Nancy Savoca
Encyclopedia
Nancy Savoca is an American film screenwriter, director, and producer. Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, she is the daughter of Sicilian and Argentine immigrants Calogero Savoca and Maria Elvira Savoca. Married to Richard Guay , also a writer and producer, they have three children: two sons and a daughter.
film school
, the Tisch School of the Arts
. While there she received the Haig P. Manoogian Award for overall excellence for her short films Renata and Bad Timing. Around this time she met Rich Guay, then an accounting student working at an Italian deli near her home. They were married in 1980. Once out of film school she worked as a storyboard artist and assistant editor on an independent film. But her first real hands-on professional experience was as a production assistant to John Sayles
on his film: The Brother From Another Planet
and as an assistant auditor for Jonathan Demme
on two of his films: Something Wild (1986), and Married to the Mob
(1988).
In 1989, her very first full length movie, the privately funded True Love
about Italian-American marriage rituals in the Bronx won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival
. The movie, starring Annabella Sciorra
and Ron Eldard
, both making their film debuts (and co-starring a number of familiar faces from The Sopranos
including Aida Turturro
and Vincent Pastore
), was hailed as one of the best films of the year by both Janet Maslin
and Vincent Canby
of the New York Times. Savoca was nominated for a Spirit Award as Best Director. MGM/UA snapped up the distribution rights and RCA
released the soundtrack, seeing two of the songs reach the Top 40 hits on the Billboard charts.
Since then she has written, directed and produced movies for the big screen, for television, has written or polished scripts for other directors, and has directed a number of episodes in ongoing television series. Her most famous work for television was co-writing all three segments of the Demi Moore
produced If These Walls Could Talk
, a mini-series about abortion
rights, and directing the first two segments. The second segment starred Sissy Spacek
trying to decide in the mid-70’s whether her marriage could stand the strain of another child. Cher
starred in and directed the third segment. In it she played a modern Planned Parenthood
doctor, the victim of a pro-life fanatic.
In 1998, Savoca was feted as a "New York trailblazer" at the New York Women's Film Festival. Savoca was also honored by the Los Angeles
chapter of the advocacy organization, Woman in Film and Television (WIFT). Her film, True Love was called one of the "50 Greatest Independent Films of All-Time" by Entertainment Weekly
.
Two of Savoca's films, Household Saints and True Love, are listed in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made St. Martin's Griffin
.
Nancy Savoca’s work has also been the subject of a retrospective by The American Museum of the Moving Image
.
, she allows her actors to find their own way through to a character. Also like Cassavetes, although her films are entirely scripted (often in partnership with her husband, Rich Guay), Savoca is willing to change a line or a scene at a moment’s notice if it feels right. And unlike most directors, she will use people in her films that have either only acted on stage, or never acted at all. Making a movie is personal. As well as devoting perhaps years to one project, it can be emotionally draining. Asked to direct Emma Thompson
in Wit
, Savoca declined since the plot of a woman dying from cancer was too close to events in her own life.
Savoca’s films reflect an ongoing concern with the feminine, albeit the quirky feminine. With a sense of nothing being “directed” or manipulated, she evokes so-called “ordinary” life on its deepest emotional level, yet with perfect artistic control. In 1991’s Dogfight
, starring River Phoenix
and Lili Taylor
, she gives us a touching portrait of feminine courage and masculine absolution. This film—about a Marine on the eve of leaving for the new war in Vietnam
finding and bringing the ugliest girl he can scrape up to a dreadful contest called a “dogfight”—was not well attended, but was critically acclaimed. The New York Times again praised Savoca’s work. As an interesting aside, Brendan Fraser
made his first appearance in "the movies" as a cameo in Savoca's Dogfight.
In 1993’s Household Saints
, again teaming up with Lili Taylor, Savoca moved beyond her interest in “ordinary people” to one extraordinary person who steps over the boundaries of routine religion into the realm of the luminously spiritual. Tracey Ullman
and Vincent D'Onofrio
play the parents of Lili Taylor. Being Italian, they are also Roman Catholic. Professing Catholicism means certain things, but it seldom means housing a saint. Savoca’s script was lovingly crafted from the book by Francine Prose
. With Jonathan Demme as the executive producer and released by Fine Line, the film was on the "Best Films" list of over twenty national critics and was nominated for a Spirit Award for Best Screenplay by Savoca and Guay. Lili Taylor won a Spirit for Best Female Performance.
Working with Oscar nominees Rosie Perez
, Marianne Jean-Baptiste
, and Tony Award
winner, Patti Lupone
, Savoca wrote and directed The 24 Hour Woman
about the myth of the “superwoman,” able to juggle a marriage, pregnancy, and a high profile job. Perez plays the producer of a local TV show for women in New York City
who lives her pregnancy, child-birth, and new baby very publicly “over the air.” Also appearing was the up-and-coming Diego Serrano
as "Eddie Diaz." This movie was premiered at Sundance in 1999 and Savoca was nominated for an ALMA (American Latin Media Arts) award for Outstanding Director.
Moving into television, Savoca directed, as mentioned, the first two segments of If These Walls Could Talk. The first segment, a single woman seeking a backstreet abortion in the 1950s played by Demi Moore, caught Moore at perhaps her finest moment as an actress. In this section, Savoca also worked with the highly respected actresses Shirley Knight
and CCH Pounder
. It was then the highest rated original movie in HBO history. It played at several international film festivals and received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for best television drama and for Ms. Moore's performance. Because of “Walls,” Savoca shared a Lucy Award from Women in Film with the other creators.
Released in 2003, she directed Reno: Rebel Without a Pause: Unrestrained Reflections on September 11, the performance artist Reno’s raw, cynical and furiously funny rant about the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center
and The Pentagon
. This film opened at the Toronto Film Festival on September 11, 2002. The city of Florence, Italy awarded this film the Prize for Peace and Liberty.
2005 saw the release of Dirt starring Julieta Ortiz, a stage actress making her first appearance in a motion picture. Dirt, which premiered on Showtime, explores the life of Dolores, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador
who can only find work “under the table.” Constantly terrified she will be deported as she cleans American houses, she dreams of the day she can go back to a home of her own. For this film, the Writers Guild of America
nominated Savoca and Guay for a WGA for Best Longform Teleplay in 2006. Ortiz won Best Actress in New York's Le Cinema Fe and Savoca won Best Director at Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
.
, an Argentinian jazz saxophonist. They are also currently working towards the filming of Ki Longfellow’s
novel The Secret Magdalene (Eio Books
, 2005; Random House
, 2007) in which Savoca is again the screenwriter and director, while Guay is producing.
Revolution Books screened "Dirt" on August 11, 2010. Savoca appeared for a Q&A. DIRT is an award-winning tragic-comedy about an undocumented cleaning woman. Shot in NYC and El Salvador. http://www.revolutionbooksnyc.org/
In February 2011, Colombia held a retrospective of Savoca's work which she attended.
Savoca recently completed photography on the independent feature Union Square starring Mira Sorvino
, Tammy Blanchard
, Patti LuPone
, Mike Doyle
, Michael Rispoli
and Daphne Rubin-Vega
. Madeleine Peyroux
is recording an end song for the film which has been invited to open in 2011's Toronto International Film Festival
.
Life and work
After completing her courses at Queens College, Flushing, New York, Savoca went on to graduate in 1982 from New York University’sNew York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
film school
Film school
The term film school is used to describe any educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training are usually incorporated into...
, the Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....
. While there she received the Haig P. Manoogian Award for overall excellence for her short films Renata and Bad Timing. Around this time she met Rich Guay, then an accounting student working at an Italian deli near her home. They were married in 1980. Once out of film school she worked as a storyboard artist and assistant editor on an independent film. But her first real hands-on professional experience was as a production assistant to John Sayles
John Sayles
John Thomas Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter and author.-Early life:Sayles was born in Schenectady, New York, the son of Mary , a teacher, and Donald John Sayles, a school administrator. He was raised Catholic and took to labeling himself "a Catholic atheist"...
on his film: The Brother From Another Planet
The Brother from Another Planet
The Brother from Another Planet is a science fiction film written, directed and edited by John Sayles. It stars Joe Morton as an extraterrestrial who has escaped to Earth and who hides in New York City.-Plot:...
and as an assistant auditor for Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
on two of his films: Something Wild (1986), and Married to the Mob
Married to the Mob
Married to the Mob is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Modine.Michelle Pfeiffer, in something of a departure from her previous roles, gave an acclaimed lead performance as a gangster's widow from Brooklyn, opposite Matthew Modine as the...
(1988).
In 1989, her very first full length movie, the privately funded True Love
True Love (1989 film)
True Love is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Nancy Savoca. An unflinching look at the realities of love and marriage which offers no "happily ever after" ending, it won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival.-Cast:...
about Italian-American marriage rituals in the Bronx won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. The movie, starring Annabella Sciorra
Annabella Sciorra
Annabella Sciorra is an American film, television, and stage actress. Sciorra received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead for the 1989 film True Love, and came to widespread attention in her co-lead role in Spike Lee's 1991 film Jungle Fever...
and Ron Eldard
Ron Eldard
Ronald Jason "Ron" Eldard is an American actor.-Early life:Eldard, the second youngest of seven children , was born on Long Island, New York. Eldard's mother died in a car accident when he was a child, and Eldard and his siblings were sent to live with various family members...
, both making their film debuts (and co-starring a number of familiar faces from The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
including Aida Turturro
Aida Turturro
Aida Turturro is an American actress probably best known for playing Janice Soprano, sister of New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano, on the HBO TV series The Sopranos .-Personal life:...
and Vincent Pastore
Vincent Pastore
Vincent Pastore is an Italian-American actor, often cast as a mobster and best known for the role of Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero on The Sopranos.-Early life:...
), was hailed as one of the best films of the year by both Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
and Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
of the New York Times. Savoca was nominated for a Spirit Award as Best Director. MGM/UA snapped up the distribution rights and RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
released the soundtrack, seeing two of the songs reach the Top 40 hits on the Billboard charts.
Since then she has written, directed and produced movies for the big screen, for television, has written or polished scripts for other directors, and has directed a number of episodes in ongoing television series. Her most famous work for television was co-writing all three segments of the Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
produced If These Walls Could Talk
If These Walls Could Talk
If These Walls Could Talk is a 1996 made for television movie, broadcast on HBO. It follows the plights of three different women and their experiences with abortion. Each of the three stories takes place in the same house, 22 years each: 1952, 1974, and 1996. All three segments were co-written by...
, a mini-series about abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
rights, and directing the first two segments. The second segment starred Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
trying to decide in the mid-70’s whether her marriage could stand the strain of another child. Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
starred in and directed the third segment. In it she played a modern Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
doctor, the victim of a pro-life fanatic.
In 1998, Savoca was feted as a "New York trailblazer" at the New York Women's Film Festival. Savoca was also honored by the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
chapter of the advocacy organization, Woman in Film and Television (WIFT). Her film, True Love was called one of the "50 Greatest Independent Films of All-Time" by Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
.
Two of Savoca's films, Household Saints and True Love, are listed in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made St. Martin's Griffin
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
.
Nancy Savoca’s work has also been the subject of a retrospective by The American Museum of the Moving Image
American Museum of the Moving Image
The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in Astoria, Queens on the former site of the Kaufman Astoria Studios. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the American Museum of the Moving Image. The museum began a $67 million expansion in March 2008 and reopened in January 2011...
.
An artist’s vision
Savoca works most often as an independent filmmaker although she is no stranger to Hollywood. Like the innovative John CassavetesJohn Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
, she allows her actors to find their own way through to a character. Also like Cassavetes, although her films are entirely scripted (often in partnership with her husband, Rich Guay), Savoca is willing to change a line or a scene at a moment’s notice if it feels right. And unlike most directors, she will use people in her films that have either only acted on stage, or never acted at all. Making a movie is personal. As well as devoting perhaps years to one project, it can be emotionally draining. Asked to direct Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End...
in Wit
Wit (film)
Wit is a 2001 American television movie directed by Mike Nichols. The teleplay by Nichols and Emma Thompson is based on the 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same title by Margaret Edson....
, Savoca declined since the plot of a woman dying from cancer was too close to events in her own life.
Savoca’s films reflect an ongoing concern with the feminine, albeit the quirky feminine. With a sense of nothing being “directed” or manipulated, she evokes so-called “ordinary” life on its deepest emotional level, yet with perfect artistic control. In 1991’s Dogfight
Dogfight (film)
Dogfight is a 1991 film set in San Francisco, California, during the Vietnam War , stars River Phoenix and Lili Taylor and was directed by Nancy Savoca....
, starring River Phoenix
River Phoenix
River Jude Phoenix was an American film actor, musician, and teen icon. He was the oldest brother of fellow actors Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer Phoenix.Phoenix began acting at age 10 in television commercials...
and Lili Taylor
Lili Taylor
Lili Anne Taylor is an American actress notable for her appearances in such award-winning indie films as Mystic Pizza, Say Anything..., Short Cuts and I Shot Andy Warhol, and the acclaimed TV show Six Feet Under....
, she gives us a touching portrait of feminine courage and masculine absolution. This film—about a Marine on the eve of leaving for the new war in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
finding and bringing the ugliest girl he can scrape up to a dreadful contest called a “dogfight”—was not well attended, but was critically acclaimed. The New York Times again praised Savoca’s work. As an interesting aside, Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser
Brendan James Fraser is a Canadian-American film and stage actor. Fraser portrayed Rick O'Connell in the three-part Mummy film series , and is known for his comedic and fantasy film leading roles in major Hollywood films, including Encino Man , George of the Jungle , Dudley Do-Right , Monkeybone ,...
made his first appearance in "the movies" as a cameo in Savoca's Dogfight.
In 1993’s Household Saints
Household Saints
Household Saints is a 1993 film starring Tracey Ullman, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Lili Taylor. It was based on the novel by Francine Prose and directed by Nancy Savoca. The film explores the lives of three generations of Italian-American women over the course of the latter-half of the 20th century...
, again teaming up with Lili Taylor, Savoca moved beyond her interest in “ordinary people” to one extraordinary person who steps over the boundaries of routine religion into the realm of the luminously spiritual. Tracey Ullman
Tracey Ullman
Tracey Ullman is a British stage and television actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, screenwriter and author ....
and Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...
play the parents of Lili Taylor. Being Italian, they are also Roman Catholic. Professing Catholicism means certain things, but it seldom means housing a saint. Savoca’s script was lovingly crafted from the book by Francine Prose
Francine Prose
Francine Prose is an American writer. Since March 2007 she has been the president of PEN American Center. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968 and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991....
. With Jonathan Demme as the executive producer and released by Fine Line, the film was on the "Best Films" list of over twenty national critics and was nominated for a Spirit Award for Best Screenplay by Savoca and Guay. Lili Taylor won a Spirit for Best Female Performance.
Working with Oscar nominees Rosie Perez
Rosie Perez
Rosa María "Rosie" Pérez is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.- Early life :...
, Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste is a British actress and singer of Antiguan and St. Lucian heritage.-Early life:...
, and Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
winner, Patti Lupone
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...
, Savoca wrote and directed The 24 Hour Woman
The 24 Hour Woman
The 24 Hour Woman is a 1999 film directed and co-written by Nancy Savoca. The film was shot on location in New York City.-Plot:Grace struggles to be both a successful television producer and mother.-Principal cast:...
about the myth of the “superwoman,” able to juggle a marriage, pregnancy, and a high profile job. Perez plays the producer of a local TV show for women in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
who lives her pregnancy, child-birth, and new baby very publicly “over the air.” Also appearing was the up-and-coming Diego Serrano
Diego Serrano
Diego Serrano is an American actor.Serrano was born in Quito, Ecuador. He has appeared on The Young and the Restless as Diego Guittierez and the long-running, defunct soap opera, Another World as Tomas Rivera . In 2000, he starred alongside star Jennifer Love Hewitt on the Fox television series...
as "Eddie Diaz." This movie was premiered at Sundance in 1999 and Savoca was nominated for an ALMA (American Latin Media Arts) award for Outstanding Director.
Moving into television, Savoca directed, as mentioned, the first two segments of If These Walls Could Talk. The first segment, a single woman seeking a backstreet abortion in the 1950s played by Demi Moore, caught Moore at perhaps her finest moment as an actress. In this section, Savoca also worked with the highly respected actresses Shirley Knight
Shirley Knight
Shirley Enola Knight is an American stage, film and television actress. She has been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, in 1960 for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and in 1962 for Sweet Bird of Youth....
and CCH Pounder
CCH Pounder
Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder , known professionally as C. C. H. Pounder , is a Guyanese-American film and television actress...
. It was then the highest rated original movie in HBO history. It played at several international film festivals and received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for best television drama and for Ms. Moore's performance. Because of “Walls,” Savoca shared a Lucy Award from Women in Film with the other creators.
Released in 2003, she directed Reno: Rebel Without a Pause: Unrestrained Reflections on September 11, the performance artist Reno’s raw, cynical and furiously funny rant about the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
and The Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
. This film opened at the Toronto Film Festival on September 11, 2002. The city of Florence, Italy awarded this film the Prize for Peace and Liberty.
2005 saw the release of Dirt starring Julieta Ortiz, a stage actress making her first appearance in a motion picture. Dirt, which premiered on Showtime, explores the life of Dolores, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
who can only find work “under the table.” Constantly terrified she will be deported as she cleans American houses, she dreams of the day she can go back to a home of her own. For this film, the Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
nominated Savoca and Guay for a WGA for Best Longform Teleplay in 2006. Ortiz won Best Actress in New York's Le Cinema Fe and Savoca won Best Director at Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival includes feature films, documentaries, and short films from the Spanish and Portuguese diaspora. The six-day festival was established in 1997...
.
Latest work
Savoca and Guay are shooting a documentary on Gato BarbieriGato Barbieri
Leandro Barbieri , better known as Gato Barbieri , is an Argentinean jazz tenor saxophonist and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s.-Biography:Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music...
, an Argentinian jazz saxophonist. They are also currently working towards the filming of Ki Longfellow’s
Ki Longfellow
Ki Longfellow is an American novelist, playwright, theatrical producer, theater director and entrepreneur. In Britain, as the widow of Vivian Stanshall, she is well known as the guardian of his artistic heritage, but elsewhere she is best known for her own work, especially the novel The Secret...
novel The Secret Magdalene (Eio Books
Eio Books
Eio Books is an American based small press publishing house founded in 2004 in the city of Brattleboro, Vermont. In 2009, it opened a second office in Belvedere, California...
, 2005; Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, 2007) in which Savoca is again the screenwriter and director, while Guay is producing.
Revolution Books screened "Dirt" on August 11, 2010. Savoca appeared for a Q&A. DIRT is an award-winning tragic-comedy about an undocumented cleaning woman. Shot in NYC and El Salvador. http://www.revolutionbooksnyc.org/
In February 2011, Colombia held a retrospective of Savoca's work which she attended.
Savoca recently completed photography on the independent feature Union Square starring Mira Sorvino
Mira Sorvino
Mira Katherine Sorvino is an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite and is also known for her role as Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.- Early life :Sorvino was born in Tenafly, New Jersey...
, Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...
, Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...
, Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle (actor)
Mike Doyle is an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is best known for his recurring roles in the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing Forensics Tech Ryan O'Halloran, and Oz, playing Adam Guenzel....
, Michael Rispoli
Michael Rispoli
Michael Rispoli is an American character actor. He was formerly part of the HBO television series The Sopranos as Jackie Aprile, Sr...
and Daphne Rubin-Vega
Daphne Rubin-Vega
Daphne Rubin-Vega is a dancer, singer, and actress. She is best known for originating the role of Mimi Marquez in the Broadway musical Rent, and the role of Lucy, in the Off-Broadway play Jack Goes Boating.-Biography:Rubin-Vega was born in Panama City, Panama, the daughter of Daphine Vega, a...
. Madeleine Peyroux
Madeleine Peyroux
Madeleine Peyroux is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Peyroux is noted for her vocal style, which has been compared to that of Billie Holiday....
is recording an end song for the film which has been invited to open in 2011's Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
.
Filmography
- Renata (1982) (short film)
- Bad Timing (1982) (short film)
- True LoveTrue Love (1989 film)True Love is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Nancy Savoca. An unflinching look at the realities of love and marriage which offers no "happily ever after" ending, it won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival.-Cast:...
(1989) - DogfightDogfight (film)Dogfight is a 1991 film set in San Francisco, California, during the Vietnam War , stars River Phoenix and Lili Taylor and was directed by Nancy Savoca....
(1991) - Household SaintsHousehold SaintsHousehold Saints is a 1993 film starring Tracey Ullman, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Lili Taylor. It was based on the novel by Francine Prose and directed by Nancy Savoca. The film explores the lives of three generations of Italian-American women over the course of the latter-half of the 20th century...
(1993) (also co-writer, with Richard Guay) - Dark EyesDark EyesDark Eyes is a 1987 Italian and Russian language film which tells the story of a 19th century married Italian who falls in love with a married Russian woman...
(1995) (TV) - Murder OneMurder One (TV series)Murder One is an American legal drama series that first aired on the ABC network in the United States in 1995. The series was created by Steven Bochco, Charles H. Eglee, and Channing Gibson.-Premise:...
(1995) (TV) - If These Walls Could TalkIf These Walls Could TalkIf These Walls Could Talk is a 1996 made for television movie, broadcast on HBO. It follows the plights of three different women and their experiences with abortion. Each of the three stories takes place in the same house, 22 years each: 1952, 1974, and 1996. All three segments were co-written by...
(1996) (TV) (also co-writer, with I. Marlene King and Susan Nanus) - The 24 Hour WomanThe 24 Hour WomanThe 24 Hour Woman is a 1999 film directed and co-written by Nancy Savoca. The film was shot on location in New York City.-Plot:Grace struggles to be both a successful television producer and mother.-Principal cast:...
(1999) (also co-writer, with Richard Guay) - Third WatchThird WatchThird Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....
(2000) (TV) - The Mind of the Married ManThe Mind of the Married ManThe Mind of the Married Man is a television series that ran on the HBO network for two seasons consisting of twenty episodes between September 2001 and November 2002. The story attempts to focus on the challenges of modern-day married life from a male perspective.The show drew mixed reviews from...
(2001) (TV) - Reno: Rebel without a Pause (2003) (TV) (also co-producer)
- Dirt (2003) (also co-writer, with Richard Guay)
- Union Square (2012) (also co-writer, with Mary Tobler)
Television Director
- 1995 – Chapter Five, Murder OneMurder One (TV series)Murder One is an American legal drama series that first aired on the ABC network in the United States in 1995. The series was created by Steven Bochco, Charles H. Eglee, and Channing Gibson.-Premise:...
, ABC - 1996 – If These Walls Could TalkIf These Walls Could TalkIf These Walls Could Talk is a 1996 made for television movie, broadcast on HBO. It follows the plights of three different women and their experiences with abortion. Each of the three stories takes place in the same house, 22 years each: 1952, 1974, and 1996. All three segments were co-written by...
, (miniseries) - 2000 - Know Thyself, Third WatchThird WatchThird Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....
, NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago... - 2001 - Anywhere, Anytime, The Mind of the Married ManThe Mind of the Married ManThe Mind of the Married Man is a television series that ran on the HBO network for two seasons consisting of twenty episodes between September 2001 and November 2002. The story attempts to focus on the challenges of modern-day married life from a male perspective.The show drew mixed reviews from...
, HBO - 2003 – Dirt, Showtime, 2003
- 1980s - Director for The Great Spacecoaster (syndicated children’s series)
Other
- 1995 – Dark Eyes (pilot), ABC
- 1996 – 1952 and 1974, If These Walls Could Talk, (miniseries), HBO
- 2005 – Dirt, Showtime
As a Writer
- 1982 – Renata (short film, with others)
- 1982 – Bad Timing (short film, with others)
- 1989 – True LoveTrue Love (1989 film)True Love is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Nancy Savoca. An unflinching look at the realities of love and marriage which offers no "happily ever after" ending, it won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival.-Cast:...
(with Richard Guay) - 1993 – Household Saints (with Richard Guay)
- 1996 – If These Walls Could TalkIf These Walls Could TalkIf These Walls Could Talk is a 1996 made for television movie, broadcast on HBO. It follows the plights of three different women and their experiences with abortion. Each of the three stories takes place in the same house, 22 years each: 1952, 1974, and 1996. All three segments were co-written by...
(with others) - 1999 – The 24 Hour WomanThe 24 Hour WomanThe 24 Hour Woman is a 1999 film directed and co-written by Nancy Savoca. The film was shot on location in New York City.-Plot:Grace struggles to be both a successful television producer and mother.-Principal cast:...
(with Richard Guay) - 2008 – The Secret MagdaleneThe Secret MagdaleneThe Secret Magdalene, American novelist and screenwriter Ki Longfellow's third book, was first published in March 2005 by a small Vermont publishing company called Eio Books...
(pre-production) - 2010 - Union Square (with Mary Tobler)