A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Director:
Starring: Robert Downey Jr.  Rosario Dawson  Shia LaBeouf  Dianne Wiest  
Year of release: 2006
Running time: 95 Min.
Age restriction: 16 LNPVD
Category: Crime  Drama  

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is the winner of both the Dramatic Directing Award and a Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Performance at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. A coming-of-age drama about writer/director Dito Montiel’s youth, the film captures the mid-1980s in the toughest neighborhood of Astoria, Queens.

Dito (Robert Downey Jr.), called home after 15 years because his father (Chazz Palminteri) is ill, encounters old friends — the ones he lost, the ones he left behind the ones he can’t help but remember. These are Dito’s “saints”.

An honest account of a bittersweet return to a neighborhood where relationships can never be what they once were, Dito’s story is about coming to terms with a father’s rage and a father’s love.

Awards: 6 wins & 7 nominations