Ivan De Battista
Ivan De Battista | |
---|---|
Born |
Ivan De Battista Gzira, Malta. |
Occupation | Actor, director, producer, songwriter, singer, author, poet and lyricist. |
Years active | 1984 – |
Spouse(s) | Simone De Battista (m. 2000–); 2 children |
Ivan De Battista (born 13 September 1977) is a Maltese film and theatre actor and director, author, and poet.
Background
Born in Gżira, Malta to Martin and Irene De Battista, he is the oldest of three brothers. He married Simone De Battista in 2000 and they have two sons. His studies in acting include, ATCL Performing – Trinity College, London, Performer's Certificate in Acting – Trinity College London, Pinnacle Film Acting Course, Curtain Raiser Theatre Group and Bronk Productions Acting Course. He has a Diploma in Management from the University of Leicester. He is a UK Equity Member.
Writings
- Irwiefen (Hurricanes) – a book of poetry published in 1999
- Il-Fanal tas-Sinjur (The Master's Lighthouse) – adventure/mystery book published in 2007 and nominated for Best Book for Youngsters
- Id-Dar ta' Sqaq il-Forka (The House in the Gallows' Alley) – adventure/mystery sequel book published in 2009 and won second prize in the Malta Book Awards for Best Prose for Children.
- Id tad-Deheb (Golden Hand) – nominated for Best Book for Teens.
- Battuti għal Inżul ix-Xemx (Lyrical Beats for Sunset) – an anthology poetry book published in 2010 and nominated for Best Poetry Book.
- Il-Qabar tal-Kavallier (The Knight's Tomb) – adventure/mystery book published in 2011 and nominated for Best Book for Youngsters.
- Il-Milied tal-Anġli (Christmas of Angels) – adventure book published in 2011 and won second prize in the Malta Book Awards for Best Prose for Children.
- L-Aħħar Tlettax (The Last Thirteen) – novel published in 2013.
- Il-Misteru tal-Ġgantija (The Ġgantija Mystery) – novel published in 2014 and nominated for Best Book for Teens.
Performances
Ivan and Simone De Battista were selected, in June 2012, with nine other teams from Europe, to represent Malta at the Tourcoing, France-based 2012 Eurotopiques festival, La Virgule, in a production called 'Mentior Cum Amori.
Television
He acted on local television in Simpatici (2001), Il-Madonna taċ-Ċoqqa (2002), Mad-daqqa Niżfnu (2004), Id-Driegħ t 'Alla (2005), Santa Monika (2006), Pupi (2007), and Il-Kristu tal-Kerrejja (2008). He also worked in Carabinieri 1 which was televised on Mediaset Italy. After performing the title role in Il-Kristu tal-Kerrejja, he directed the cliff-hanging whodunit drama on NET Television (Malta) Is-Siġill tal-Qrar. He partially edited this teleseries and wrote the lyrics for the ending credits. He edited several television documentaries including Katakombi.
He had a main role in the four seasons of the popular teleserial F'Salib it-Toroq. He is the director and co-founder of ImaginArts Entertainment Productions. He directed four short movies which are, L-Ittra (The Letter) (2002) – for which he wrote the original theme score as well, Dilemma (2003) which won Certificate of Merit – MACC 2003 & 2004, Is-Siġġu ta-Roti (The Wheelchair) (2004) and Self Flattery (2005), which both won 3rd Place in Best Production at the National MACC Awards Film Festival.
Furthermore, he directed Season I of the tele-series It-Tfal and the popular whodunit thriller tele-series, Prima Facie, both for 26th Frame Productions. Also, he is directed the much sought-for cultural programme - Snajja' Maltin - Season I & II. Currently he is directing the daily soap opera, Tereża and the educational program, Karriera
Radio
Ivan was a collaborator in the programme Mill-Gnejna Maltija over a decade ago. Moreover, he performed in six radio plays. He started off a programme called Verset il-Lejl in 2011 along with his wife on a local radio station which is still on, but under a different name: Storja flok Siesta
Songs
Battista took part in the Malta Independence Song Festival 2008, singing "Tond jibqa' Tond", and placed third in the same Festival 2009 as both a composer and lyricist of a song sung by newcoming Twins – Lara and Marie-Elena – "Tar iz-Zmien". He took part in a trio group in IndiFest (2012) with the song "Mhux l-ewwel darba".
Drama Group
Ivan co-founded with his wife Simone, imagin-Arts Drama Group. It started off on 1 August 2010, in which it held its first courses from the following October with more than twenty students. Today, almost 3 years and a half after, the Drama group tripled in its students, which makes it a successful drama group. The drama group prepared students to analyse, build and delve into different characters, with the culmination of many end-of-term performances.
Awards
He was nominated as "Best Actor in Drama" for his outstanding performance in Pupi, organised by the GO Television Awards 2007. He also was nominated for Best Original Soundtrack (Lyrics) for Is-Sigill tal-Qrar, which he directed, organised by the 2010 Vodafone Television Awards.
He won second prize in the Malta Literary Awards for Best Prose for Children for the books Id-Dar ta' Sqaq il-Forka and Il-Milied tal-Angli
References
- "imagin-Arts Drama Group".
- "Collection of Poems". Malta Poetry.
- Ivan De Battista. "imagin-Arts Drama Group".
- "Mentior Cum Amori – France 2012".
- "Il-Kristu tal-Kerrejja". YouTube.
- "Is-Sigill tal-Qrar". YouTube.