John Turturro is an American-Italian actor, director, screenwriter and producer who has been working in the entertainment business for over 30 years, proving his competence in a number of fields. He was in more than 60 feature films and over a dozen stage plays, he had also done some acclaimed TV work. He directed five feature films, including Fading Gigolo which premiered last month at the Toronto Film Festival; it will have its official Polish premiere at Camerimage and later on will be distributed in movie theaters by SPI/Kino Świat. Turturro also directed two plays, one of them on Broadway. He worked with many distinguished filmmakers: Spike Lee, the Coen brothers, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Noah Baumbach, Sally Potter, Woody Allen and Robert Redford. His turn in the Coens'Barton Fink brought him Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, to which he later returned to collect Camera D'Or award for Best Director and Screenwriter for his feature debut Mac. He won the prestigious OBIE Award for playing the titular part in John Patrick Shanley'sDanny and the Deep Blue Sea, and was also awarded with Emmy for his guest part in TV series Monk. We are proud to announce that in a month's time John Turturro will come to Bydgoszcz to collect the Special Camerimage Award for Actor-Director.

John Turturro; photo from John Turturro Archive
John Turturro graduated from the State University of New York and Yale Drama School. Since the beginning of his acting career, he was able to work on films that were more than memorable. He debuted in small role in Martin Scorsese'sRaging Bull, then came William Friedkin'sTo Live and Die in L.A., Woody Allen'sHannah and Her Sisters, and other interesting film projects. Turturro's breakthrough role was the one of openly racist Pino in Spike Lee'sDo the Right Thing. It started the collaboration between the two artists that resulted in eight more films. Simultaneously, the actor starred in his first Coen brothers venture - Miller's Crossing. The next film they made together was Barton Fink for which Turturro got the attention and recognition at the Cannes Film Festival. The following years brought many other brilliant acting turns, among which one can find Golden Globe-nominated role of one obsessive Herb Stempel in Robert Redford'sQuiz Show, chain-gang fugitive Pete in the Coens'O Brother, Where Art Thou?, charismatic Italian opera singer Dante in Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried, or enigmatic killer John Shooter in David Koepp'sSecret Window.

Still from "Do the Right Thing"
Still from "Barton Fink"
John Turtorro is best known as a brilliant dramatic character actor, though he is also a wonderful comedian. It helped him to make viewers laugh out loud on many occasions, and two roles are especially worth mentioning. The first one was Jesus Quintana from the Coens'The Big Lebowski - maniacal bowling afficionado who talks with thick Cuban accent and likes to use third person when mentioning himself. The second one was Roland T. Flakfizer from Dennis Dugan'sBrain Donors, a wild slapstick tribute to the Marx brothers movies, in which Turturro, throwing words at a speed of a machine gun, paid a splendid homage to the genius of Groucho Marx. He did many more unorthodox roles, especially with Adam Sandler by his side. In Mr. Deeds (dir. Steven Brill) Turturro played a weirdly sympathetic butler with foot fetishism. He was one of Jack Nicholson's patients in Anger Management (dir. Peter Segal). And in You Don't Mess with the Zohan (dir. Dennis Dugan) he played a Palestinian bad-guy who at the same time was a spoof on such film characters.

Still from "The Big Lebowski"
Still from "Brain Donors"
Over the years, John Turturro has proved to be a director to watch, making films that were interesting both stylistically and thematically. In his feature debut Mac, in which he played with his wife Katherine Borowitz, he depicted the world of Italian working class family - it was a story of emotional turmoil between three brothers that were unable to continue their father's legacy. In Illuminata he made a journey to the past and told a story of theatre owners and workers at the beginning of the 20th century. In Romance & Cigarettes, considered by many as cult classic, he mixed drama, romantic comedy and musical conventions. In Passione documentary he took the viewers into the fascinating world of Neapolitan music. His latest film, Fading Gigolo, sees him playing Woody Allen's pal who, in order to help his buddy, has to become a real gigolo.

Still from "Quiz Show"
Still from "Fading Gigolo"
John Turturro is a man of many talents, an artist who cannot be defined by any ready-made labels, a filmmaker looking for both new and interesting challenges and non-standard ways of expressing himself. Each project he is in, as an actor or director, on a film set or on stage, is a solid proof that for John Turturro sky is the limit. We are very eager to greet him at the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE and appreciate his career with the Special Award for Actor-Director. Additionally, John Turturro will meet the Festival audience after the special screening of Fading Gigolo.

SELECTED CREDITS:

• 2013 - Gods Behaving Badly; (actor)
• 2013 - Fading Gigolo; (actor, director, screenwriter)
• 2010 - Passione; (director, himself)
• 2007 - Transformers; (actor)
• 2005 - Romance & Cigarettes; (actor, director, producer, screenwriter)
• 2004 - Secret Window; (actor)
• 2000 - O Brother, Where Art Thou? ; (actor)
• 1998 - Illuminata; (actor, director, producer, screenwriter)
• 1998 - The Big Lebowski; (actor)
• 1994 - Quiz Show; (actor)
• 1992 - Mac; (actor, director, screenwriter)
• 1992 - Brain Donors; (actor)
• 1991 - Barton Fink; (actor)
• 1990 - Miller's Crossing; (actor)
• 1989 - Do the Right Thing; (actor)