Nancy Savoca

Director 'Nancy Savoca' received critical acclaim for her first feature film, True Love (1989) which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival and 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. The film was recently called one of the "50 Greatest Independent Films of All-Time" by Entertainment Weekly. Her work has been the subject of retrospectives by The American Museum of the Moving Image and the New York Women's Film Festival. The daughter of Sicilian and Argentine immigrants, Savoca graduated from New York University's Film School. While there she received the Haig P. Manoogian Award for overall excellence in filmmaking for her short film work. She and her partner, Richard Guay, raised private funds to make True Love (1989), the story of an Italian wedding in the Bronx. The film was subsequently purchased and released by MGM/UA with an accompanying soundtrack on RCA records. The soundtrack album had the distinction of having two Top 40 hits on the Billboard charts. Next, Savoca directed Dogfight (1991) for Warner Bros. starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor. The film, set in 1963, told the story of a young Marine and the girl he takes to an "ugly date" contest. The film was praised by both Janet Maslin and Caryn James of The New York Times for its unique take on male-female relationships and its inventive use of period music. Her third feature, Household Saints (1993), an adaptation of Francine Prose's saga of three generations of Italian-American women. It starred Tracey Ullman, Lili Taylor, Vincent D'Onofrio and Judith Malina. 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. Savoca went on the HBO production If These Walls Could Talk (1996), a three part look at abortion rights produced by Demi Moore. Savoca served as co-writer for all three segments and directed the pieces starring Ms. Moore and Sissy Spacek. The film was the highest rated original movie in HBO history, played at several international film festivals and received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for best television drama and for Ms. Moore's performance. Savoca received a Lucy Award from Women In Film as one of the principal creators of "Walls" for "changing the face of television." Savoca's next film, an original comedy called _The 24 Hour Woman (1999)_ starred Oscar nominees Rosie Perez and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as well as Tony winner 'Patti Lupone'. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999. Ms. Savoca was nominated for an ALMA (American Latin Media Arts) award for Outstanding Director of this film. Show less «