short-films at the Santa Barbara Film Festival as the only European guest. Afterward, the movie received others important Italian awards: the Nastri d'argento 2013 as Best Short Film and receiving the Best Short Film nomination at the Globi D'oro 2012 and at the David di Donatello 2012. Tiger Boy reached the second position at the Giffoni Film Festival 2012. Gabriele Mainetti is also known for another short release entitled Basette (Sideburns, 2008), which has participated to more than 50 festivals like the Locarno Film Festival and again, the Nastri d'Argento 2008, where the short received the prize for the Best Actors (Daniele Liotti and Luisa Ranieri) and a Special mention for Best Screenplay (Nicola Guaglianone). Furthermore, Basette won as the Best Short Film at the Festival del Corto della 25 ora, in a popular Italian TV show. He is now preparing his first feature film.
