Director: Parish Malfitano

Born in: Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Biography: Parish Malfitano is an award winning Italian Australian writer, director, producer, and founder of the production company, Fantasma Picture House. A 2018 graduate of the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), Foundation Diploma and Bachelor of Arts: Screen. During the last couple of years of film school, Parish was Assistant Editor on ‘Dead Hands Dig Deep,’ Directed by Jai Love, a haunting feature documentary examining depravity and the manifestation of deep-rotted mental illness - this was very successful on the festival circuit, most notably gaining acceptance into Slamdance, Sydney Underground Film festival, Dark Mofo, Revelation Fest and Monster Fest. In the second year of AFTRS, Parish interned at Pacific Opera. In the last year of his course, he was awarded the opportunity of an internship at See Pictures, an independent film company. Within only a few years of graduating from film school, Parish wrote, directed, and co-produced his debut feature, Bloodshot Heart. Despite the current worldwide disruption caused by the pandemic, this feature has succeeded in screening at many film festivals worldwide, including the Australian premiere at Revelation Perth International Film Festival, Fantaspoa Film Festival (South America’s largest genre festival), Cinefantasy Brazil, Fantastic Film Festival Australia, Shanghai International Film Festival, Cinequest LA, and Dances With Films Festival LA at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre, to name a few. The film also received a cinema run at the Ritz, Sydney and Lido, Melbourne, and various regional cities around Australia. The film is available for streaming on one of Australia's major national broadcast stations, SBS On Demand. During the later stages of covid in 2020, he directed an opera music video from the opera ‘Carmen’ by Georges Bizet, highlighting, Soprano, Imogen-Faith Malfitano. Parish has completed post-production as a co-producer on the short film titled ‘Kriah’ concerning ritual grief and mourning in the Judaic culture. Following this short, he wrote, directed, produced, and edited the short film titled ‘Worm’ recently selected for one of America's biggest festivals, Cinequest. In 2023, he was one of the programmers for Fantastic Film Festival Australia. Parish is currently in post-production on his next feature film, a Supernatural Drama, ‘Salt Along the Tongue’, which was named as a semifinalist in Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope screenplay competition. Parish is in development on his third feature, ‘Sanctity Of Flames’.