Calogero Carucci is a filmmaker whose work has screened internationally at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Berlinale, Deauville, Hamptons International, Montclair, AFI, Heartland, BAMcinemaFest, Napa Valley, and more.

As a producer, Carucci collaborated on Tyler Taormina’s Happer’s Comet (Berlinale Forum, 2022) and Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, 2024; distributed by IFC Films).

His directorial debut, Moving in 2008, a portrait of a family struggling through the 2008 recession, won the Special Jury Prize at the 2021 deadCenter Film Festival. His sophomore feature, Long Island Gus — about a man navigating Long Island’s black market in a desperate search for a kidney to save his ailing friend — premiered at the 2022 Sarasota Film Festival, where it received the Independent Visions Jury Prize.

He recently wrapped production on his third feature, Sue Thunder, Johnny Lightning, which follows a Native American social worker leading a task force investigating missing and murdered Indigenous women in Arizona.

Carucci was raised on Long Island, New York, the son of Jimmy, a construction worker, and Maria, a hairdresser. Named after the protagonist of A Bronx Tale (1993), he draws deeply from his family’s working-class, Italian-American background and their constant moves as influences on his storytelling. He is also the founder of 19th Floor Productions, a New York–based production company.

His favorite filmmakers include John Cassavetes, Frederick Wiseman, Shirley Clarke, D.A. Pennebaker, Martin Scorsese, Agnès Varda, Sidney Lumet, Robert Altman, the Maysles Brothers, Orson Welles, John Ford, and Allan King. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Savannah.

Feature Films

MOVING IN 2008 (2021) - Writer/Director/Producer

LONG ISLAND GUS (2022) - Writer/Director/Producer

HAPPER’S COMET (2022) - Producer

CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER’S POINT (2024) - Producer

SUE THUNDER, JOHNNY LIGHTNING (2026) - Writer/Director/Producer