Editor

Festival of Cinema NYC is excited to announce that director Dito Montiel, who will be serving on our Jury panel, will be in attendance to receive our first ever honorary filmmaker award. The festival will also be presenting a retrospective screening of his film A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS with a moderated Q & A to follow.

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The 2023 Festival of Cinema NYC will be taking place at the legendary Regal UA Midway in Forest Hills, with additional programming at the Queens Library at Forest Hills, from August 4th through the 13th this summer.

Here is a little bit about Mr. Montiel:

Dito Montiel is an author, screenwriter and director. Son of a Nicaraguan father and Irish mother, Dito grew up in Astoria, Queens New York under the RR train (31 street), toured the country in a hardcore band as a teenager in a leaky van, got ko'd in the golden gloves so writing became a good alternative.
After adapting his best-selling book (the first of three) into a screenplay, Montiel made his directorial debut with the film version of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints starring Robert Downey Jr., Rosario Dawson and Channing Tatum. A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize and the Director’s Award. It also screened at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Critics’ and the Isvema award. He was also nominated by the Independent Spirit awards for best adapted screenplay.