The Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA) was founded in 1937 as the Italian Actors Union (IAU) to protect the rights of
Italian-American
Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, w ...
actors in Italian-language theater and was reinvented as GIAA, the Guild of Italian American Actors by then-president Paul Borghese in 1998. Borghese served as president from 1998 to 2002 and currently serves as president emeritus. He took a dying union of 67 members to a membership of 500 actors, directors, and writers. The guild has jurisdiction over Italian-language professional theater, and works to preserve and promote awareness of
Italian culture
Italy is considered one of the birthplaces of Western civilization and a cultural superpower. Italian culture is the culture of the Italians, a Romance ethnic group, and is incredibly diverse spanning the entirety of the Italian peninsula ...
and heritage. GIAA also provides a
casting
Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...
resource to directors and producers seeking Italian-American actors.
GIAA Festival of Short Films and Videos
GIAA Festival of Short Films and Videos was an annual film festival and award ceremony celebrating successful short films and videos, as well as scripts. Winners receive awards including the 'GIAA: Italian American Heritage Award', and awards for the best actor, actress, documentary, and animation. An Audience Favorite award was added in 2008. In 2012 the festival was discontinued after five years and there is no current plan to restart it.
Controversy
GIAA was barred from marching in the
Columbus Day
Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492.
...
Parade in 2002 because it refused to give to parade organizers a list of members who appeared on ''
The Sopranos
''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...
''.
See also
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List of Italian-American actors
To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Italian American actors or must have references showing they are Italian American actors and are notable. As discussed in the 2005 book ''Hollywood Italians ...
References
Resources
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GIAA Film FestivalGIAA Blog
{{Authority control
Actors' trade unions
AFL–CIO
Trade unions established in 1937
1937 establishments in the United States
Guilds in the United States