Justin Ambrosino

Justin Ambrosino received his Master in Fine Arts from the American Film Institute Conservatory where he was awarded the prestigious Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell Scholarship for Directing. His short film, "The 8th Samurai", played at over 40 film festivals worldwide, winning more than 20 Jury awards and played alongside Akira Kurosawa's body of work during the Akira Kurosawa 100th Anniversary Tour. Born in Brooklyn and raised on Staten Island, his father is an Italian immigrant from Torre del Greco and his mother is from New Jersey. Justin wrote poetry, music, short stories and plays from an early age and throughout his teens. In 2000, after a near fatal car accident in Rome, Italy, he decided to pursue his dream: film-making. In 2003, after switching his major from Finance, Justin graduated St. John's University with a Bachelor of Science in Communication Arts. Justin worked as a production assistant for over five years in NY Film and Television. During that time, he became a published film journalist for IONCinema.com, where he interviewed some of the directors and actors he admired most. He also wrote and directed one-act plays and made a couple of 16mm short films. The latter of which got into the American Film Institute Conservatory.