Dania Pasquini

I am a film director with 40 years+ experience in feature films, commercials and music videos. I started as a runner on film sets and worked my way from the ground up. I have co-directed four feature films; Streetdance 3D, its sequel Streetdance 2, Walking On Sunshine, and Breaking Point. Whilst I co-wrote and directed the short film, ’What If’, commissioned by BBC Films.
I have production and filming experience, with knowledge of the local film infrastructures of: London, Manchester, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Brazil, Jamaica, Argentina, Cuba, Italy, Berlin, Paris, Venice, Ibiza and South Africa.

Pop culture was my foundation after spending years honing my craft directing music videos for leading British artists. The highlight of this was receiving a Brit award for the landmark music video, So Solid "21 seconds’. My cinematic YA aesthetic provided a springboard into making aspirational, glossy, commercial movies: Street Dance 3D, grossing over 42m at the box office internationally and Walking On Sunshine, a musical set on the beautiful beaches of Italy, Puglia.
FILM DIRECTOR - BREAKING POINTJun 2022 - March 2023
I have currently finished post production with Future Artists Entertainment on a Sky Original / Hanway Films production. Breaking Point will be have theatrical release internationally, with exclusivity on Sky’s original movies this summer 2023. It’s story centres around a fractured family. Expect astounding big set dance pieces, where Breakdancing is centre stage, banging beats with an atmosphere unlike anything else across your screens. Just in time for the news that Breakdancing is the next new Olympic sport at Paris 2024.

CREATIVE - IN DEVELOPMENTJun 2018 - PRESENT
I have been developing a number of YA TV episodic dramas, from original concept, story outline, script development, bibles and keynote presentations. Titles such as; ‘FLIPSIDE’ in development with CBBC; ‘KUNG FU NIGHT SCHOOL’ in development with Sharp House.
FILM DIRECTOR - STREETDANCE 3D, STREETDANCE 2, WALKING ON SUNSHINE, WHAT IF.
Jun 2010 - June 2016
I am one of the directing team, Max and Dania, behind the blockbusting YOUTH HIT STREETDANCE 3D, which made an astonishing £2.49m on its opening weekend in 2010, featuring Charlotte Rampling. Dethroning the US heavy weights at the box office, Robin Hood and Prince of Persia – Sands of Time to claim the top slot. The story of a creative collision between a group of hip-hop dancers and a ballet troupe, was the highest-grossing independent British film of its year, eventually bringing in £11.8m in UK sales. Selling to over 30 countries with a gross international box office of £40 million.

We were invited by BBC Films, to make a film for the Cultural Olympiad, 2012, alongside Mike Leigh, Lynne Ramsey and Asif Kapadia. The result was WHAT IF, a modern reimagining of Rudyard Kipling's poem ‘If’, featuring Noel Clarke as an urban angel.

My next film, WALKING ON SUNSHINE, produced by Vertigo films, stars Gemma Arterton's younger sister, Hannah, along with Katy Brand, singer Leona Lewis, Greg Wise and Annabel Scholey. The musical, set in Puglia, Italy, has been compared to the Abba jukebox hit Mamma Mia! and features a succession of 1980s hit songs, from Madonna's Holiday to Human League's Don't You Want Me.
MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTORJune 1989 - 2019
I began my directing career producing and directing music videos, working alongside artists such as Craig David, Elton John, Oasis, Wu Tang Clan, Wyclef Jean, So Solid and Sting. During the span of my music video directing career I was represented by a number of prestigious production companies like Propaganda Films (David Fincher/ Michael Bay, Zack Synder, Spike Jonze, Antoine Fuqua), Partizan (Michel Gondry) , Media Lab and Believe Media and worked with all the major record labels.