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bio
Dean Alioto is acknowledged as the creator of the found footage genre with his two cult hits The McPherson Tape and the Paramount TV movie Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County. His ground-breaking work in this unique form of storytelling is featured in the Paramount + documentary Unknown Dimension: The Story of Paranormal Activity.
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Dean got his start dropping out of two film schools (University of Southern California and San Francisco State University) to work on films for Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, and Oliver Stone. After making his directing/writing debut with The McPherson Tape, Dean went on to make the award-winning independent film Crashing Eden and direct episodic TV (Watch Over Me) and several one and two hour bio-docs on Billie The Kid, Jessie James, and Lizzie Borden. (Cont. Below)
Dean's writing skills and direction of actors has been praised by Variety and his abilities as an innovative storyteller singled out by Collider. Dean enjoys working in a wide range of genres including westerns (Shadowheart for Starz/Anchor Bay), supernatural thrillers (Portal for Vertical Entertainment) and an upcoming 3-part limited science docu-series and the horror-comedy The Last Podcast. In addition to filmmaking, Dean is a mediocre drummer and enjoys playing with any band that will have him.
Awards
DIRECTING
Awards
WRITING
Awards
FILM
Awards
Nicholl Fellowship Award
Finalist for the Academy Award's Fellowship Award for
"Bystander"
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Slamdance Film Festival
Finalist for Best Screenplay Award for
"Adverse Reaction"
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Austin Film Festival
Nominated for a Humanitas Award and Finalist for
Best Drama and Enderby Award for
"Bystander"
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Sitges Int. Film Festival
Nominated for Seven Changes Award for
"The McPherson Tape"
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Santa Barbara Int. Film Festival
An Audience Award for
"Crashing Eden"
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RiverRun Film Festival
Best Feature and Best Director For
"Crashing Eden"
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Awards
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