John Gallagher to Receive Lifetime Career Achievement Award at the Cutting Room Short Film Festival

New York indie icon John Gallagher will be honored with a Lifetime Career Achievement Award on October 21 at the inaugural Cutting Room International Short Film Festival. A fixture on the New York scene for 40 years as a director, writer, producer, author, historian and educator, with a wide range of international filmmaking resources and relationships, and a highly regarded, encyclopedic knowledge of films and filmmaking, his track record is especially strong in discovering and mentoring new talent, both in front of and behind the camera.

Among the actors John has worked with in debut or significant early roles are John Leguizamo, Amanda Peet, Zach Braff, Michael Imperioli, Gretchen Mol, Matthew Lillard, Heather Matarazzo, and Denis Leary. In the past ten years, 22 features and shorts have been produced under his 305 Media Group banner.

After graduating Emerson College in 1978, John made his directorial debut with the rock 'n roll musical comedy Beach House (1982), acquired by New Line Cinema, then directed college pal Denis Leary in two shorts, Kurt Vonnegut's Long Walk to Forever andOther Men's Wives. He and action star Steve James co-wrote, Gallagher directed, and James starred in the cult action movie Street Hunter (1990, Columbia/ TriStar) for executive producer Menahem Golan, co-starring Frank Vincent, with John Leguizamo in his first starring role. Gallagher and Leary wrote two unproduced scripts for Arnon Milchan and Rafi Shauli before Gallagher wrote and directed the multi-award winning feature Men Lie (1994) and the cult comedy classic The Deli (1997) with an all-star cast including Gretchen Mol, Chris Noth, Jerry Stiller, Ice T, Frank Vincent, Debi Mazar, Iman, Tony Sirico, Heather Matarazzo and Michael Imperioli. The National Board of Review cited The Deli with an award for Excellence in Filmmaking.

Blue Moon (2000, Castle Hill), also written and directed by Gallagher, followed, starring Ben Gazzara, Rita Moreno, Burt Young, and in an early role, Zach Braff. Gallagher also began a teaching career at School of Visual Arts, THE NEIGHBORHOOD Playhouse and others, that continues to this day with his popular classes at One on One NYC. Other features included the improv comedy Cupidity (2004), which he directed, and producing stints on the features The Insurgents (2006) and Mother's Day Massacre (2007). He directed a series of award-winning shorts (I Love You, Beautiful, We Remember, Want) and wrote the books Film Directors on Directing, Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman (with Frank Thompson), and Hollywood's Forgotten Master: The Life and Times of Tay Garnett. His writings have also appeared in Rolling Stone, American Cinematographer, Fangoria, and many others.

Most recently Gallagher directed The Networker (2015, The Orchard), starring Steve Stanulis, William Forsythe, Sean Young and Stephen Baldwin, and just debutedSarah Q at the Golden Door International Film Festival, where Emmy James was awarded Best Actress in a Feature. Sarah Q, a serio-comic tale about a young woman in acting school in Manhattan, stars Burt Young, Sally Kirkland, The Deuce's Garry Pastore, and The Sopranos' Tony Sirico, Vincent Pastore, Federico Castelluccio, William DeMeo, and Artie Pasquale. The movie next plays the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, with a theatrical release planned for early 2019.

The Cutting Room is one of NYC's prime artistic venues and has played host to such artists as David Bowie and Lady Gaga. The festival was created by award-winning actress and writer-director Kathrina Miccio, who has been resident portrait artist since 2001. https://thecuttingroomnycisff.com/

Photo Credit: Jack Rowand/The CW

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