Vito Brancato is a screenwriter, award winning filmmaker and now the author of his first novel, Princes & Thieves – a prequel to his film “Blackstone” which originally aired on PBS on the anniversary of the JFK assassination about a failed attempt on the President in Chicago one year before Dallas.
First it was a screenplay – a series about how the lives of JFK, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Sam Giancana intertwined to sway the 1960 presidential election and change the course of American history. Then Brancato adapted it into a novel with all the dialogue intact – each episode (10) of season one becoming a chapter…
Winner of several festival awards including the prestigious Silver Remi at Worldfest Houston, Vito Brancato’s film Driving John Lennon lets viewers eavesdrop on a dramatic and revealing conversation between rock and roll’s two biggest icons.
2017 award winning short film
Based on true-life characters and actual events, Vito Brancato wrote, directed and played the lead role in this gritty, low-budget crime thriller about a botched Mob jewelry heist and the bloody and political aftermath that followed. THE DEAL was shot completely on location in Chicago in a record 13 straight days and premiered at NYC’s IFP in the summer of 1998.
Preview Trailer and Feature
Set on the outskirts of Chicago’s infamous West Side (in a building once owned by Al Capone), Brancato’s old-world coffee house doubles as his production office and served as an authentic film set for his dark comedy Gangster Café.
10 full length episodes in Season OneThe series follows a local crew of hoodlums who use a coffee shop (how convenient) as a front for their criminal activities – while a bumbling (and sex addicted) FBI agent stumbles onto their scheme to smuggle heroin in bags of espresso beans.
Brancato indulged his love for jazz when he wrote, produced and directed this 2010 long form music video about a small town girl with a big voice who competes in an open mic competition in a rough Chicago night club. Andrea Prestinario belts out a powerful verison of the George Gershwin classic…
Full length music videoAn inappropriate comedy from writer-director Vito Brancato. Click to view…CONTACT: avitofilm@gmail.com