Michele Pennetta was born in Vaese (Italy) in 1984. He holds the Master in Filmmaking from the Haute Ecole D'Art et de Design de Genève (HEAD) and l’École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL) in 2010. His graduation film I cani abbaiano played at numerous film festivals.

In 2013, he started collaborating with Joëlle Bertossa’s Close Up Films and he directed the middle-length film A iucata, that won the Pardino d'Oro at Locarno Film Festival and was nominated for the best Swiss short film career in numerous international festivals, also winning the award for best film at the Festival dei Popoli in Florence.

An interest in his country of origin and current events led him to write and direct his first feature film Pescatori di Corpi, screened as part of international competition at the 69th Festival in Locarno (2016). His second film Il mio corpo premiered in the international feature film competition at the 51th Vision du Réel and started international showcase with the official 2020 ACID Cannes film selection.