Armondo Linus Acosta (original) (raw)
Additional Crew
Art Department
Director
Armondo Linus Acosta (also known as Armand Acosta and Armando Acosta) born on September 23, 1938 in Bradford, PA is the eldest child born to musical parents. From the age of eight Acosta began a precocious education in art, theater, music and design. In the 1940s and '50s he studied at the Tomlinson Technical Institute, Ringling School of Fine Arts in Florida and the famed Art Center School of Design in California.
In the late 1950s, Acosta joined the Roger Corman stable of maverick, aspiring filmmakers. Nicknamed the "The Monk" because of his love of yogic practices, Acosta worked alongsideFrancis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Jack Nicholson, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Towne, Jonathan Demme and Martin Scorsese among others. Acosta's credits on Roger Corman films include: The Young Racers (1963), The Haunted Palace (1963) andBattle Beyond the Sun (1959).
Acosta quickly established himself as a motion picture visual consultant and international designer. He directed and lit more than 250 major international award-winning commercials for companies and institutions that demanded his "subtle, elegant, yet grand style". Clients and assignments included: 1964 New York World's Fair, Herman Miller, Eastman Kodak, Alka-Seltzer, Ford, Chanel, NASA, The Peace Corps, ABC, CBS, NBC, MGM, Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures. Acosta's work is represented in the International Design Annuals and the Television Hall of Fame.
In 1962, Acosta joined the production crew of "The Lively Ones" as Filmic Designer. The NBC avant-garde variety show, starred Vic Damone and was directed by Barry Shear. The Emmy nominated show, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company ran for two seasons.
As his creative reputation grew, Acosta was commissioned to write, design and direct a series of 15 provocative short feature films illustrating the Psalms, produced by Father Patrick Peyton's Family Theater Productions. The Psalms series was screened at the Vatican Pavilion during the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.The Soldier (1962) featuring a young William Shatner, was screened at the 1964 Venice Film Festival and went on to win prizes and accolades on the international film festival circuit.
Guided by the legendary Walter Blake, Acosta moved quickly into the world of cinema as writer, consultant, cinematographer-director. He worked with virtually every iconic director and producer in Hollywood including: Alfred Hitchcock, Blake Edwards,Stanley Kramer, David Lean, Joseph E. Levine, Pandro S. Berman, Vincente Minnelli, Robert Aldrich, Shirley Clarke, James B. Harris and Orson Welles.
Acosta's credits include: Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Two Women (1960), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Pink Panther (1963), The Connection (1961), El Cid (1961), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Experiment in Terror (1962), The Young Racers (1963), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962), It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), War Hunt (1962), Gay Purr-ee (1962), Touch of Evil (1958) and The Birds (1963).
While serving in an executive position at Paramount's Crewe Company Films, having been successfully groomed and trained in rare apprenticeship to become a major motion picture writer and director, Acosta suddenly chose to leave the industry, and the world. On a spiritual journey, Acosta traveled throughout Africa and Europe for almost two decades. During his 1980 pilgrimage to India he met and filmed many great spiritual beings including Mahavatar Babaji, Narayana Shastriji and Sathya Sai Baba.
In 1988, with an international repertory devoted crew, Acosta began working on his first full-length independent motion picture as director, writer, cinematographer and producer. The internationally-acclaimed Romeo.Juliet (1990) held its World Premiere on September 6, 1990 at the 47th Venice Film Festival.
Invited by festival director, Guglielmo Biraghi to screen "Romeo.Juliet" out of competition, the film stars the great British talents of Sir John Hurt with the voice-overs by Vanessa Redgrave, Sir Ben Kingsley, Dame Maggie Smith, Quentin Crisp, Robert Powell, Victor Spinetti and Francesca Annis.
The soundtrack features Sergei Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet Ballet' with André Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. The original "Romeo.Juliet Theme" was composed by Emmanuel Vardi with Acosta and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Barry Wordsworth.
Originally conceived as a film concert experience, the World Premiere of "Romeo.Juliet Film-In-Concert" with live orchestra performing the Prokofiev soundtrack was held in June 1992 at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Belgium, with Sir John Hurt and Oleg Prokofiev in attendance. Maestro Nicholas Cleobury conducted the National Orchestra of Belgium in three sold out performances. Further film concerts were held in Japan to sold out audiences and standing ovations.
In the year 2000, Acosta was reunited with his mentor Roger Corman at the Flanders International Film Festival in Ghent, Belgium. They met once again at the 2009 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Governor's Ball when Roger Corman received his Honorary Life Achievement Academy Award.
Most recently Acosta brought together - for the first time in cinematic history - three Italian maestros with their collective nine Academy Awards: Vittorio Storaro, Cinematographer, Dante Ferretti, Production Designer and Francesca Lo Schiavo, Set Decorator, participated in Acosta's "The Living Tableau", an exacting re-creation of DaVinci's masterpiece, scheduled to be released in limited engagements in 2019/2020 in commemoration of Leonardo DaVinci's 500th birthday. "The Living Tableau" is a short, stand-alone film; it will also be the first sequence in Acosta's next full-length feature, "The Last Supper: A Divine Prophecy" currently in production.
Armondo Linus Acosta's other projects include: "Shooting Stars" (post-production) and "Joy" (pre-production).
Acosta is the director, mentor and founder of The Academy of Film and the Arts, an international film school and motion picture studio in Ghent, Belgium.
Suggest an edit or add missing content