Canosa was born in Holden, Massachusetts, USA, where he received a Fundamentalist Christian education from his parents. Because their beliefs did not support films, Canosa did not go to a movie theater until he was 17 years old. He chose to attend Harvard College, for which he was disinherited by his parents. There he directed several plays and videos. He later entered New York University's graduate film program, but dropped out when he felt it was too restrictive for him. It was that day he first saw a film in a theater that Canosa first came up with the idea for a splitscreen film which he used in filming Conversations with Other Women.
Filmography
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac – Director, Producer & Editor
Conversations with Other Women – Director & Editor
Alma Mater – Director, Producer & Writer
Recognition
In speaking toward Conversations with Other Women, Film Threat wrote "The story is deceptively simple – and yawningly familiar". And in briefly addressing the plot of a man and woman, lover when far younger, reuniting at a New York wedding reception over drinks and cigarettes, and rekindling their past attraction now that we are older and wiser, the reviewer praised Canosa by writing "director Hans Canosa transforms this over-used premise into something moving and memorable". The Montreal Gazette noted that Canosa's use of a split screen format, gave "nuance" to what they termed a "brilliant, witty romance", and offered that it "is also one of the few movies that employs technical trickery to its advantage." Contrarily, San Francisco Chronicle while also praising his film, felt that where other directors might use a split screen occasionally, Canosa's use of the effect for the entire film was "distancing, often frustrating and sometimes just plain odd." They added that although the director's use of split screen might have been questionable, "Canosa brings it off with grace and inventiveness". Toward Canosa's first project, Alma Mater, Film Threat wrote that with the film being set in 1963, it was a "stylistic throwback", but that it captures the era "quite well", in "terms of what the audience sees on the screen and in the way they see it." They felt the director created a 2002 film that felt like it had actually been shot in 1963.
Awards and nominations
2002, won Austin Film Festival 'Audience Award' for 'Best Competition Feature Film' for Alma Mater
