Kanbar Film Student Melonie Diaz Dubbed this Year’s ‘Queen of Sundance’

By Richard Piece

    What does Melonie Diaz, a third year undergraduate film student in the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts, have in common with well known film stars such as Patricia Clarkson, Kirsten Dunst, Catherine Keener, and Parker Posey? The latter all have the distinction of having appeared in the most films screened at Sundance in a particular year. And the honor tagged each for eventual stardom.

      Diaz, a 23-year old actor from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, was in four films that premiered this year at Sundance – American Son, Assassination of a High School President, Be Kind Rewind, and Hamlet 2. She also served on the Sundance jury for the short film competition.

      At the public screening for Hamlet 2, which later was sold for a reported $10 million, director Andrew Fleming announced to the assembled audience in Park City, “Melonie Diaz is the queen of Sundance.”

      A Sundance veteran, she made her festival debut in 2001 at age 15 in Double Whammy, directed by graduate film alumnus Tom DiCillo ’79. She quickly followed that up in 2002 with a role in Raising Victor Vargas, a film by undergraduate film alum Peter Sollett ’99. 

      “This year, in a sort of heat-seeking perfect storm, Diaz’s Sundance films illustrate both her vivacity and versatility,” wrote Los Angeles Times reporter David A. Keeps. Diaz just may be the 2007 queen of indie films overall, believed to have been in a total of 27 last year.