Winner of the Alternative Category of the 44th Annual Student Academy Awards.

Created as MAX R. A. FEDORE's Thesis Film for New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with the guidance of Professor Mary Lambert, "OPERA of CRUELTY" is an immersive cinematic experience that fuses together the arts of live performance, fashion, music, and cinematography and presents them in a choreographed production, inviting the audience to contemplate captivity as the characters cross the line between art and reality. At New York University’s First Run Film Festival 2017, the film won the King Award for First Prize and the Wasserman Award in Directing and received the Achievement in Experimental Award and Eight Craft Awards for Sound Design, Production Design, Producing, Editing, Cinematography, Original Score, Lead Actress, and Lead Actor. The film was also featured in the American Cinematographer July 2017 Issue.

MAVXIMINVS Presents
A Wild Obscura Films Production

In the surreal drama, “OPERA of CRUELTY”, a Young Victim invited to an immersive operatic production led by the Famed Fiend, a collector and protector of talent, finds himself infatuated with the Tempestuous Tigress, a young woman and the favorite performer, who wants nothing but to escape. 

Written and Directed by MAX R. A. FEDORE

Produced by MAX R. A. FEDORE, Devin Shepherd, and Nora Unkel

Co-produced by Yonca Talu, Sissi Torres, and John Connor

Cinematography by Oren Soffer

Original Score by Nathan Prillaman

Chelsea Lee Williams as the TEMPESTUOUS TIGRESS
Tony Bordonaro as the YOUNG VICTIM
MAX R. A. FEDORE as the FAMED FIEND

Production Design by William Farmer
Fashion Design by Asher Levine
Jewelry Design by Sterling King
Makeup and Hair Design by Tad Greene

Choreography by Tony Bordonaro

Sasha Isaeva, Natalia Roberts, and Scott Schneider as the FATES
Lisa Dennett as the SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETER
Allyson Herman as the SOPRANO
ToniMarie Marchioni as the OBOIST
Daniel Frankhuizen as the CELLIST

Edited by MAX R. A. FEDORE
Sound Design and Mix by Sean Kiely
Color Correction by Erik Choquette
Visual Effects by Keigo Tanaka and Jayson White

This film was made possible with the Generous Support of Kaufman Astoria Studios, and was produced at New York University, Tisch School Of The Arts, 
Maurice Kanbar Institute Of Film And Television
Undergraduate Film And Television
Advanced Production Workshop, Mary Lambert

A performance art film created in collaboration with cinematographer Ahad Mahmood.

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An experimental art film that explores the nature of performance through three interconnected scenes: an interview, a live oboe concert, and a futuristic cleansing ritual.

In a bleak, minimalistic future, IKARIA, a scientist, interviews her closest friend, the artist IO, for a chance to Ascend to A New Earth with an elitist society of Inventors, but nothing is quite as it seems as IKARIA reminisces about an oboe performance they attended together, trying to warn IO that a secret from their past could threaten their idealistic future.

Christina Lippolis as IO

Dana Gartland as IKARIA

ToniMarie Marchioni as THE OBOIST in the conceptual, live performance of "Inner Song" composed by Elliott Carter. 

Cinematography by Armaan Virani

Fashion by Krystsina Sinkevich

Makeup by Carson Stern

A Carly Ganz/Armaan Virani Production

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