With the 73rd Venice Film Festival rapidly approaching, it’d be remiss to waste the opportunity to highlight a familiar face on the scene: former NYFA acting alumnus Giorgio Pasotti, acclaimed Italian actor and former European martial arts champion.

While Pasotti is now a highly celebrated actor in his native Italy and beyond, it wasn’t originally something he’d set out to become. In fact, it was the film industry that came knocking on his door, far away from home.

At the young age of just six, Pasotti’s father – a martial arts expert – introduced him to karate and wushu, and young Giorgio quickly took to the discipline, achieving the highest rank in the Chinese martial arts. This lead him to seek out further training in the Far East where he refined his skills further, eventually moving to China permanently in 1992.

The plan was to carry on pursuing martial arts. Yet fate, as it often does, had other ideas.

The Rise of a Dragon

A year after Pasotti’s relocation to China, a small production company based out of Hong Kong was searching in vain for a classically good-looking Westerner who also displayed extreme prowess in karate. Luckily they found then-20-year-old Pasotti, who agreed to take on the challenge of playing an American who was destined to become a shaolin monk.

“Treasure Hunt” was released in 1993, and did well enough to attract Pasotti further work with “Two Shaolin Kids in Hong Kong” and “Dragon Fury II.” Despite further offers and the underground success of these kung fu titles, Pasotti felt that his time in China had run to a natural close and made plans to return to his native Italy.

The acting bug, however, had bitten, and Pasotti’s homecoming took a surprising turn.

Pasotti’s intention was to focus on martial arts. He  became a member of the Italian Wushu Team and won numerous international events. Yet it wasn’t long before the pull of acting lured him to yet another part of the world; with his established sporting career giving him greater freedom of movement, Pasotti set his sights on Los Angeles.

From East to West

It was here that Pasotti pursued a new passion, enrolling in the New York Film Academy’s Los Angeles campus to study acting at a formal level. The driven performer managed to keep up with martial arts while simultaneously working towards his acting degree.

The rest, as they say, is history. Following an intense program of training, Pasotti returned to Italy as a NYFA graduate and immediately began climbing the ladder to stardom, becoming an in-demand actor in not just film (winning the Shooting Star award at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival) but also on television, theater and in music video. As if that weren’t enough, he’s also turned his hand to directing with the 2004 short, “The Never Say Goodbye.” Pasotti has also supported important causes by directing awareness ads for HIV prevention.
Given that Pasotti’s hometown of Bergamo is only a couple of hours away from the City of Bridges, it’s perhaps no surprise that he’s regularly seen at the Venice Film Festival — and this year is no exception.

The Festival Begins

The New York Film Academy is proud and honored that Giorgio will appear for a rare Q&A as our special guest at NYFA’s student showcase in the 73rd Venice Film Festival. Pasotti will speak about his career after NYFA, introduce the screenings of five exceptional short films, and take questions in an informal reception during the event.

This invitation is extended to anyone who’s in the Venice area on September 1, 2016 — and there’ll be plenty of opportunity to network with the industry and press in attendance at our cocktail hour between 1:15 to 2:15 p.m.

Of course, the stars of the show will be the five filmmakers featured during the event, spanning the gamut of genres from animation to documentary.

See this post for more information regarding the event and the films being shown. We hope to see you at the Excelsior Hotel on Sept. 1!

Seth Rogen is on something of a winning streak, and it seems that just about everything the Canadian-born comedian touches of late turns to gold. 

Having come out of the gate swinging with strong performances in Judd Apatow’s “40 Year Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up” — two of the highest-rated comedies of the 2000s — Seth Rogen’s career has gone from strength to strength as he further flexed his acting muscles and also added to an impressive list of writing, producing, and directing credits.

Given that he has also branched out from comedy in recent years, it is even more impressive that Rogen’s career is an accidental one. Initially he made a name for himself on the Canadian comedy circuit during his teen years, and was so successful that he became the main breadwinner of his largely-unemployed household by the age of just 16. As a result, he didn’t want to pursue any career other than stand-up comedy, remarking: “As soon as I realized you could be funny as a job, that was the job I wanted.”

All this raises the question of how exactly Seth Rogen ended up blazing his current the trail. With his latest movie “Sausage Party” killing it from both a commercial and critical standpoint, we’re taking a look at the selected works that got him where he is today.

“Freaks and Geeks” (1999-2000)

While the NBC show was short lived and cancelled after only one season, it has since become a cult classic, launching the careers of numerous then-child actors. Linda Cardellini, Martin Starr and Jason Segel all got their start on this fan favorite.

As did Seth Rogen. “Freaks and Geeks” not only served as his debut acting gig, but also his first credit as a staff writer. Even more important were the connections he made on the show. The two went on to form an enduring friendship and working relationship, collaborating on the ultra-subversive “The Interview” in 2014.

The show also put Paul Fieg and Judd Apatow on the map, the latter of whom saw huge potential in Rogen and took him under his wing. “Obviously, I can’t stress how important Judd’s been to my career,” Rogen said in a retrospective 2009 interview.

“Da Ali G Show” (2004)

From one cult series to another, Rogen managed to land a staff writing position on the highly acclaimed Sacha Baron Cohen breakout series “Da Ali G Show.”

It was little-known that a young Canadian-American was working on a quintessentially British show, but it’s an important road mark for Rogen’s career; he went on to receive a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in conjunction with the other show writers.

This was all before Seth Rogen became a household name, a process which really began with…

“Knocked Up” (2007)

“Whenever I see an opportunity to use any of the people from ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ I do it,” said Judd Apatow, who reassembled a lot of the old gang for his first-ever feature. “It’s a way of refusing to accept that the show was canceled. In my head, I can look at ‘Knocked Up’ as just an episode of Seth’s character getting a girl pregnant. All of the movies relate in my mind in that way, as the continuous adventures of those characters.”

“Knocked Up” went on to become selected as one of the 10 best movies of the year by the American Film Institute, with Rogen’s lead performance in particular being singled out for praise.

“Superbad” (2007)

Few were convinced that another Rogen/Apatow outing would reach the same bar set by “Knocked Up,” yet “Superbad” raised the bar even higher.

The movie also propelled Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Michael Cera, and Jonah Hill into further stardom. Not bad for a screenplay that Rogen co-wrote when he was 13.

“Horton Hears a Who!” (2008)

This film kick-started Seth Rogen’s prolific voice acting career. The “Kung Fu Panda” franchise followed, along with “Monsters vs. Aliens” in 2009 — as well as the job of voicing the main character, Paul, in the Simon Pegg movie of the same name.

“The Interview” (2014)

Following the successes of “Superbad,” Rogen teamed up once again with Evan Goldberg to work on an idea they’d had a good five years prior: a subversive comedy involving one of the world’s most notorious living dictators.

While critics were polarized by the screenplay (involving an assassination attempt on Kim Jong-Un, changed following the elder Jong-Il’s death in 2011), this film is a notable point in Rogen’s career. He was the creator of a movie that almost triggered an international crisis, with threats of war and terrorism prompting an industry-wide discussion on the nature of free speech and political commentary. Sony was forced to pull the theatrical release.

“Steve Jobs” (2015)

In the critically acclaimed biopic of Apple founder Steve Jobs (not the Ashton Kutcher version), Seth Rogen showed the world he could act outside of the comedy sphere with his portrayal of Steve Wozniak. It’s an exceptionally multi-dimensional performance, and the real-life Wozniak reportedly felt honored to have been portrayed by him.

“Sausage Party” (2016)

And now we come to “Sausage Party,” Rogen’s latest foray into subversive comedy  — a project where many of the names mentioned above come together again for a Pixar-esque adventure that is firmly for adults. (And yes, the trailer above includes very NSFW language.)

The idea of an R-rated animation isn’t particularly new; 1974’s “Fritz the Cat” was one of the first. Yet it’s not something that has seen widespread adoption, and “Sausage Party” is the first R-rated CG animation. That said, with the runaway success of this movie and the likes of last year’s “Dead Pool,” we’d be very surprised if this doesn’t become a cinematic trend in years to come.

Rogen himself has stated that he “has ideas” for future R-rated animations, currently under active consideration by Sony.

One thing is for certain: we’re keenly anticipating the next trick up Seth Rogen’s multi-faceted sleeve.