Public Screening to be held at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood, June 21
New York University’s Kanbar Institute of Film & Television in the Tisch School of the Arts has announced that its annual Hollywood showcase for top student films will take place for one night on June 21, 2006. Seventeen award-winning films and videos will be screened for industry professionals and the public at the Directors Guild of America.
Entitled the Haig P. Manoogian Screenings Film and Video Showcase 2006, the event is open to the public and will take place on Wednesday, June 21 at the Directors Guild of America, located at 7920 W. Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles. Screening times are 5:30, 7:00, and 8:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served after each screening. Admission and parking are free.
Screening their work from the Graduate Film Division are: Michael Brown (A Riot in the Dark), Nicolás Calzada (Waking Olguita), Juan Castilo (Secuestro: Oh, Crime Pays Alright ), Rafael Del Toro (6 Ft. in 7 Min.), Grant Greenberg (Cricket Head), Laura Richard (Breached), Aslihan Unaldi (Razan), and Philip Van (Dunny).
Filmmakers from the Undergraduate Film Division are: Rodney Altman (Umney’s Last Case), Jacqueline Castel (The Birthday Party), Asher Goldstein (Strangers), Jason Klein (In Love), Joel Levin (This is Not a Picture), Elaine Liu (The Projectionist), Andrew Lobel (Delirium and the Dollman), Yusuke Murakami (Onnazuri or: Men, Women, and Capitalism), and Powell Weaver (I Killed Zoe Day).
The filmmakers are all presently enrolled in or are recent graduates of the Tisch School’s Kanbar Institute of Film & Television. They come from as far away as Tokyo, Turkey, and South Africa and as near as California, Florida, and Ohio. Each was judged a finalist in the 2006 First Run Film Festival, which was held at NYU in April.
Six of the filmmakers are recipients of NYU’s highest accolades for 2006, which are The Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation Awards for Excellence in Filmmaking for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize. In addition, there is the 2006 King Award for Best Screenwriting and the Wasserman Award for Best Directing.
The winners of the 2006 King Awards for Excellence in Filmmaking are: 1st prize - Grant Greenberg (Graduate Division) for Cricket Head and Jason Klein(Undergraduate Division) for In Love; 2nd prize - Laura Richard (Graduate Division) for Breached and Asher Goldstein (Undergraduate Division) for Strangers; and 3rd prize - Juan Castilo (Graduate Division) for Secuestro: Oh, Crime Pays Alright and Powell Weaver (Undergraduate Division) for I Killed Zoe Day. The winners of the King Award for Best Screenwriting are: Laura Richard and Asher Goldstein. The winners of the Wasserman Award for Best Directing are: Grant Greenberg and Jason Klein.
This is the 21st annual Haig P. Manoogian Screenings, which pays tribute to a pioneering teacher in the art of filmmaking who also served at various times as head of both the graduate and undergraduate film divisions at the Tisch School of the Arts.
The Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts provides an intensive and professional education in filmmaking. The program shared first place in recent U.S. News and World Report rankings of the nation’s film programs; since 1992, fifteen Student Academy Award gold medals have been presented to NYU student filmmakers by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. At the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, Kanbar Institute students and alumni walked away with an unprecedented seven awards in virtually every top-prize category. And at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival Kanbar Institute graduates and faculty won nine out of the 19 awards. Approximately 150 graduate and 1,050 undergraduate film students pursue degrees in film and television production, photography, cinema studies, dramatic writing, and interactive telecommunications. Distinguished alumni of the Kanbar Institute include Joel Coen, Chris Columbus, Billy Crystal, Martha Coolidge, Ernest Dickerson, Amy Heckerling, Jim Jarmusch,Ang Lee, Spike Lee, Brett Ratner, Nancy Savoca, Martin Scorsese, Susan Seidelman, and Oliver Stone, among many others.