Barbara De Fina

Last updated
Barbara De Fina
Born1946
New Jersey, U.S
OccupationFilm producer
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1985;div. 1991)​
[1]

Barbara De Fina (born 1946) [2] is an American film producer and was producer of many of Martin Scorsese's films. [1]

Contents

Biography

Barbara De Fina started working as a production assistant in the entertainment industry and eventually became a production coordinator on films like An Unmarried Woman, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Woody Allen's Interiors. [3]

She worked as a unit manager with Jay Presson Allen on Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City. [4] She was also a unit manager on the film The Chosen. [5]

Her grandfather was from Sicily and her grandmother from Hungary, and she grew up in an immigrant community. [6] She got started in low-budget filmmaking and she became associated with filmmaker Sean Cunningham, working as a producer on Spring Break. [7] Barbara met Martin Scorsese on King of Comedy where she worked as a post production supervisor, [8] before meeting with Martin Scorsese again during the making of After Hours. [1] The two were married on February 8, 1985. [1] She then produced The Color of Money with Irving Axelrad. [9]

Among her films are [1] Goodfellas , The Age of Innocence , [10] , the Life Lessons segment of New York Stories, [11] Casino , The Last Temptation of Christ [1] Cape Fear, Kundun, Bringing Out The Dead, [12] as well as the documentary My Voyage To Italy, [13] and Dangerous Edge, a documentary about Graham Green, [14] and The Grifters .

Barbara executive produced Scorsese's films Goodfellas [15] and Hugo. [16] She worked with the director Stephen Frears, executive producing The Grifters, [17] and producing The Hi Lo Country. [18] She produced Kicked in the Head with Matthew Harrison directing, [19] and You Can Count on Me with Kenneth Lonergan directing [20] as well as The Mesmerist with Gil Cates Jr. directing, [21] Brides with Pantelis Voulgaris directing, [22] and Lymelife with Derick Martini directing. [23] In 2001 she and the production team of the film You Can Count on Me were presented the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

She developed Me the Mob and the Music based on the book of the same title by Tommy James and Martin Fitzpatrick, [24] and Cassino in Ischia directed by Frank Ciota and written by Joe Ciota. [25]

Barbara De Fina also produced Michael Jackson's music video "Bad" with Martin Scorsese. [26]

De Fina and Scorsese divorced in 1991, but continued working together on projects for decades after that. [1]

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryTitleResult
1992 Academy Awards Best Actor Cape Fear Nominated
1992 Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress Cape Fear Nominated
1992 Golden Globe Awards Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama Cape Fear Nominated
1992 Golden Globe Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture Cape Fear Nominated
1994 Academy Awards Best Costume Design The Age of Innocence Won
1994 Academy Awards Best Actress in a Supporting Role The Age of Innocence Nominated
1994 Academy Awards Best Adapted Screenplay The Age of Innocence Nominated
1994 Academy Awards Best Music Original Score The Age of Innocence Nominated
1994 Academy Awards Best Art Direction Set Decoration The Age of Innocence Nominated
1996 Academy Awards Best Actress in a Leading Role Casino Nominated
1996 Golden Globe Awards Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama Casino Won
1996 Golden Globe Awards Best Director Motion Picture Casino Nominated
1998 Australian Film Institute Awards Best Foreign Film Kundun Nominated
1998 Academy Awards Best Art Direction Set DecorationKundunNominated
1998 Academy Awards Best Cinematography Kundun Nominated
1998 Academy Awards Best Costume Design Kundun Nominated
1998 Academy Awards Best Music Original Dramatic Score Kundun Nominated
1999 Western Heritage Award Bronze Wrangler The Hi-Lo Country Won
2000 Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actress You Can Count on Me Nominated
2001Satellite Awards Best Original Screenplay You Can Count on Me Won
2001 Independent Spirit Award Best First Feature You Can Count on Me Won
2011 84th Academy Awards Best PictureHugoNominated
2011 84th Academy Awards Best DirectorHugoNominated
2011 84th Academy Awards Best Adapted Screenplay HugoNominated
2011 84th Academy Awards Best Film EditingHugoNominated
2011 84th Academy Awards Best Music ScoreHugoNominated
2011 84th Academy Awards Best Costume DesignHugoNominated
2011 69th Golden Globe Awards Best Picture DramaHugoNominated
2011 69th Golden Globe Awards Best Original Score HugoNominated
2011BAFTA 2012: British Academy of Film and TV AwardsBest CinematographerHugoNominated
2011BAFTA 2012: British Academy of Film and TV AwardsBest Make Up & HairHugoNominated
2011 16th Satellite Awards CinematographyHugoNominated
2011 84th Academy Awards Best Cinematography HugoWon
2011 84th Academy Awards Best Production DesignHugoWon
2011 84th Academy Awards Best Sound Mixing HugoWon
2011 84th Academy Awards Best Sound EditingHugoWon
2011 84th Academy Awards Best Visual EffectsHugoWon
2016Awards Circuit Community AwardsBest Motion Picture Silence Nominated
2017 Gold Derby Awards Motion Picture Silence Nominated

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Scorsese</span> American filmmaker (born 1942)

Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. Scorsese has received many accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Directors Guild of America Awards. He has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

<i>Mean Streets</i> 1973 film by Martin Scorsese

Mean Streets is a 1973 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin, and starring Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. It was produced by Warner Bros. The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 2, 1973, and was released on October 14. De Niro won the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Johnny Boy" Civello.

<i>Raging Bull</i> 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese

Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana and Frank Vincent. The film is an adaptation of former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It follows the career of LaMotta, played by De Niro, his rise and fall in the boxing scene, and his turbulent personal life beset by rage and jealousy.

<i>Goodfellas</i> 1990 American film by Martin Scorsese

Goodfellas is a 1990 American biographical crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy by Pileggi. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Pesci</span> American actor (born 1943)

Joseph Frank Pesci is an American actor and musician. He is known for portraying tough, volatile characters in a variety of genres and for his collaborations with Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese in the films Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), and The Irishman (2019). He has received several awards including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award with nominations for three Golden Globe Awards.

<i>Casino</i> (1995 film) 1995 film directed by Martin Scorsese

Casino is a 1995 epic crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, adapted by Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi from the latter's nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. It stars Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak, and James Woods. The film was the eighth collaboration between director Scorsese and De Niro.

<i>The Grifters</i> (film) 1990 film by Stephen Frears

The Grifters is a 1990 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Stephen Frears, produced by Martin Scorsese, and starring John Cusack, Anjelica Huston, and Annette Bening. The screenplay was written by Donald E. Westlake, based on Jim Thompson's 1963 novel of the same name. The film won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film and was declared one of the Top 10 films of 1990 by The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

<i>New York, New York</i> (1977 film) 1977 American musical-drama film directed by Martin Scorsese

New York, New York is a 1977 American romantic musical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Earl Mac Rauch and Mardik Martin, based on a story by Rauch. It is a musical tribute, featuring songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb as well as jazz standards, to Scorsese's home town of New York City, and stars Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro as a pair of musicians and lovers. The story is "about a jazz saxophonist and a pop singer (Minnelli) who fall madly in love and marry;" however, the "saxophonist's outrageously volatile personality places a continual strain on their relationship, and after they have a baby, their marriage crumbles," even as their careers develop on separate paths. The film marked the final screen appearance of actor Jack Haley.

The 16th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards were announced on 16 December 1990 and given on 16 January 1991.

The 56th New York Film Critics Circle Awards honored the best filmmaking of 1990. The winners were announced on 18 December 1990 and the awards were given on 13 January 1991.

The 25th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 6 January 1991, honored the best filmmaking of 1990.

<i>Lymelife</i> 2008 film

Lymelife is a 2008 American comedy-drama film written by brothers Derick Martini and Steven Martini, and directed by Derick Martini, depicting aspects of their life in 1970s Long Island from a teenager's perspective. It stars Alec Baldwin, Rory Culkin, Kieran Culkin and Emma Roberts. Martin Scorsese served as an executive producer. The film debuted at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2008, and won the International Federation of Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI). After its theatrical release in 2009, writer director Derick Martini was nominated for a Gotham Award for Breakthrough Director.

Steven Martini is a writer, actor, composer, editor, and singer/songwriter. His first break as an actor was as Cadet Alex J. Stone in Major Payne. He and his brother Derick Martini wrote the films Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire and Lymelife. Based on experiences from the Martinis' childhood, Lymelife won the FIPRESCI award at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, and premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Martini is also known for being the singer/songwriter for the Los Angeles–based band The Spaceship Martini.

Derick Martini is an American screenwriter and film director and an owner of commercial property and advertising billboards located in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro</span> Collaborations between the American director and the American actor

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro are an American director-actor collaborative duo who have made ten feature films and one short film together since 1973. Many of them are often ranked among the greatest films of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Scorsese filmography</span>

Martin Scorsese is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and film historian whose career spans more than fifty years. To date, Scorsese has directed twenty-six feature length narrative films, seventeen feature-length documentary films, and has co-directed one anthology film.

<i>The Irishman</i> 2019 film by Martin Scorsese

The Irishman is a 2019 American epic gangster film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Steven Zaillian, based on the 2004 book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt. It stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, with Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Jesse Plemons, and Harvey Keitel in supporting roles. The film follows Frank Sheeran, a truck driver who becomes a hitman involved with mobster Russell Bufalino (Pesci) and his crime family before later working for the powerful Teamster Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). The film marked the ninth collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro, in addition to Scorsese's fourth collaboration with Joe Pesci; his first with Al Pacino; the fourth collaboration between Pacino and De Niro; and the first collaboration between Pacino and Pesci altogether.

Sikelia Productions, formerly known as Cappa Productions and Cappa Films, is an American film production company established by Martin Scorsese in 1989. It has produced over 40 different television shows, documentaries, and films. Some of the most notable are Shutter Island (2010), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Silence (2016) and The Irishman (2019). The company is based in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Scorsese's unrealized projects</span>

The following is a list of unproduced Martin Scorsese projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Martin Scorsese has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these productions fell in development hell or were cancelled.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 LoBrutto, Vincent (2008). Martin Scorsese: A Biography. Westport, Conn: Praeger. pp. 362–363. ISBN   9780313050619. OCLC   191849523 – via Google Books.
  2. ↑ "Milestones: Feb. 25, 1985". Time. February 25, 1985. ISSN   0040-781X . Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Highlighting Barbara DeFina, Kathleen Carroll Award Recipient". www.adirondackfilm.org. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  4. ↑ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  5. ↑ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  6. ↑ Viale, Valerio (May 29, 2017). "Spotlight on Film Producer Barbara De Fina: Reconnecting to Her Italian Heritage". L'Italo Americano. Archived from the original on June 6, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Spring Break". TVGuide.com. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  8. ↑ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  9. ↑ Variety Staff (January 1, 1986). "The Color of Money". Variety. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
  10. ↑ Merkin, Diane (1997). Dreaming of Hitler: Passions & Provocations. New York: Crown Publishers. pp. 162, 167. ISBN   9780517706268. OCLC   36648645 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ↑ "DVD Savant Blu-ray Review: New York Stories". www.dvdtalk.com. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  12. ↑ Davis, Clayton (May 22, 2023). "Ranking All 26 Martin Scorsese Movies: From 'Who's That Knocking at My Door' to 'Killers of the Flower Moon'". Variety. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  13. ↑ Young, Deborah (May 26, 2001). "My Voyage To Italy". Variety. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  14. ↑ Heffernan, James. "Professor steps into unfamiliar roles with latest film". www.jmu.edu. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  15. ↑ "GoodFellas". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Hugo". TVGuide.com. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  17. ↑ "DVD Savant Review: The Grifters Collector's Series". www.dvdtalk.com. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  18. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (December 24, 1998). "The Hi-Lo Country". Variety. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  19. ↑ Kicked in the Head (1997) - Matthew Harrison | Cast and Crew | AllMovie , retrieved December 20, 2023
  20. ↑ "'Count on Me' Adds Up to Impressive Debut". Los Angeles Times. November 10, 2000. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  21. ↑ Leydon, Joe (April 12, 2002). "The Mesmerist". Variety. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  22. ↑ Neiiendam2004-10-12T00:00:00+01:00, Jacob. "Brides (Nyfes)". Screen. Retrieved December 20, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. ↑ Indiewire (January 7, 2009). "Derick Martini, "Lymelife": Artistic Honesty, Perfection, and Success". IndieWire. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  24. ↑ McNary, Dave (July 18, 2019). "Tommy James Biopic 'Me, the Mob and the Music' in Development (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  25. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (June 29, 2023). "Dominic Purcell Replaces Late Ray Stevenson In 'Cassino In Ischia' Movie From Republic Pictures & Paramount Global". Deadline. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  26. ↑ "Tommy James and The Shondells with The Box Tops - St. George Theatre - Official Website". August 17, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.