Winning and Finalist Films to be Screened in Hollywood, June 19
Winning and Finalist Films to be Screened in Hollywood, June 19
Last night, the winners of New York University’s 65th annual First Run Film Festival, which each year premiers the work of some of the country’s top student films from the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts, were announced at a ceremony and dinner on the campus of NYU. Alumnus, actor, and star of television’s Crossing Jordan Jerry O’Connell 95 was the guest presenter. Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of the Tisch School of the Arts and associate provost of the arts at NYU, was host of the evening and introduced the finalists.
Six outstanding student filmmakers from the Tisch School’s Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television walked away with the School’s top film prizes and over $50,000 in cash awards. The winners of the King Awards for Excellence in Filmmaking are: 1st prize - Dee Rees (Graduate Division) for Pariah and Aaron Rabin (Undergraduate Division) for This Light Rains; 2nd prize - Rob Meyer (Graduate Division) for Aquarium and James Darling (Undergraduate Division) for Citizen; 3rd prize - Amanda Laws (Graduate Division) for Red Scare and Stephen Neary (Undergraduate Division) for BigFoot’s Eulogy. The winners of the King Award for Best Screenwriting are: Luke Matheny (Graduate) for Earano and Aaron Rabin (Undergraduate) for This Light Rains. The winners of the Wasserman Award for Best Directing are: Sara Colangelo (Graduate) for A Moment to Breathe and James Darling (Undergraduate) for Citizen.
This year, more than 120 projects were in competition for awards worth $54,000 in prize money. The Charles and 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 recipients Spike Lee, Ang Lee, and Nancy Savoca, among many others. A panel of industry professionals selected the winning films from a group of seventeen finalists.
First Run Film Festival 2007 (April 11-16) was a week-long series of public screenings of advanced and intermediate student projects in film, video, and animation by graduate and undergraduate students from NYU’s Kanbar Institute of Film and Television. Underwriting support was provided by the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation. The Wasserman Awards Ceremony is named in honor of the late Lew Wasserman and his wife, Edie, generous benefactors of 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.