Roberto Bentivegna (born June 9, 1982) was brought up in Milan and London and attended Emerson College in Boston. His passion for cinema begun at a very early age, and he expressed his desire to be a filmmaker ever since he was 8 years old. His most significant accomplishments include a documentary about the AIDS crisis in Malawi, several short films that have screened internationally, and a narrative "featurette" - a 25 minute-long religious satire - that he wrote, directed and produced entitled "The Mirakle". The film, which was executive produced by Steve Tisch of Forrest Gump fame, has been recently picked up by the Florence Lynch Art Gallery in Chelsea, New York and premiered at the Miami International Film Festival. He has written 3 full feature scripts and is currently in development on his full-length directorial debut. His work has received praise by legendary film critic Andrew Sarris, ex-Sundance co-director Nicole Guillemet, Tom DiCillo, Matt Cale of Ruthless Reviews and Alexander Payne, among others. Bentivegna is currently attending Columbia University's MFA Program in Film, where he is the recipient of the Carla Kuhn fellowship. As part of his fellowship, he has organized Q&As with such distinguished filmmakers as Stephen Frears, Guillermo del Toro, Todd Field, Francis Ford Coppola and Arthur Penn.