Portrait of Generation Y

You can often recognize a passion project by its lack of funding. But a tight budget didn’t stop Julian De Zotti (BA 2005 St. Mike’s) from turning his screenplay into a feature-length film that was selected for the 2010 Montreal World Film Festival and had a successful run at the Royal cinema in Toronto this winter.

In March 2008, in just 10 short days – with donations from friends and family – De Zotti and director Phil Borg shot the movie in De Zotti’s parents’ home in north Burlington.

New Year examines the universal theme of cusp-of-adulthood confusion, and follows a group of friends who reunite after university to ring in the New Year and share their anxieties.

The script reflects De Zotti’s internal monologue. “I wasn’t completely sure about what I wanted to do,” he says. “There were so many options but also this pressure to find a nine-to- five job, then settle down and have a family.”

After graduating from the University College Drama Program, De Zotti started his own theatre company, the Original Norwegian. Now 29, he is working on another screenplay – a comic re-imagining of King Lear, inspired by Italian culture. New Year has been released on Video-On-Demand across Canada, and will be released on pay TV networks later this year.