Directory Profile

Alessandro Ago is the Director of Programming and Special Projects at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he programs film screenings, festivals, retrospectives, masterclasses, and exhibits.

Since 2009, Ago has curated Outside the Box [Office], a prolific year-round screening series averaging 200 annual programs, dedicated to showcasing contemporary international, documentary, and independent cinema, often followed by filmmaker Q&As. He also curates the SCA Alumni Screening Series and Movies We Love programs, in addition to annual “Visions & Voices” festivals, including a major retrospective of the seminal ABC television series Twin Peaks in 2013; the Official 50th Anniversary Celebration and Retrospective of Planet of the Apes in 2018, including a franchise exhibit in collaboration with 20th Century Fox; and the Official 40 Years of Alien Retrospective and Exhibit in Spring 2019, for which Ago worked directly with the Ridley Scott Archives to source materials. Ago is also responsible for curating and scheduling all film and television programming and weekly guests for film critic Leonard Maltin's class, “Theatrical Film Symposium”, and LA Times TV critic Mary McNamara’s class, “Television Symposium”.

Ago has produced retrospectives celebrating the work of John Singleton, Dino De Laurentiis, Ray Stark, Jason Blum, John Wayne, Haskell Wexler, Roger Corman, Costa Gavras, Maurice Jarre, Albert Broccoli and the James Bond franchise, as well as world cinema showcases focusing on Japan, Italy, Bollywood, South America and the Middle East. In 2011, Ago co-founded the biennial “USC Comedy Festival”, now in its 7th edition, for which he is the Executive Director. Ago also co-founded the annual “Nollywood in Hollywood” showcase of contemporary cinema from Nigeria, produced together with the American Cinematheque, which recently concluded its 6th edition. He also collaborates on annual partnerships with LA Skins Fest to bring new Native American cinema to campus.

During the pandemic, Ago hosted hundreds of live Zoom webinars for the USC student and alumni community, interviewing business leaders from Ted Sarandos and Jeffrey Katzenberg to Kevin Feige, Bryan Lourd, Janet Pierson, and John Stankey. During that time, he also produced a year-long production workshop, “Uprising”, which empowered USC’s African American film students to create projects that documented and reflected upon the social upheaval that followed the murder of George Floyd. In recognition of these accomplishments, Ago was honored with the USC School of Cinematic Arts Staff Award in 2022.

With a special interest in Italian cinema, Ago has hosted many events with Italy’s most revered filmmakers, including Mario Monicelli, Lina Wertmueller, Gabriele Salvatores, Paolo Sorrentino, Claudia Cardinale, Pupi Avati, Marco Bellocchio, Dario Argento, Franco Nero, Paolo Virzi, and Matteo Garrone. Ago has also taught undergraduate film courses at USC, including “Transnational Nightmares” and “Filmmaking, Italian Style” and, more recently, “Italian Genre Cinema and Society”.

Ago is one of the curators of the American Film Showcase, an international documentary film diplomacy program funded by the U.S. Department of State, that has sent him to Cyprus, China, Egypt, Tajikistan, Mexico, South Korea, Bolivia, Peru, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Botswana, Georgia, Romania, Panama, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, India, Chile, Algeria, Colombia, the Philippines, Armenia, Israel, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Poland.

Ago grew up in Washington, D.C. and Rome, and has dual Italian and American citizenship. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from the Division of Cinema and Media Studies at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He is currently completing the rigorous Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 4 Diploma in Wines, a globally recognized, expert-level qualification in the world of wine. He is fluent in Italian and French, and is often invited to interpret for Italian filmmakers during their Oscar campaigns.