Jeff Celentano was born and raised in Pemberton, New Jersey, a small
rural town with towering maple trees and its very own "Main Street".
Jeff says, "Pemberton looks more like a back lot at Disney than a
suburb in Southern New Jersey".
Celentano began his career as an actor while living on the east coast.
Today, he is fast becoming one of the freshest new directors in
Hollywood. The actor, turned writer-director has managed to effectively
combine comedy, drama and action with his own personalized style.
At 21, the New Jersey native left the Garden State moving to New York.
There he became interested in acting, studying with legendary acting
coach Stella Adler and later became a
long-time student of Sanford Meisner at
The Neighborhood Playhouse.
As an actor, Jeff went by his mother's maiden name, Weston. He guest
starred on numerous television shows from
Magnum (1980) to
Der Denver-Clan (1981) and also twenty
feature films including
Der große Frust (1994) directed by
Academy Award winning writer
Michael Tolkin. He also was cast in
Robert Altman's hit film,
The Player (1992).
It was during this time with Altman on set of "The Player" that Jeff
became increasingly interested in becoming a director. He and Altman
became close. Robert Altman's advice to Jeff is carried with him to all
of his work today.
Fascinated by the behind-the-scenes aspects of filmmaking and hopes of
one day becoming a director himself, Celentano's first venture was in
theatre. He co-directed and produced the South African Play "Soweto's
Burning" at the Hudson Backstage. The critically acclaimed production
earned the Los Angeles Times "Pick of the Weekend" for five consecutive
weeks.
Jeff then made his writing and directing debut with the short film
Dickwad (1994) - a fast paced farce about
a man's bizarre journey home from work on his only day off in seventeen
years. The short, which took Celentano just less than a week to make,
garnered the Gold Prize for Best Original Comedy at The Houston Film
Festival, and Best Comedy Short at The Philadelphia International Film
Festival. After touring the festival circuit "Dickwad" was brought by
Showtime and the Sundance channel.
The strong buzz from the film led to enormous attention from the studio
and the signing with ICM. From that success Jeff received private
funding to head up his own production company, "Periscope Pictures".
His first feature under the Periscope banners (which he also co-wrote)
was
Unter dem Hula Mond (1995).
This picture starred
Stephen Baldwin,
Emily Lloyd and
Chris Penn. "Under the Hula Moon" is
a romantic comedy, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 and
had much with European film festivals. It premiered at The Hamburg Film
Festival in Germany becoming a hit with audiences there. Hula moon was
later released in theaters across the U.S.
Jeff's next project was Gunshy - Aus Leidenschaft zum Mörder (1998), a
high-impact drama (written by
Larry Gross who also wrote
Nur 48 Stunden (1982),
Straßen in Flammen (1984) and
The Game - Das Geschenk seines Lebens (1997)). Gunshy's story centers
around the relationship between a down-and-out journalist
(William Petersen), an Irish mobster
(Michael Wincott) and the girl they both
love (Diane Lane).
Jeff's determination, passion and attention to detail paid off once
more. He won "Best Director Award" with "Gunshy", the top honor
presented at The Atlantic City International Film Festival. Gunshy aced
the competition with the audience favoring a simpler, more emotionally
charged tale to the bigger studio entries like
Brian De Palma's film
Spiel auf Zeit (1998). In total, Jeff has
received 5 awards in his short career as a Director.
Jeff has completed directing two films in Russia. The later,
Say It in Russian (2007) a
romantic thriller that stars Faye Dunaway,
Rade Serbedzija,
Musetta Vander and
Steven Brand.
Jeff recently wrapped
Breaking Point (2009) a
crime/drama starring Academy Award nominee,
Tom Berenger,
Armand Assante, and
Busta Rhymes.
He currently has several projects in the pipeline including a film at
Sony Pictures and several independent projects.
Jeff is also the Drama Director at The Performer's Academy located in
Orange County, California. There Jeff oversees as well as teaches
acting to children, teens, and adults. The school provides students
with the opportunity to work with film directors, producers, working
actors and can be seen by agents on a weekly basis. His contacts in the
entertainment industry have allowed the school to flourish as a
training academy - while providing agents the ability to scout and
potentially represent new talent.
Jeff's influences and favorite directors are The Coen Brothers,
Robert Zemeckis,
Ridley Scott,
Terry Gilliam,
Peter Greenaway,
Sidney Lumet,
Martin Scorsese and
David Lean. One movie,
Die durch die Hölle gehen (1978) is his
favorite film of all time.
