Alumni from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, as well as a current student, made a strong showing at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, coming home with the Grand Jury Prize, three Audience Awards, and the International Short Film Jury Award.
The Sundance Film Festival is held every January in Park City, Salt Lake City, Sundance and Ogden, Utah to introduce groundbreaking independent work and emerging talent in independent film to a global audience. The Festival is hosted by the Sundance Institute, which also provides 24 residential labs, grants exceeding $2.5 million, and ongoing mentorships that support more than 350 independent artists each year.
“The Sundance Film Festival is a place where filmmakers from NYU Tisch Kanbar have consistently found success and support because our goals are so well aligned,” said Allyson Green, Dean of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. “Both institutions seek to develop a space for artists to create and thrive. It’s wonderful to see so many exciting films being created in many diverse formats, and we are proud that a notable portion of the festival is comprised of the work of artists in our Tisch community. Congratulations to them all!”
This year, nearly 200 alumni and students were affiliated with films at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The list of Tisch alumni whose films won special honors is as follows:
Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic, Presented by Acura
US Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon '94 (BFA, Kanbar, F&TV)
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary & Best of Fest
The Wolfpack
Executive Producer: Tyler Brodie '98 (BFA, Kanbar, F&TV)
World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic
Umrika
“Ramakant”: Suraj Sharma ’17 (Kanbar, F&TV)
Audience Award: NEXT, Presented by Adobe
James White
Director and Screenwriter: Josh Mond '06 (Kanbar, F&TV)
Producer: Antonio Campos '06 (Kanbar, F&TV), producer
Producer: Sean Durkin '06 (BFA, Kanbar, F&TV), producer
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction
Oh Lucy!
Director/writer/executive producer: Atsuko Hirayanagi '13 (MFA, Kanbar, F&TV)
The Graduate Film and Undergraduate Film & TV divisions of the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts offer both a B.F.A liberal arts degree and an intensive 3-year MFA curriculum in professional filmmaking. The program focuses on developing each filmmaker’s individual voice, while also arming them with the skills and knowledge to excel in all areas of the film, television and new media fields. Distinguished alumni of the Kanbar Institute include Joel Coen, Chris Columbus, Billy Crystal, Martha Coolidge, Amy Heckerling, Jim Jarmusch, Ang Lee, Spike Lee, Brett Ratner, Nancy Savoca, Martin Scorsese, Susan Seidelman, Cary Fukanaga and Oliver Stone, among many others.
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