Elkann was born in London, the daughter of Margherita Agnelli and the French-Italian writer Alain Elkann. Her father is Jewish and her mother is Catholic, and she was raised Catholic. Her maternal grandparents were princess and socialite Marella Agnelli and the industrialist Gianni Agnelli. She is the great-grand-niece of Ettore Ovazza. She has two older brothers John Elkann and Lapo Elkann. Her brother, the industrialist John Elkann, is Chairman of the Fiatgroup of companies. Her parents divorced when she was young and she moved first to Rio de Janeiro and then to Paris with her mother and stepfather, Russian count Serge de Pahlen.
Career
Elkann worked as third assistant director on Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1998 filmL’assedio, and was video assistant on Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Later she studied filmmaking at the London Film School. In 2005, her LFS graduation film, the nine-minute Vado a messa, was screened during a "Cinema Schools" special event at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival. Asked whether she had any particular subjects in mind for a feature-length film, she mentioned two: a thriller set in the world of synchronized swimming, and an adaptation of her father’s story Piazza Carignano, which concerns a FascistJew. It is inspired by the story of her father's side of the family, who were the influential Ovazza banking family. In 2009 she founded production company Caspian Films, first producing Frontier Blues, debut feature film by Iranian director and fellow London Film School graduate Babak Jalali. This film was developed with support from the CannesCinéfondation and premiered in competition at the 62nd Locarno Film Festival. She then produced other independent feature films such as White Shadow, directed by Noaz Deshe, which won the Lion of the Future award at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, Chlorine, directed by Lamberto Sanfelice, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and again with Babak Jalali on his third feature Land, which premiered in the Panorama section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. In 2012 she founded production and distribution company Good Films, together with Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Luigi Musini and Lorenzo Mieli. In 2019, her debut feature film as a director Magari had its world premiere as the opening film at the 72nd Locarno Film Festival Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, theatrical distribution of the film could not go ahead as programmed, so the film was made available on RaiPlay, the streaming platform of Italian national broadcasterRAI in May 2020.
Personal life
She married Giovanni Gaetani dell’Aquila d’Aragona in a Roman Catholic ceremony in Marrakesh on 25 April 2009. She has two sons and a daughter with her husband: Giacomo, Pietro and Marella.
