Massimiliano "Max" Musina is an Italian and American film producer and entrepreneur, founder and CEO of The MAP Group, born in Florence, Italy, on March 8, 1982. He is known for producing Not Without Hope, Triumph, Primal, Birth of the Dragon, and In Dubious Battle, and works between Los Angeles and Italy at the intersection of film and finance.
Origin
Born in Florence.
His father, Libero, was a Florentine manufacturer and licensee of accessories for Italian designer houses. His mother, Sheila, was a fashion entrepreneur from Nashville, Tennessee. Max grew up in Florence, bilingual and bicultural, holding both an Italian and an American passport, speaking Italian to his father and English to his mother.
That duality, Italian craft and American reach, runs through everything that followed. It is why he treats production as both a creative discipline and a financial one.
Apprenticeship
The discipline came early.
Before film came sport. From twelve to twenty, Max was a starting shortstop for the Italian national baseball team, where he also served as captain, winning European championships and placing fourth at the World Championships. He started playing with Antella, signed at sixteen with Fiorentina, Florence's major league club, and at seventeen took a scholarship to Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, to keep playing. He later studied international business during a semester abroad at New York University in Florence. The field taught him what the work still runs on: results come from daily practice, not inspiration.
After university, Max spent years consulting for Italian, British, and Japanese fashion brands between London, Tokyo, and Milan. In Los Angeles he moved into entertainment, co-founding Quinn Studios with the late Francesco Quinn, actor, son of Anthony Quinn, and the closest thing Max had to a brother. They raced everything. One black-tie night at the Taormina Film Festival, tuxedoed and bound for the red carpet, Francesco dared him to a sprint up a steep cobblestone mountain. They tore up the hill, and their tuxedos with it. Francesco reached the top first; Max broke his foot on the climb, and the two spent the night hitchhiking down to the emergency room instead of walking the carpet. He still counts it a good race.
The MAP Group
The structure for the work.
In 2013, Max founded The MAP Group in Malibu, California, a production and financing company for feature films, television, and documentaries, built on one premise: the best films are carried by producers who understand both the creative vision and the money required to protect it.
Through the company he has packaged and financed films, structured production budgets, and managed distribution across international markets, working at the intersection of storytelling and capital: directors with financiers, talent with material.
In 2016 and 2017, he produced the first Golden Globe Awards China Film and Entertainment Summit in Beijing and acquired the broadcast and streaming rights to the Golden Globe Awards for the Chinese market, first for the 74th ceremony (2017) and again for the 77th (2020), working with Dick Clark Productions and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Alongside the company's work, Max served with the charity Raincatcher from 2012 to 2016, helping bring clean water to villages in Africa and India that had gone without it.
The Films
The work continues.
His most recent film is Not Without Hope (2025), directed by Joe Carnahan and starring Zachary Levi and Josh Duhamel, a survival drama drawn from the true story of the 2009 Gulf of Mexico boating accident.
Before that: Triumph (2021), starring Terrence Howard and RJ Mitte, awarded the Ruderman Seal of Authentic Representation. Primal (2019), with Nicolas Cage, executive produced by Max and shot on location in Puerto Rico. Birth of the Dragon (2016), directed by George Nolfi, selected for TIFF Special Presentations. In Dubious Battle (2016), directed by James Franco and starring Robert Duvall, Bryan Cranston, Ed Harris, Sam Shepard, and Selena Gomez, an official selection at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Fondazione Mimmo Rotella Award. One Rock Three Religions (2015), a documentary featuring Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, and former CIA Director James Woolsey, winner of the Jury Prize at the Global Non Violent Film Festival. The Butterfly's Dream (2013), directed by Yilmaz Erdogan, winner of fifteen international awards and Turkey's official submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
And The Square (2013), Jehane Noujaim's documentary on the Egyptian revolution, Academy Award nominated, Sundance Audience Award winner, Emmy winner, on which Max received a Special Thanks credit.
Now
Forward.
Max is based between Los Angeles and Italy. New film projects are in development, and he is increasingly focused on where entertainment meets artificial intelligence, the next structural shift in how films are made and financed.
The next titles will be announced when the director, the material, and the financing align, not before.