An Evening with Marisa Tomei, featuring My Cousin Vinny

The Florida Film Festival is honored to welcome Marisa Tomei in celebration of this beloved film and her illustrious career. Following the film screening, Ms. Tomei will be present for a Q&A with the audience.

Bill (Ralph Macchio) and Stan (Mitchell Whitfield) are two college pals from New York traveling through Alabama when they are mistakenly arrested and charged with murder. Fortunately, one of them has a lawyer in the family—wise-guy Vincent Gambini (Joe Pesci), a former auto mechanic from Brooklyn who just passed the bar after six tries and has never been in court … or in Alabama for that matter. When cousin Vinny arrives with his sharp-tongued, leather-clad girlfriend, Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei in her scene-stealing, Oscar®-winning Best Supporting Actress performance), to handle his first case, it’s a real shock—for him and the Deep South! The comic interplay between Pesci and Tomei is priceless, and this terrific variation on the fish-out-of-water formula and clashing cultures scenario is a hilarious courtroom comedy that also features Fred Gwynne as the judge in his final film appearance. 

Marisa Tomei:

Marisa Tomei continues to bridge the gap between rich, dramatic performances and smart, comedic turns. Marisa won an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny. Tomei subsequently earned Academy Awards nominations for her performances in In the Bedroom and The Wrestler. Marisa recently wrapped her run as Serafina Delle Rose in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of the acclaimed Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo, which marked Marisa’s return to the Broadway stage. She also recently wrapped production on Netflix’s action film Sweet Girl, where she appears alongside Jason Mamoa. Next, she starred alongside Pete Davidson in Universal Pictures’ The King of Staten Island, a comedy film from Judd Apatow. The film premiered as the opening night film at 2020 SXSW, before releasing nationwide. 

Recently, Marisa returned to the silver screen for ABC’s live special of Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All In The Family & The Jeffersons, where she starred as Edith Bunker alongside Woody Harrelson, Jamie Foxx, and Wanda Sykes. The one-night only events aired live on ABC, and garnered three Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Variety Special (Live). Marisa reunited with Ira Sachs for independent drama, Frankie, which had its world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. She also reprised her role of Aunt May in Sony Entertainment and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Far from Home.  

Her other notable film credits include The Big Short, Love is Strange, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Ides of March, Loitering with Intent, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, What Women Want, Happy Accidents, and Slums of Beverly Hills. She also recently appeared on television in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and FOX’s Empire, among others. A veteran of the theater, Marisa starred as George in Sarah Ruhl’s How To Transcend a Happy Marriage at Lincoln Center. Her previous Broadway credits include Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses (2014 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance), Caryl Churchill's Top Girls (Drama Desk Award nomination), Oh! The Humanity and Other Good Intentions, Marie and Bruce, Design for Living, We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Waiting for Lefty, Rocket to the Moon, Demonology, Dark Rapture, Slavs!, The Comedy of Errors, and The Summer Winds, among others. Tomei is a founding member of the Naked Angels Theater Company in New York City. 

_{1992, 120 minutes, USA, Directed by Jonathan Lynn, Rated R}