On April 4, in a ceremony in the Rosenthal Pavilion on the campus of New York University, Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, announced the winners in the 63rd annual First Run Film Festival. Seven outstanding student filmmakers from the Tisch School’s Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television walked away with the Institute’s top film prizes.
The winners are: 1st prize, King Award for Excellence in Filmmaking – Oliver Cheetham (graduate) for A Higher Agency and Jonathan Watts (undergraduate) for The Invisible Dog; 2nd prize King Award for Excellence in Filmmaking – Levan Koguashuili (graduate) for The Debt and Liesl Davis (undergraduate) for Under the Harlem Moon; 3rd prize King Award for Excellence in Filmmaking – Angela Cheng (graduate) for Ten and Two and Matthew Lambert (undergraduate) for Lutkoski Fishsticks; Wasserman Award for Screenwriting – Oliver Cheetham (graduate) for A Higher Agency and Jonathan Watts (undergraduate) for The Invisible Dog; and the Wasserman Award for Direction – Oliver Cheetham (graduate) for A Higher Agency and Andrew Bui (undergraduate) for When We Were Grown Ups.
“Our congratulations go out not only to tonight’s winners but to each and every one of our filmmakers in the festival for their energy, imagination, and collaborative spirit,” said Dean Campbell. “We are very proud of the way in which the students from the Kanbar Institute continue to renew and revitalize the medium of film. There are not enough awards to recognize their extraordinary talent. I would also like to recognize the Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation for its continued support of young filmmakers. And extend a special thanks to Maurice Kanbar, mentor, supporter, and exemplar to our young artists.”
This year, 131 films and videos were in competition for ten awards (five graduate and 5 undergraduate) worth over $50,000 in prize money. The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation awards are the largest of these; 1st prize is $10,000, 2nd prize is $7,000 and 3rd prize is $5,000. In addition, there are the Wasserman Awards for Outstanding Directing and Outstanding screenwriting, which are each $2,500 and underwritten, in part, by the King Family Foundation.
The winners join past award recipients Spike Lee, Ang Lee, and Nancy Savoca. A panel of industry professionals selected the winning films from a group of 12 finalists. The judges were: Michael Clancy, filmmaker; David Earls, Tribeca Film Festival; Sandra Forman, DGA Training Program; Steve Garfinkel, Kodak; Andy Goldman, HBO; Jytte Jensen, film curator, MOMA; Campbell McLaren, Zilo Network; Miriam Stern, entertainment lawyer; Jonathan Stern, Centrifilms; Robyn Weiss, New York Observer; and Emily Woodburne, Zeitgeist Films.
First Run Film Festival 2005 (March 28-April 3) was a weeklong series of public screenings of 131 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 & Lucille Kind Family Foundation. The Wasserman Awards honor the late Lew Wasserman and his wife Edie, generous benefactors of the Tisch School of the Arts.
