2011 Angel Film Awards - Monaco International Film Festival angel awards

THE ANGEL FILM AWARDS HONORING SCREENPLAY WRITERS


IN OFFICIAL SELECTION 'AMERICAN ROYALTY' WRITTEN BY JOHN TACCARINO & JOHN LEONARD

BIO:

John Taccarino was born in Atlantic City , New Jersey and spent his developmental years in Ocean City, New Jersey. John is presently a professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Research at DePaul University in Chicago where he served for many years as the department chair. Dr. Taccarino, licensed as a clinical psychologist in the State of Illinois, has degrees from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois in 1970. Dr. Taccarino is a researcher who has edited or published more than thirty tests and assessment instruments in his career including The Personality Inventory for Children (content editor), America’s most widely used assessment of childhood personality, for Western Psychological Services and The Security Aptitude Fitness Evaluation- Resistance (author), a major personnel selection test that has been administered to over a half a million job applicants, for the Stoelting Company. His other major tests include The Substance Abuse Resistance Indicator and The Substance Abuse Resistance Indicator. His biographies and references have appeared in such publications as Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, Outstanding American Educators, and Who’s Who in American Education.

In addition to his academic and research background, John Taccarino has an avid interest in the area of cinema. He has authored the following motion picture screenplays:

The Three Days of Lazarus (1978), Mara Leonard co-author
Oil Rig (1979) Mara Leonard co-author
The Eye of the Unicorn (1982), Mara Leonard, co-author
Diamonds Never Forget (1983), Mara Leonard, co-author
American Royalty (2010), John Leonard and Mara Leonard, co-authors
Division Street (2010), John Leonard, co-author

BIO:

John Leonard, born in Downers Grove, Illinois, is presently completing his studies in the Cinema Production Program in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University in Chicago. He has directed and acted in a number of short films including Dark Science, Division Street -The Lost People of the Colombian Rain Forest and Twisted. John will be making his feature film acting debut in Nightlights, being filmed in Chicago during the summer of 2011.

John Leonard’s feature length screenplays include:

American Royalty, 2010, co-authored with John Taccarino and Mara Leonard
Division Street, 2010, co-authored with John Taccarino

Logline:

The rise of the Kelly’s, an Irish and American dream.

Synopsis:

American Royalty is the epic story of the rise of the Kelly’s from poverty in Ireland to the achievement of Olympic gold medals, an Oscar, Pulitzer Prize awards, business success, political pursuits and a royal crown. As a historical fiction it blends truth with connect the dots insights that could explain why John B. Kelly dropped out of politics in 1941 when he had such a bright future that the White House was not a distant goal. This story blends mystical experiences, long held secrets and tragedies that may provide a clearer sense of who the Kelly’s really were. It defines John B. Kelly as an American hero at a time when America and the world needed models of integrity, good humor and courage to emulate during the Great Depression. It also provides glimpses of the real Grace Kelly in tracing her origins from her childhood dream of becoming a Princess to later achieving that goal and becoming one of the most famous and fascinating women of the Twentieth Century.