Michele Civetta is an Emmy nominated director. Over the years Civetta has directed videos for Lou Reed, Sparklehorse, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Marracash, Ladytron, Yoko Ono. Commercials for Coca-Cola, Martini & Rossi, Cingular wireless, Badoit mineral water. In 2006 Civetta wrote and directed a musical feature for Sean Lennon's Capitol Records release Friendly Fire. The 50-minute film debuted January 2008 on Mark Cuban's HDNet channel. Civetta was preparing a film based on the international bestsellerCoin Locker Babies that was scheduled to shoot in the summer of 2010 in Thailand and Japan, a co-production between Don Murphy's Angry Films. Production was delayed to 2013; by May of that year, the project had been renamed Regular Boy, and it was listed on IMDb as being in "pre-production". In 2015 it was reported to be in development again with the same script and director, now starring Vincent Gallo, Liv Tyler, Asia Argento and Sean Lennon. Civetta and his company Quintessence Films commissioned and produced a series of 42 second short films based on Dreams for 42 Below Vodka/ Bacardi. Some of the filmmakers involved include David Lynch, Kenneth Anger, Gaspar Noe, Sergei Bodrov, Larry Clark, Harmony Korine, and Mike Figgis. Civetta embarked on a psychedelic surf film for the New York-based label Mexican summer as a collaboration with members of MGMT, Ariel Pink and Connan Mockasin. Shooting began in Nicaragua fall 2014. Civetta has worked with a wide array of actors including Asia Argento, Brady Corbett, Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Fisher, Devon Aoki, Paz de la Huerta, Burt Young, Grant Morrison and artists from Yoko Ono to Luigi Ontani, Donald Baechler. In 2016 Civetta's commercial Halloween Today for NBC was nominated for an Emmy Award. April 3, 2020 Mr Civetta's Feature FilmAgony was released via Gravitas Ventures. A psychological thriller starring Asia Argento, Rade Serbedzija, Ninetto Davoli, Monica Guerritore and Franco Nero. The film has received positive critical reception upon its release.
Civetta was married to Italian actress Asia Argento, the couple married on August 27, 2008 in Arezzo. The couple lived in Rome with their son Nicola Civetta. The couple divorced in 2013.
