Annalisa Piras is a London-based Italian film director/writer, journalist,CEO of Springshot Productions, Director of The Wake Up Europe Film Festival. A former London correspondent for L'Espresso magazine and La7 TV, she studied Political Science, History and Cinematography in Rome. She has 25 years experience in the production of documentaries and programmes which have been broadcast by BBC, ARTE TV, RAI, SVT, Euronews and LA7, among others.

In 1993 she was among the founding journalists who launched the news channel Euronews, where she was in charge of a daily news programme on the EU. A frequent broadcaster and commentator on European and Italian affairs, she was the first Italian President of the London Foreign Press Association, founded in 1888.

In 2012 she directed, produced and wrote Girlfriend in a Coma (2012), feature documentary on Italy, co-written with Bill Emmott, acclaimed as one of the best analysis of modern day Italy.

In 2014 she directed, produced and wrote The Great European Disaster Movie, a feature documentary on the crisis of the EU, executively produced by Bill Emmott, co-produced by BBC, Arte and other 6 EU broadcasters. The film was awarded the 2016 Civis Media Prize by the President of Germany for the best European documentary on EU civic values.

Her 2017 documentary, Europe at Sea, nominated for the Prix Europa, obtained unprecedented access to the work of Federica Mogherini, the then chief of EU Foreign and Security Policy at a pivotal moment of European history , at the height of the first migrant crisis . It offers a unique insight into the workings of the first joint EU naval fleet in the Southern Mediterranean Sea, Operation Sophia, on which Springshot’s crew were embedded.

In 2022 she wrote and directed “The Euro Story”, “L’Euro, la Nostra Storia”, produced by Arte Tv. The film is the first documentary telling the long and turbulent story of the Monetary Union through a transnational perspective, and the voices of its founding fathers.

In 2019, she founded and directed with Bill Emmott, The Wake Up Europe Festival, which took place in Turin and other 10 locations in Europe. The Festival’s mission is to foster a better understanding of the shared challenges European societies face, through the use of impact documentaries and debates. At the core of the Festival program is a in depth reflection on the meaning of a European civic conscience based on the EU foundation values. After a Covid imposed break the Festival will return in Florence, in September 2023 .

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