Kanbar Institute’s 64th Annual First Run Festival Picks Winners

By Richard Pierce

On April 15, Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the associate provost of the arts at NYU, presented awards to winners of the 64th annual First Run Film Festival. Six student filmmakers from Tisch’s Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television walked away with the school’s top film prizes.

The winners of the King Awards for Excellence in Filmmaking were: first prize—Grant Greenberg (Graduate Division) for Cricket Head and Jason Klein (Undergraduate Division) for In Love; second prize—Laura Richard (Graduate Division) for Breached and Asher Goldstein (Undergraduate Division) for Strangers; and third prize—Juan Castilo (Graduate Division) for Secuestro: Oh, Crime Pays Alright…and Powel Weaver (Undergraduate Division) for I Killed Zoe Day. The winners of the King Award for Best Screenwriting were Laura Richard and Asher Goldstein, and Grant Greenberg and Jason Klein were winners of the Wasserman Award for Best Directing.

“Good stories have long lifetimes and so it is with the films that debut at the First Run Film Festival,” said Campbell. “Many of these works will now go on to screenings at international film festivals, cable television, Sundance, and internet sites.”

This year, 111 films and videos were in competition for twelve awards (six graduate and six undergraduate) worth $54,000 in prize money. The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation awards for Excellence in Filmmaking are for 1st prize $10,000, 2nd prize $7,000, and 3rd prize $5,000. In addition, there are the King Awards for Best Screenwriting, which are each $3,000, and The Wasserman Awards for Best Directing, which are each $2,000.

The winners join past award recipients Spike Lee, Ang Lee, and Nancy Savoca, among others. A panel of industry professionals selected the winning films from a group of 17 finalists.