WRITER-DIRECTOR
Born in Portland, Maine, Spaltro grew up in a crazy and musical Italian home in the mid-sixties. From a young age, he performed celebrity impressions and acted in comedy sketches created with fellow neighborhood entertainers. Ok… enough of that!
I was ten and convinced I was going to California to star in a Disney movie -- Escape to Witch Mountain, specifically. Perhaps it was my father’s incessant opinion that I had a face for radio -- I set my goal of writing meaningful film -- someday.
I answered another calling and my 20-year military career jetted me across the planet, exposing me to flavors of many cultures and lifestyles. Post-retirement, I landed in the Middle East for three years. It was there where I completed my first feature script and found the process exciting but more challenging than imagined. This experience inspired me to enroll in a screenwriting program; I was in my 40’s.
In my feature project, STILL MAX, I explore abandonment, redemption, faith, and a mother's love for her children, as a journalist's path takes her to Syria. Still Max was a 2016 Shore Scripts Quarterfinalist, 2017 Nicholls Fellowship Top 10%, 2017 California Film Awards Gold Award, 2018 Shore Scripts Semifinalist and 2019 Screencraft Fellowship Quarterfinalist.
CIGAR BOX LETTERS follows a brother and sister unable to connect and help themselves in the wake of their father's death. Cigar Box Letters was a 2016 American Zoetrope (Francis Ford Coppola) Quarterfinalist. This is also a finalist in the 2017 Maine Film Initiative & made it to the 2017, 2018 & 2019 Austin Film Festival 2nd Round. This was also a 2017 Nicholls Fellowship First 100, 2018 Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship Finalist, 2018 Page International Screenplay Semifinalist, 2018 Stage 32 Quarterfinalist and 2019 Vail Screenplay Contest Winner.
Tapping into my dark funny-bone in FROZEN HEADS OF ROCKPORT, a struggling single father panics when an eminent foreclosure looms and his two teen daughters scheme with their estranged, loony uncle to generate $$… did I mention freezing severed heads? This won the category "Genre Defiers & Weird Stuff" in the 2017 Maine Film Initiative & 2017 Page International Screenplay Quarterfinalist. By the way… this has been adapted into a TV pilot which made it to the 2017 Austin Film Festival 2nd round. More to come!
My drama, COMPASS, examines just that: our moral compass. I wrote this to upset people, in all truth. You will see what perhaps you once thought was "right" may be quite the contrary. This is a 2017 Oaxaca Film Festival Finalist, 2017 FinalDraft BigBreak Top Ten, 2017 California Film Awards 3rd Place & 2018 Creative Worlds Quarterfinalist.
Another feature screenplay, THE ANGEL'S RIGHT HAND, we follow 2 FBI agents in the early 80's when the Cold War is still very much alive. An assistant to the "Angel of Death", Dr Josef Mengele, this Nazi war criminal thrives in the US under an assumed name. On his tail, unknown to the agents, is a surviving twin of the horrific Auschwitz experiments, and now Mossad operative. Here I explore the power of forgiveness and the abyss of not being able to do so. This is a 2018 Near Nazareth Film Festival Finalist & 2018 WeScreenplay Quarterfinalist.
In my drama, LLOYD, we follow a distraught man battling with the loss of his wife - was it suicide or an accident? This story comes from a very personal place -- the tragic loss of my younger brother. This is a 2018 Page International Screenplay Quarterfinalist, 2018 Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Quarterfinalist, 2019 Vail Screenplay Contest Semifinalist & Shore Scripts Semifinalist.
I also have 4 TV pilots placing in the 2017-2018 Austin Film Festival 2nd Rounder & "WASHED" a 2018 Shore Scripts TV Pilot Winner!
My new short film, APPLE, is currently in post-production:
When the last two alive on Earth are a ten-year-old boy and girl, compromise and navigating through their differences is the only chance for humankind.
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AppleTheShort and IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9758578/?ref_=nm_knf_t1
https://www.shorescripts.com/2018-winner-interviews
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiHaK0F7dGc
Born in Portland, Maine, Spaltro grew up in a crazy and musical Italian home in the mid-sixties. From a young age, he performed celebrity impressions and acted in comedy sketches created with fellow neighborhood entertainers. Ok… enough of that!
I was ten and convinced I was going to California to star in a Disney movie -- Escape to Witch Mountain, specifically. Perhaps it was my father’s incessant opinion that I had a face for radio -- I set my goal of writing meaningful film -- someday.
I answered another calling and my 20-year military career jetted me across the planet, exposing me to flavors of many cultures and lifestyles. Post-retirement, I landed in the Middle East for three years. It was there where I completed my first feature script and found the process exciting but more challenging than imagined. This experience inspired me to enroll in a screenwriting program; I was in my 40’s.
In my feature project, STILL MAX, I explore abandonment, redemption, faith, and a mother's love for her children, as a journalist's path takes her to Syria. Still Max was a 2016 Shore Scripts Quarterfinalist, 2017 Nicholls Fellowship Top 10%, 2017 California Film Awards Gold Award, 2018 Shore Scripts Semifinalist and 2019 Screencraft Fellowship Quarterfinalist.
CIGAR BOX LETTERS follows a brother and sister unable to connect and help themselves in the wake of their father's death. Cigar Box Letters was a 2016 American Zoetrope (Francis Ford Coppola) Quarterfinalist. This is also a finalist in the 2017 Maine Film Initiative & made it to the 2017, 2018 & 2019 Austin Film Festival 2nd Round. This was also a 2017 Nicholls Fellowship First 100, 2018 Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship Finalist, 2018 Page International Screenplay Semifinalist, 2018 Stage 32 Quarterfinalist and 2019 Vail Screenplay Contest Winner.
Tapping into my dark funny-bone in FROZEN HEADS OF ROCKPORT, a struggling single father panics when an eminent foreclosure looms and his two teen daughters scheme with their estranged, loony uncle to generate $$… did I mention freezing severed heads? This won the category "Genre Defiers & Weird Stuff" in the 2017 Maine Film Initiative & 2017 Page International Screenplay Quarterfinalist. By the way… this has been adapted into a TV pilot which made it to the 2017 Austin Film Festival 2nd round. More to come!
My drama, COMPASS, examines just that: our moral compass. I wrote this to upset people, in all truth. You will see what perhaps you once thought was "right" may be quite the contrary. This is a 2017 Oaxaca Film Festival Finalist, 2017 FinalDraft BigBreak Top Ten, 2017 California Film Awards 3rd Place & 2018 Creative Worlds Quarterfinalist.
Another feature screenplay, THE ANGEL'S RIGHT HAND, we follow 2 FBI agents in the early 80's when the Cold War is still very much alive. An assistant to the "Angel of Death", Dr Josef Mengele, this Nazi war criminal thrives in the US under an assumed name. On his tail, unknown to the agents, is a surviving twin of the horrific Auschwitz experiments, and now Mossad operative. Here I explore the power of forgiveness and the abyss of not being able to do so. This is a 2018 Near Nazareth Film Festival Finalist & 2018 WeScreenplay Quarterfinalist.
In my drama, LLOYD, we follow a distraught man battling with the loss of his wife - was it suicide or an accident? This story comes from a very personal place -- the tragic loss of my younger brother. This is a 2018 Page International Screenplay Quarterfinalist, 2018 Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Quarterfinalist, 2019 Vail Screenplay Contest Semifinalist & Shore Scripts Semifinalist.
I also have 4 TV pilots placing in the 2017-2018 Austin Film Festival 2nd Rounder & "WASHED" a 2018 Shore Scripts TV Pilot Winner!
My new short film, APPLE, is currently in post-production:
When the last two alive on Earth are a ten-year-old boy and girl, compromise and navigating through their differences is the only chance for humankind.
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AppleTheShort and IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9758578/?ref_=nm_knf_t1
https://www.shorescripts.com/2018-winner-interviews
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiHaK0F7dGc