Faculty Directory

Fabrizio Famà

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Fabrizio was born and raised in Catania, Sicily, Italy. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in media and communication studies, he decided to open his own advertising company in Sicily named 095mm. A few years later, he felt his career as a video editor needed a big turn, so he decided to leave Italy and move to New York City. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., he was hired by Thin Edge Films to be the senior editor on “Thirsty,” a musical film directed by Margo Pelletier and produced by Lisa Thomas. To this day, he still collaborates with the studio, working as a video editor for features, short films, and music videos.Most of the projects he edited have had the honor of getting nominations and winning awards across the USA, Canada, and Europe. As an experienced film editor, he has the privilege of collaborating with many of his colleagues, bringing to the table his creative and passionate style of work and being rewarded by their trust and continuous interest in partnership. Currently, he is living between Europe and the United States, where, besides working as an editor, he also shares his knowledge and expertise working as a post-production instructor at the New York Film Academy with BFA and MFA students.

Alessandro Farese

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Born in Naples, Italy, Alessandro Farese graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Photography, Cinema, and Television from the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples in 2018 and completed an advanced course in film restoration from the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa in 2021. Farese has directed photography for numerous projects, including feature film, short films and documentaries.

Farese’s work includes serving as the director of photography for “Il Cammino delle Certose” (Region of Campania, 2017), “La Bellezza della Conoscenza” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Research Council, 2018), and “Campania Italian Special One” (Region of Campania – Grandi Stazioni Retail, 2018). His recent projects include “Pucundrìa” by Erica de Lisio (Best Documentary at the Tulipani di Seta Nera Festival, 2020), “La Rivoluzione” by Joseph Troia (Galway Film Fleadh Festival, 2019 and Villerupt 2019), and “Formiche” by Federico Spiazzi (2023).

Throughout his career, he has worked as a sound engineer on various acclaimed projects, such as “Il Sogno di Apuleio” with Peppe Servillo (Pompeii Archaeological Park, 2016) and “Il Signor Rotpeter” by Antonietta De Lillo (Venice Film Festival, 2017). In 2012, he co-founded Radio Cometa Rossa, an online archive showcasing works by around 400 musicians.

In 2019, he relocated permanently to Florence, Italy, to further pursue his career in the arts, continuously contributing his expertise and passion to various new projects.

Fred Lancaster

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Fred Lancaster is a director, acting teacher, and workshop facilitator working across the UK, US, and Europe. He trained as an actor at Guildhall School of Music & Drama (2010) and worked professionally in the industry for over a decade before obtaining a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Fred has extensive experience in drama school audition preparation, having served on the BA Acting audition panel at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama for over ten years. He currently teaches on Guildhall’s short course and online programmes, and delivers workshops on audition technique, connecting to text, and improvisation across multiple schools and universities in the UK. His independent coaching practice focuses on audition preparation and drama school applications, supporting emerging actors in their training journeys.

Fred teaches on the Acting For Film Semester Programme at the New York Film Academy in Florence, Italy, delivering lessons in Scene Study, Voice and Movement, and Directing Actors. He has also worked as a visiting acting tutor across the USA, including at the University of Notre Dame, John Carroll University, Occidental College, and Rice University.

Fred’s teaching draws on contemporary approaches to actor training, integrating techniques from practitioners including Uta Hagen, Patsy Rodenburg, and Michael Chekhov. He has developed international online course offerings in drama-based communication training for universities in Southeast Asia and continues to expand his work as an educator and performance coach globally.

Diana Santi Programs Director at NYFA Florence

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Diana Santi is an award-winning short movie, and commercials director and producer. She graduated in Film Studies at the Università di Bologna with honors and worked as First AD on many big-budget Italian commercials. In 2004 Diana moved to Los Angeles where she attended the New York Film Academy at the Universal Studios obtaining a diploma in Filmmaking. Since 2005, she is the Florence Programs Director for the New York Film Academy where her major duties and responsibilities include: being the liaison with the Italian Film Industry (Cinecittá, Gruppo Mediaset, Panavision, Euro Lab), as well as the Florence and Tuscany authorities, and establishing contacts with top Italian Film Directors and Actors Nanni Moretti, Vittorio Storaro, Dario Argento, Giorgio Pasotti to name a few. In August 2011 Diana founded Purple Reel Productions and directed a 15-minute short comedy titled “Florence in Love” with the support of the Tuscan Film Commission and the City of Florence that made it to the top 30 of the David di Donatello awards.

Federico Spiazzi

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Federico Spiazzi is an Italian director, screenwriter, cinematographer and educator. He graduated from the Italian National Film School and earned an MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University. His works have played at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Hamptons Int. Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest and many others and were showcased in important venues such as Lincoln Center and Anthology Film Archives in New York City. Federico has been a recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association scholarship, the National Board of Review student grant and was awarded with the Excellence in Filmmaking award by Kodak. His teaching career began at Columbia University and in some important acting workshops in New York City. From 2021 he teaches Directing, Screenwriting and Acting for the Camera at NYFA Florence.

Peter Allen Stone

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Peter Allen Stone is an actor, writer, director, and teacher. He is the former Chair of Acting for Film at the New York Film Academy in New York City, and he is currently Head of Acting at the University of Kentucky. His students have appeared on Broadway,Off-Broadway, in Hollywood and Bollywood films, and on many popular television shows. In New York City, he assisted with auditions for feature films and television at
Mackey Sandrich Casting.

As an actor, he has performed in film/television and at some of America’s prominent theaters such as The American Conservatory Theater, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival of New American Plays, Portland Stage, and many theaters in New York City. He has played leading roles in Shakespeare and premiered works by
playwrights Sarah Ruhl and Rebecca Gilman. He is the co-author of the Off-Broadway play, Unnatural Acts Harvard’s Secret Court of 1920. The play was nominated for a Drama Desk Award (Outstanding Play), GLAAD
Media Award, Outstanding New York Theatre: Broadway and Off-Broadway, and an Off-Broadway Alliance Award (Best New Play.) His short film, Va Bene Cosi (Italy), has appeared in many film festivals and won Best International Comedy at the South Dakota Film Festival. His other films include Hypoesthesia, Together, and Hehku (Glow). Together and Hehku were shot on location in Helsinki, Finland and were supported by an
Erasmus grant. Hehku screened as part of an exhbit at the Hakasalmen Huvila museum in Helsinki from Jan. – Feb. 2023. In addition, he co-wrote My White Friend with Lanre Olabisi, and it was recognized by the Page Awards, Launch Pad, and WeScreenplay TV Contest.

Mr. Stone is the author of the popular acting book, Acting for the Camera: Back to One (Routledge/Focal Press Taylor Francis Group), and The Natural Elements, a chapter in the book Building Embodiment Integrating Acting, Voice, and Movement to Illimunate Poetic Text (Routledge/Focal Press Taylor Francis Group). His new book, Acting for the Camera: A Teacher’s Guide will be published (Routledge/Focal Press – Taylor & Francis
Group) in 2025. He has taught his approach to acting for the camera in the United States, Italy, Germany, Finland, South Korea, and India. He continues to act, write, direct, and teach acting for the camera workshops all over the world. He received his MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater. He is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA.