Michael Di Jiacomo

Michael started his career as a writer working with MacArthur Genius Award winning dance theater and opera director Martha Clark. Their work together included collaborations with circus performers, acrobats and ballerinas.

His first feature film, Animals, starring Tim Roth, John Turturro, Rod Steiger and Lothaire Bluteau, premiered at Sundance, was nominated for several awards, and won the Special Jury Prize at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Japan and the Best Director award at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain. His second feature, Somewhere Tonight, starring John Turturro, premiered at Karlovy Vary, played around the world and won awards in Europe and the US.

His work as a screenwriter includes The Revenge of the Green Dragons, a film he co-wrote, with Martin Scorcese executive producing and Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs) directing; the Italian war epic Castlenuovo, which Roman Polanski asked him to write; Prince Jack for Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule and Universal Pictures; The Light Princess for director Gore Verbinski (the Pirates of the Caribbean films) and Twentieth Century Fox; Sunset for Ben Barenholtz (Requiem For A Dream, Barton Fink); Salvatori for Vision Pictures Australia; Citizen X for Mark Cuban's 2929 Productions (The Road, Good Night, And Good Luck); The Life Of Saint Peter for director Alik Sakharov (Game of Thrones) and producer Shannon McIntosh (Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight); and an adaptation of the James Ellroy novel Clandestine for TBS. He ghost-wrote the Toronto Film Festival award winning film Rhinoceros Eyes and the Canadian television film Fear Island.

Michael attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts graduate film program where he won numerous awards including the prestigious W.T.C. Johnson Fellowship for his film Heaven, the Mobile Film Award, and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences student Oscar for his film The Lost Treasure of Captain Cornelius Deadeye Tuckett. His other short films include the experimental Romeo and Julliette and One.

He was a writing and directing Fellow at the Sundance Institute where he was mentored by Terry Gilliam, Volker Schlondorff, Stanley Donen and Glenn Close. 

He has been awarded grants from the Aaron Diamond Foundation and Panavision.

In the fall of 2015 his first play, The Happiest Day, had a four-month run in Holland and starred Johanna ter Steege (The Vanishing) and Johnny De Mol (Black Book). He directed Brandon Cole's Imperfect Love at the Connelly Theater in 2017/18 with sets and costumes by Academy Award and Cesar Award winning designer Gianni Quaranta and presented by John Turturro.