Biography
Sergio Navarretta is an internationally award-winning director who is fiercely passionate about bringing meaningful content to the screen. He draws inspiration from Italian neo- realism and is fascinated by the human condition.
Notably, Navarretta helmed The Cuban, starring Ana Golja (Degrassi Next Class), Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. (in one of his final principal roles), Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse), Lauren Holly (Tiny Pretty Things), and Giacomo Gianniotti (Grey's Anatomy). The Cuban was shot in Canada and Havana, Cuba and won Best Narrative Feature and Audience Awards at the L.A. Pan African Film Festival, has been featured at several film festivals, and was nominated for three 2021 Canadian Screen Awards. The film features the music of Grammy-nominated piano virtuoso, Hilario Durán. The Cuban ran an Oscar nomination campaign in 2020 and has been featured in Time Magazine (Top 17 films to see this summer), Variety (Top 50 Oscar contenders), Hollywood Reporter, and NPR to name a few. The screenplay is now featured in the Core Collection at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library.
Earlier in his career, he directed Looking for Angelina, the poignant true-crime story of Angelina Napolitano, The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship, starring Enrico Colantoni (Just Shoot Me) and David Cubitt (Medium) as well as the dark comedy Loathe Thy Neighbor, starring Lauren Holly and Brennan Clost (Tiny Pretty Things) which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Navarretta’s latest hippie reunion drama, What We Have Left, features an iconic Canadian cast, including: Barbara Williams; Tommie-Amber Pirie, Peter MacNeill, RH Thomson and Barry Flatman and is currently in post-production.
Beyond directing, Navarretta has acted as executive producer on a number of high profile films, including: Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend, starring Frank Grillo and Gabriel Byrne and is proud to have executive produced the animated theatrical feature Arctic Dogs, featuring Jeremy Renner, Heidi Klum, Omar Sy, Anjelica Huston, Alec Baldwin, and John Cleese. Both films are available on Netflix. He was also an executive producer of the film Andron starring Danny Glover and a consulting producer on Trading Paint, starring John Travolta and Shania Twain.
He is the co-founder of S.N.A.P Films Inc and a member of the Directors Guild of Canada. His podcast ‘Creativity Unleashed’ is available on all platforms.
