Robert Celestino, graduate of The New School and the Center of Media Arts in Manhattan exudes the heart and soul of the New York film community in a gritty manner that transpires character driven screenplays into life on the screen.
Mr. Celestino's fascination with obsessive and extreme behavior is established with his award winning film Mr. Vincent which premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. The film then made its mark at festivals around the world. It won the Critic's Award for best film at the Scermi di Amore Film Festival in Italy and the Best Dramatic Feature Award at the Long Island Film Festival. Mr. Vincent was also nominated by Movie Maker Magazine for the Breakthrough Award, and the 1998 Someone to watch Independent Spirit Award.
In 2008, Mr. Celestino wrote and directed Yonkers Joe which stars Academy Award-nominee, Chazz Palminteri, Academy Award-winner Christine Lahti, Tom Guiry (The Sandlot), Golden Globe-nominee Linus Roache, and Academy Award-nominee Michael Lerner. An ode to old time gamblers, now outdated in an age of powerful upscale casinos, the film tells the story of a dice hustler whose determination to make one last grab for a big score in Vegas is complicated by the reappearance of his estranged, mentally challenged son into his life. Yonkers Joe premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and is distributed by Magnolia Pictures.
Robert's films also include No Promises, X-Factor - Portrait of a Stuntman, True Convictions and Stone's Law. In television, he wrote and directed the pilot episode for Alternate Realities. His next film Leave, a psychological thriller, is due out later this year.
Robert currently resides in New York with his wife and son.
Mr. Celestino's fascination with obsessive and extreme behavior is established with his award winning film Mr. Vincent which premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. The film then made its mark at festivals around the world. It won the Critic's Award for best film at the Scermi di Amore Film Festival in Italy and the Best Dramatic Feature Award at the Long Island Film Festival. Mr. Vincent was also nominated by Movie Maker Magazine for the Breakthrough Award, and the 1998 Someone to watch Independent Spirit Award.
In 2008, Mr. Celestino wrote and directed Yonkers Joe which stars Academy Award-nominee, Chazz Palminteri, Academy Award-winner Christine Lahti, Tom Guiry (The Sandlot), Golden Globe-nominee Linus Roache, and Academy Award-nominee Michael Lerner. An ode to old time gamblers, now outdated in an age of powerful upscale casinos, the film tells the story of a dice hustler whose determination to make one last grab for a big score in Vegas is complicated by the reappearance of his estranged, mentally challenged son into his life. Yonkers Joe premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and is distributed by Magnolia Pictures.
Robert's films also include No Promises, X-Factor - Portrait of a Stuntman, True Convictions and Stone's Law. In television, he wrote and directed the pilot episode for Alternate Realities. His next film Leave, a psychological thriller, is due out later this year.
Robert currently resides in New York with his wife and son.
Michael Hagerty has produced 3 award-winning films along with acting in over 30 films and television shows. In 1998 he produced and co-starred in The Last Big Attraction. Wit Stilllman hailed the film, “The best independent comedy in 20 years.” and it earned the Kodak Independent Vision Award. Afterward Hagerty helped launch the Waterfront Film Festival in Saugituck, MI. Named one of the top 5 festivals in the world by SagIndie, the festival is celebrating its 11th year. Michael then starred in Questa with Wendie Malick, Doreen Harwood and Dan Lauria, earning a Best Actor nomination, and produced Clown, a film Film Threat Magazine named as one on the ten best in 2006.
Bettina Tendler O’Mara began her film career within the PR department at Castle Rock Entertainment and created the production company’s Product Placement division. In 1997 she began producing independent films starting with a romantic comedy Just Write starring Jeremy Piven. This was followed by the family film Walking Across Egypt starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Ellen Burstyn, Judge Reinhold and Mark Hamill, the drama Fighting Tommy Riley starring Eddie Jones and J.P. Davis, the teen comedy Devolved starring Gary Entin, Lindsey Shaw, Robert Adamson and Chris Kattan, the family adventure Hanna’s Gold starring Luke Perry and finally the horror genre Machine Head. Bettina is thrilled to have been able to Produce and be a part of the Leave team.
Frank John Hughes studied Jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston before
making his feature film debut in Robert Celestino’s True Convictions. Leave marks the fourth
film Hughes and Celestino have collaborated on including the Sundance Film Festival hit Mr.
Vincent and Yonkers Joe.
Mr. Hughes has appeared in films such as Bad Boys opposite Will Smith, The Funeral,
Layin' Low, Urban Jungle, Robbers, Deranged, for which he won best actor at the New York
Independent Film Festival, Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can opposite Tom Hanks and
Leonardo DiCaprio and Righteous Kill opposite Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.
A veteran of numerous television appearances, Mr. Hughes received wide international acclaim
for his portrayal of Wild Bill Guarnere in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and in 2007 joined
the cast of HBO's The Sopranos for the show’s final season playing Walden Belfiore. In 2008
Hughes joined the cast of the hit series 24 as Director of Homeland Security Tim Woods and
remained for the final two seasons until the series ended in 2010.
Hughes is currently in post-production on ‘The Grief Tourist’ - a film he wrote and produced
starring Michael Cudlitz, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Melanie Griffith which will be out later this year.
In 2009 Hughes co-founded Reckoner[Films]* along with Rick Gomez.
Rick Gomez has been acting in television and film for the last 20 years. Some of his television credits include Band of Brothers produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, What about Brian? produced by J.J. Abrams, and Justified produced by Graham Yost. He recently completed a pilot for Fox created by Peter Tolan.
His film credits include Transformers, Sin City, the Academy Award nominated Ray and the soon to be released The Apparition.
Rick started writing and producing with, Los Angeles film festival audience award winner, Last Man Running and has since finished festival favorite Pissing Vocal Gold.
His film credits include Transformers, Sin City, the Academy Award nominated Ray and the soon to be released The Apparition.
Rick started writing and producing with, Los Angeles film festival audience award winner, Last Man Running and has since finished festival favorite Pissing Vocal Gold.
In 2009 Gomez co-founded Reckoner[Films]* along with Frank John Hughes.