Alessandra Piccione

Alessandra Piccione is the award-winning screenwriter of THE CUBAN, starring Oscar and Emmy-winner, Louis Gossett Jr, and Oscar nominee, Emmy-winner Shohreh Aghdashloo. Her first feature, LOOKING FOR ANGELINA, began with a fascination with the history of Angelina Napolitano, a poor immigrant who killed her abusive husband with an ax on Easter Sunday, 1911. Piccione co-wrote and produced this poignant re-telling of a then little known episode in Canadian history. The film premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival, was featured at festivals around the world winning four awards, and was theatrically released in 2006 ranking in the top 5 of Canadian films in cinemas at that time. She later co-wrote THE REUNION, winning the best screenplay award at the WILDSound International Screenplay Festival in Toronto, Canada. In the years that followed, Piccione produced and /or wrote several short films and two documentaries. In 2015 Piccione penned THE COLOSSAL FAILURE OF THE MODERN RELATIONSHIP, a comedy shot entirely in Niagara's wine country. Starring Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint, Just Shoot Me), the film premiered at the Niagara Integrated Film Festival; had its western Canada premiere at the Whistler Film Festival and its U.S. premiere at Sonoma International Film festival 2016. COLOSSAL won the Castlepoint Numa Award at the ICFF festival in Toronto and is now in distribution around the world. Piccione was honoured to attract an Oscar caliber of talent to her most recent screenplay. Inspired by her own experience with loved ones, THE CUBAN tells the uplifting story of a naïve pre-med student named Mina who develops an unlikely friendship with Luis, an elderly Cuban musician with dementia. Directed by Sergio Navarretta, THE CUBAN stars Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. (An Officer and a Gentleman) and Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog), along with Ana Golja (Degrassi: Next Class), Lauren Holly (Dumb and Dumber) and Giacomo Gianniotti (Grey's Anatomy), and the film's soundtrack was composed by Grammy nominated jazz virtuoso, Hilario Duran. THE CUBAN premiered at the Whistler Film Festival, winning the coveted Borsos Award for Cinematography and a Runner Up Audience Award. In the US, THE CUBAN premiered at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival, winning the Special Programmers Award and the Audience Award out of 225 films. THE CUBAN also opened the Canadian Film Fest on Super Channel, Canada's first nationwide virtual film festival, created in the midst of the COVID-19 global health crisis. Piccione is currently living in her happy place, developing new creative projects intended to inspire and move audiences around the world. She is the president of S.N.A.P. Films Inc, a company she founded with filmmaker Sergio Navarretta which develops and creates meaningful content. She has a Masters degree in English Literature from the University of Victoria, and continues to pursue ongoing learning in her craft.