Tisch Holds Next Reel International Film Festival in Singapore

By Richard Pierce

The 2007 Next Reel International Film Festival, featuring young filmmakers from around the world, was held in Singapore in conjunction with the official opening celebration last month of NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia.

The festival showcased 67 narrative, documentary, and experimental short films from 31 film schools representing 22 countries: Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Korea, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States.

The highlight of the festival, one of the largest of its kind, was the four days of public screenings for Singaporean audiences during which Next Reel filmmakers competed for nearly $30,000 in cash prizes and awards. This year’s winners were: first prize - A Few Simple Words, director Anna Kazejak-Dawid from the Polish National Film School, Poland, $10,000 and $1,000 Kodak Product Grant; second prize - Film for the Boxed, director Bryn Chainey from Griffith University, Australia, $7,000 and $500 Kodak Product Grant; and third prize - Pariah, director Dee Rees from New York University, $5,000 and $500 Kodak Product Grant.

The Next Reel Film Festival was sponsored by Cathay Singapore, The PictureHouse, Kodak Worldwide Student Film Program, MDA Media Development Authority Singapore, and TimeOut Singapore. Founded in 1993, the Next Reel International Film Festival is a biennial event organized by a team of faculty and staff from the Tisch School of the Arts. Next Reel, which typically takes place in New York City but travels abroad, is the international counterpart to the Kanbar Institute of Film & Television’s First Run Festival. Many of the films in these festivals go on to screen at premiere international film festivals, such as Cannes, Toronto, Venice, and Berlin.