Film Forum

Ingrid Rossellini is a scholar, writer, and teacher of Italian literature and cinema. Born in Rome on June 18, 1952, she is the daughter of the Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini and the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, and the twin sister of the actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini. Although she was raised in one of the most celebrated families in film history, she built her own career in the academic world, and her work as a scholar has given her a unique way into her father’s cinema. She was educated in Rome and later moved to New York, where she earned her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Italian Literature at Columbia University. There she studied with the literary scholars Maristella Lorch and Luciano Rebay and wrote her doctoral dissertation on Petrarch. Over the course of her career she has taught Italian literature, philosophy, art, and European history at Columbia University, New York University, Harvard University, and Princeton University. She has long worked to present and interpret her father’s films, as a scholar as well as a member of the family. In 2013 she presented, at NYU’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, the Criterion Collection’s set of the films Roberto Rossellini made with Ingrid Bergman. In 2015, with her sisters Isabella Rossellini and Pia Lindström, she introduced films at the Museum of Modern Art’s Ingrid Bergman: A Centennial Celebration. She also appears in Stig Björkman’s documentary INGRID BERGMAN: IN HER OWN WORDS, which was shown in Cannes Classics in 2015, and in Alessandro Rossellini’s THE ROSSELLINIS (2020), a special event of the Venice International Critics’ Week. For the 120th anniversary of Roberto Rossellini’s birth in 2026, she introduced PAISAN (1946) for the Criterion Channel. She also presented ROBERTO ROSSELLINI: LIVING WITHOUT A SCRIPT, winner of the David di Donatello for Best Documentary, at Film at Lincoln Center. Ingrid Rossellini lives in New York.

Isabella Rossellini grew up in Paris and Rome. When she was 19, she moved to New York City, working as a translator and a journalist for RAI-Italian Television. She began a modeling career at 28, appearing on numerous covers of magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vanity Fair. An enduring style icon, in 1982, Ms. Rossellini began a 14-year run as the exclusive spokesperson for Lancôme. When she turned 40, an age considered too advanced to represent the beauty industry, her contract was not renewed. Isabella launched her own cosmetics brand, Manifesto, and in 2016 Lancôme hired her again as a spokesperson with the specific intent to promote inclusiveness and fight against ‘ageism’. Ms. Rossellini made her cinematic debut as an actress in 1979 in the Taviani brother’s film IL PRATO (THE MEADOW) and has appeared in numerous other films since then, including the American features BLUE VELVET, WHITE NIGHTS, RODGER DODGER, COUSINS, DEATH BECOMES HER, FEARLESS, BIG NIGHT, JOY, and CONCLAVE. She worked with many different directors like Robert Zemeckis, David O. Russell, David Lynch, Taylor Hackford, Marjane Satrapi, Alice Rohrwacher, and Guy Maddin. She is also a successful television actress and filmmaker, with a keen interest in animals and wildlife conservation. Her award-winning series of shorts, Green Porno, Seduce Me, and Mammas offers comical and scientifically insightful studies of animal behaviors. She also toured in over 50 cities in 3 different continents (America, Europe and Australia) with her theatrical monologues. Isabella has a master’s degree on Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College in New York City and has received a PhD Honoris Causa from the Science Faculty at UQAM (University of Quebec at Montreal). Her most recent work includes: HBO-MAX series Julia based on the life of Julia Child, Beauty for Disney by Ryan Murphy, and the theatrical monologue Darwin’s Smile. She has several films coming out in 2027 including MY DUCHESS, directed by Mike Newell, POOR CLARE directed David Lowery, and THE BRIDE diected by Jeremiah Zagar. Ms. Rossellini’s philanthropic interests embrace preservation of her family’s extraordinary cinematic heritage, including the films directed by her father, Roberto Rossellini and those featuring her mother, Ingrid Bergman. She also runs an organic farm in Brookhaven NY called Mama Farm. Photo credit Paula Kaducki.

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