Director Biography – Anthony Venezia (REDEMPTION)

After seeing John Wayne in the film “The Alamo,” Tony Venezia longed to become an actor. But growing up in Villa Park is a long way from Los Angeles and when Venezia finally made it there for graduate work at UCLA, it was not to study acting but animation.
As a high school student, Venezia began creating independent films in 1969 using a borrowed 16mm movie camera with his clay animated piece “Klei.”
Venezia’s 3½-minute stop-motion animation film also won several awards in competition including a best animation award in college level category.
Venezia studied film in college, creating several award winning films while at Illinois State University.
In 1978, he decided to make his break to Los Angeles when he was accepted to the Animation Workshop at UCLA. “My original plan was to do a year. I wanted to make my first film at UCLA and then come back…