Nancy Savoca

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Gerardo Somoza

Nancy Savoca and a camera.

Nancy Savoca

media release:  At this public event Nancy Savoca will be in conversation with Professor Grazia Menechella (French and Italian, UW-Madison) about her work as filmmaker and writer. During her visit, Savoca will also be meeting with UW students and introducing two films: 1) her film Household Saints (1993) at the UW Cinematheque (9/27, 7:00 pm; 2) Roberto Rossellini's film L'amore: Una voce umana (A Human Voice, 1948) at the UW Cinemateque (9/28, 2:00 pm).

Acclaimed American independent film director, producer, and writer Nancy Savoca was born in the Bronx, New York City, to Italian (Sicilian) and Argentine immigrant parents. She attended film school at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She has directed Renata (1982), Bad Timing (1982), True Love (1989), Dogfight (1991), Household Saints (1993), The 24 Hour Woman (1999), Reno: Rebel without a Pause (2002), Dirt (2003), Union Square (2012). She has directed for television Dark Eyes (1995), Murder One (1995-96), If These Walls Could Talk (1996), Third Watch (2000), and The Mind of a Married Man (2001). Her film True Love won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989, was the San Sebastian International Film Festival Winner the same year, and she was also nominated for Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards.  Dogfight premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 1991. Households Saints, her third feature film (co-written with Richard Guay), received Independent Spirit Award nominations and Lili Taylor won for Best Supporting Actress. Savoca’s films True Love and Household Saints are listed in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, and True Love was named one of the “50 Greatest Independent Films of All Time” by Entertainment Weekly.  Dirt (2003), a bilingual dramedy about class and immigration, won Best Director at LA’s Latino Film Festival and a Writer’s Guild nomination. Household Saints will be shown at the UW-Madison in a new restoration that was showcased at the 2023 New York Film Festival to great acclaim.

Free and open to all.

Sponsored by the Department of French and Italian with generous support from the Anonymous Fund, and co-sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts, the English Department, UW Cinematheque, and the Center for Visual Cultures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.