Originally from Venice, Italy Antonio Padovan has been in the states for four and a half years. The self-proclaimed film lover came here to work as an architect but on a whim shifted gears.
“When I first moved here, I worked 14-hour days and weekends. It was a struggle. One night, I went to see a movie and I decided to quit my job and go to film school.†When Padovan was a young boy his parents took him to see “The Bear†and it touched him deeply. Padovan who has always loved movies, never dared or dreamed to take up filmmaking, but being in the United States gave Padovan the added sense of encouragement he needed to make that leap of fulfilling and realizing a dream.
Padovan attended the New York Film Academy. In eight weeks he’d completed a short entitled “Socks and Cakes†which garnered Padovan a full year’s fil
m scholarship—the first time the school has ever bestowed a full year’s scholarship upon a student—as well as the Golden Ace Award for the Las Vegas Film Festival. Padovan was quickly on his way to becoming a serious filmmaker.
At the end of that year, Padovan wrote and directed a charming film entitled “Perry St,†which was submitted to over 16 festivals and won the following: Los Angeles Movie Awards “WINNER – Award of Excellence;†Los Angeles Movie Awards “WINNER – Best Supporting Actress – Brittany Moore;†Metropolitan Film Festival of New York “Honorable Mention;†and the Honolulu Film Awards “WINNER – Gold Kahuna Award.â€
In order to make his dream come true, Padovan continues to work in various forms of production—he’s worked as a production and casting assistant on “AmeriQua” with Alec Bald
win and Bobby Kennedy III—where he’s been able to make film industry contacts, meet talent and share the talent pool from his own projects.
For example, during the shooting of “Perry St†—a delightful short that Padovan wrote and directed—he sent his script to actress Catherine Mary Stewart who responded to the project and agreed to play the part. “When I met her during the shooting of “Perry St†I knew she’d be perfect for the role of Baldwin’s wife in “AmeriQua” so I spoke with the producer, who brought her in and cast her in the role.â€
“Perry St†deals with two psychiatrists (who are also married to each other) and the lengths in which they go in order to solve their clients’ emotional maladies. The film has a funny twist at the end and is surprisingly fulfilling for a short piece—no surprise this has won so many festivals.
Padovan is currently finishing his first directorial feature entitled, “Tillman.†“The story is about a man, Richard Tillman, who has never made an important decision in his life. Because of his procrastination, regarding life’s major decisions, he’s wound up in a job he doesn’t like, with a wife he doesn’t like, and a family he regrets. Making choices is always difficult but if you don’t make choices—you end up in that ‘Tillman’ world,†explains Padovan.
Padovan likes movies about ordinary people with ordinary problems and he loves Manhattan. “When I write, I love to write about stories that take place in New York. I love New York and I’m used to working in New York City and “Tillman†was completely different.†The film, shot mostly in and around Huntington, Long Island, presented a host of suburban challenges for Padovan but the most daunting was, “to make an interesting story of a man who essentially has a most boring yet totally relatable life.â€
He responds to directors such as Woody Allen and Federico Fellini and Alexander Payne (“Sideways†) and those artists who write and direct movies about everyday occurrences, thriving on ‘slice-of-life’ films. “I probably wouldn’t be believable if I was working on a western or a sci-fi,†laughs Padovan. What this young director hopes to do is bring a new form of dynamics to the Everyman stories and if Perry St is an example of what we may expect than this director will surely deliver.
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