Mariano Baino is a film director, screenwriter and multi-media artist, hailed by Montreal's FantAsia Film Festival (where his film “DARK  WATERS” received the coveted Prix Du Public) as “one of the great  torchbearers for expressionistic genre cinema”, he won the Vincent Price  Award for outstanding contribution to fantastic cinema at Rome’s FantaFestival, where, in 2019, he was also awarded with a Silver Bat Career Achievement Award. 

His film DARK WATERS, “a veritable object of veneration among horror fans” in the words of major Italian newspaper La Repubblica, received prestigious gala  screenings at the Lincoln Center in New York, the National Cinema  Museum in Turin, Italy, the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theater and the  Italian Cinematheque in Rome, and has been released to great acclaim all over the world. 

Mariano is also a renowned multimedia artist with successful exhibitions in the USA and Europe, most recently ARS INFECTA at Rome's Museum of Contemporary Art,  IMAGO IGNIS and VULTUS VELI at the magnificent Hall of the Leprosarium, in  Naples, Italy, LUCTUS IGNIS at the Savoy Multiplex in Rome and CYPHERS AND  FLAMES at The SoapBox Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. 

In the words of major Italian newspaper La Repubblica: “Critics have likened  Baino’s work not only to the masters of horror but also to Ingmar  Bergman for his enigmatic characters, somber atmosphere and depth of  religious meditation.”  

Mariano, who relocated to London, UK, from his native Italy at a very young age,  currently resides in New York, thanks to an “Extraordinary Ability Green Card” granted to him by the US Government for his artistic  achievements, and loves being able to gaze at the Empire State  Building on the way to his beloved local branch of the New York Public Library.

Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, is an American actress, screenwriter and multimedia artist born in New York City but with strong roots in Italy. She counts on a multitude of international fans, thanks to her roles in seminal works such as DEMONS 2, a film by Lamberto Bava produced by Dario Argento as well as OPERA, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and MOTHER OF TEARS, all directed by Argento, and thanks to her numerous theater performances and her evocative paintings, protagonists of highly successful art exhibitions.

Born into a family of Opera professionals, she began performing in her father’s Opera company at the tender age of three. As a young child, she moved to Rome, Italy, where she spent her formative years. She returned to the USA upon being honored with a scholarship offered to her by THE SECOND CITY's famous Training Center for Improvisation in Chicago, IL, breeding ground for many of today's premiere comic talent (Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Mike Myers).

Prior to ASTRID’S SAINTS, Cataldi-Tassoni produced and acted with Mariano Baino in
A MOVING READ and LADY M 5.1, for which she also wrote the music. She won the AWARD of EXCELLENCE in the category of ACTRESS: LEADING at the Best Shorts Competition for her courageous and emotionally wrenching performance as Lady Macbeth.

Her career has been celebrated in numerous publications. The book CORALINA: LIFE IS ART/ART IS LIFE, edited by journalist Filippo Brunamonti (La Repubblica, Huffington Post). has had the honor to been recently added to the research department at the New York Public Library for The Performing Arts.

She lives with her two rescue dogs Dreamer & Zungolito. Dreamer plays the part of “Custos” in ASTRID’S SAINTS.

ASTRID’S SAINTS Co-producer, Raffaele Rossi, graduated in "Photography, Cinema and Television" at the prestigiousAcademy of Fine Arts in Naples, Italy. He’s the founder and CEO of Step One Productions and, since January 2021, he is President of Oltrecielo.com Audio-Visual and Performing Arts. Since 2017 he has been a member of the “Arca Cinema Giovani” jury at the Venice International Film Festival. With Nicolas Spatarella he has written and directed "The Rigor Mortis Show" (2020) and then "FISHMAN" (2021) starring Filippo Scotti, who is the lead in Paolo Sorrentino’s Academy Award nominated The Hand Of God.