RAYMOND DEFELITTA (Writer / Director) was nominated for an Oscar for his short film Bronx Cheers in 1992. In the same year, his screenplay Begin the Beguine won the Academy's prestigious Nicholl Fellowship for Screen writing Award. Ray has written screenplays for HBO, Largo Entertainment, Universal Pictures and Lakeshore Entertainment among others. He wrote and directed Café Society, starring Peter Gallagher, Frank Whaley and Lara Flynn Boyle, which premiered at Cannes at Director's Fortnight in 1996 and was released the following year. Siskel and Ebert gave the film two "enthusiastic thumbs up," calling it a "wonderful piece of filming" and The New York Times called it "a nifty sleeper of a filmÉone of the rare 50s period pieces that gets it right."