“If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.”
Sooner or later every one of us will face an irreversible moment that will change our lives forever. If it hasn’t happened to you yet…it will. BELLA is a true love story about how one day in New York City changed three people forever.
Director: Alejandro MonteverdeBella is a movie worth seeing. You can buy it here, on DVD and make a difference in the lives of other “Bellas”.
Writers: Alejandro Monteverde , Patrick Million, Leo Severino
Producers: Metanoia Films
Stars: Eduardo Verástegui, Tammy Blanchard, Manny Perez, Angelica Aragon, Jaime Terelli, Ali Landry, Ewa Da Cruz
Plot:
Young, athletic Jose is set to be a professional soccer player, but ends up, instead, as the cook in his brother Manny’s restaurant. Nina’s life has been nothing but heartache. When the two are brought together by unhappy circumstances, the real plans for their lives are brought into focus and love triumphs once again.
Bella Receives Numerous Awards
Bella received the Golden Tomato award from Rotten Tomatoes with a user rating of 96.5, the highest of any film released in 2007.
Bella took the “People’s Choice Award” at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.
Bella won the Heartland Film Festival’s Grand Prize Award Winner for Best Dramatic Feature and the Crystal Heart Awards for Monteverde as writer/director/producer.
Bella’s filmmakers received the Smithsonian Institution’s “Legacy Award” for the film’s positive contribution to Latino art and culture. “This movie depicts the culture but also transcends it,” said Pilar O’Leary, executive director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Latino Center. “It has universal appeal.”
Bella received the Tony Bennett Media Excellence Award. Bennett said Bella is “a perfect film, an artistic masterpiece that will live in people’s hearts forever.
“The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office for Film and Broadcasting rated Bella as the second-best film of 2007 (with Juno) noting that Bella presents an “affirmative pro-life message,” along with “themes of self-forgiveness, reconciliation and redemption that should resonate deeply.”
The director of the Department of Citizenship gave the director of Bella, Alejandro Monteverde, the “American by Choice” Award at a White House reception for Bella’s positive contribution to Latino art and culture in the United States.
Monteverde was also invited to join the First Lady Laura Bush in her private box to watch the State of the Union address.
The Mexican Embassy honored the film and gave Bella a screening at their annual Cinco De Mayo celebration.
Bella broke the record for a Latino-themed film in total box office earnings and box office average per screen for films released in 2007. It was the top-rated movie on the New York Times Readers’ Poll, Yahoo and Fandango.
The Wall Street Journal said Bella was “the fall’s biggest surprise” and stated that “after only four weeks in release Bella has total sales of $5.2 million.”
Bella ended its U.S. theatrical release with more than $10 million in domestic box office, finishing the year in the top 10-grossing independent films of 2007
Kristi Watts talks to Bella’s leading man and finds out why he’s so captivated by the movie’s message.
