Antonio Padovan

Antonio Padovan is an Italian-born film director, producer, screenwriter, and video artist who lives in Treviso, known for his short films Socks and Cakes, Jack Attack (2013), Eveless (2016), his first feature, The Last Prosecco (2017), Il Grande Passo (2019) and Come Fratelli (2025). His video Japan, Beyond (2012) won the first prize at the Stand for Japan Awards, while Jack Attack was selected by more than fifty international film festivals and won dozens of awards and other honors. but has called New York's West Village home since 2007, and is the co-founder of the Greenwich Village Film Festival.

Early life and education

Antonio Padovan was born in 1985, in Conegliano, where he also grew up. From a very young age, Padovan had a love for the cinema. He was a teenager on September 11, 2001, which left a very deep impression on him, ultimately precipitating his move to New York City, though he was not conscious of the connection at the time. During the last months of the course he sent his portfolio to a number of studios in Italy and abroad, but responded only to Bam Design, an architectural firm in SoHo, New York, who offered him an internship, requiring him to leave immediately for New York. Padovan arrived in Manhattan, and the city of New York, which had once been a distant, ill-defined place now became real to him, and his home.

After a couple of years, finding himself working twelve-hour days and often weekends, Also released in 2010, it was accepted at sixteen film festivals and well received, winning four awards and an honorable mention.

By July 2011, Padovan released his fourth film, Mia, "a romantic comedy" set in the West Village (a "favorite locale"), and which played at major film festivals, and was halfway through shooting his fifth film, Tillman, was also released in 2011. It has been remarked that most of these early films focus "on common people and ordinary problems."

Video and commercial film director (2011−2013) Along with his early artistic achievements, Padovan's professional directing career began in earnest with a company called JAJ, for which Padovan won the Stand for Japan Award and was invited to Tokyo. where Padovan taught a class in filmmaking once per week, In Los Angeles, the film was shown at the Mann's Chinese Theatre, and has since been released as part of two anthology films in the U.S.: Seven Hells (2014), and All Hallows' Eve 2 (2015). selected as one of the twelve finalists for the ABCs of Death 2 competition, from 548 international entries, which won the Giotto Special Prize at the Giffoni Film Festival, It was selected for inclusion in the 2017 Canadian science-fiction horror anthology film Galaxy of Horrors, and where most of Padovan's films have been made (specifically, in the West Village). The festival has continued to grow, and in 2018, was held in the IFC Center. it impressed him for its story, but it was also out of nostalgia that he decided that his first feature film should be shot "in his own house" (l'avrei girato "a casa mia"), the Veneto region having been relatively unexplored by Italian cinema up to now. The title was revealed to be Il grande passo during the casting call in Rovigo. In April, a second casting call was made for the project, with filming to take place in Rosolina. Cast members included Giuseppe Battiston, Stefano Fresi, and Camilla Filippi, while crew included Gaspare De Pascali (screenplay) and Duccio Cimatti (cinematography). Additional filming locations included Canaro, Crespino, and Villanova Marchesana, with shooting beginning on 9 April and was to have concluded on 18 May, with Battiston and Fresi, who had never appeared on screen together before, playing two brothers, Mario and Dario. As it transpired, the plot involves igniting a rocket ship, but something went wrong on 1 May and the prop was completely destroyed, thereby postponing the shoot. Despite the delay, the film was released as scheduled, winning awards for the two leads at the 37th Turin Film Festival in late November 2019.

Third feature

On June 26, 2025, the third film directed by Padovan was released in theaters. Come Fratelli (Like Brothers) sees the participation of some important Italian actors, among which stand out: Pierpaolo Spollon, Francesco Centorame e Ludovica Martino. The film is particularly striking for the places in which it is set, which are particularly dear to the director as they are his places of residence. Glimpses of Treviso and particular glimpses of the plaster cast museum of Possagno.

The story tells of two friends, united by the joy of pregnancy, who die in a car accident. Their husbands, now widowers and single fathers, decide to overcome the pain together becoming a sort of "brothers" to help each other in raising their children.

Aesthetics and directing style Antonio Padovan does not like what he calls a "self-absorbed directorial style, where the use of albeit visually striking images" clouds the story, citing as examples Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, and films by Tim Burton and the Coen Brothers. In his opinion, Bridesmaids is a better film than Tree of Life and Toy Story 3 "a far better film and a worthier recipient of the Oscar for Best Picture" than The King's Speech.

Padovan once described himself as "a very cynical filmmaker": "I like to work on projects that can happen soon and can be done soon. I can't write something that I intend to shoot in a year or two, because that idea scares me. I write knowing how to shoot and when, so that everything runs easier." He engages in intense pre-production work and does not believe in over-directing actors: "Cast good actors and get out of their way," unless the actor gets nervous as the shooting day approaches, "then it becomes necessary to feed them little lies just to bolster their self-confidence."

Filmography Short films and notable videos (2010−2016)

Socks and Cakes (2010) Perry St. (2010) Tomorrow (2010?) Mia (2011) Tillman (2011) Puh-Rump-A-Pum-Pum (2011) Japan, Beyond (2012) Once Upon a Time, Inc. (2013) • documentary Jack Attack (2013) M is for Misdirection (2014) The Mods (2014) • 3D CG animation The Little Sunflower that Fell in Love with the Moon (2016) • 3D CG animation Eveless (2016)

Feature films (2017− ) The Last Prosecco (2017) Il Grande Passo (2019) Come Fratelli (2025)