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By Richard Pierce
Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, recently announced the winners in the 63rd annual First Run Film Festival during a ceremony in the Rosenthal Pavilion. Seven student filmmakers from Tisch’s Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television walked away with the institute’s top prizes.
The winners are: 1st prices, 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 Chengy (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 Hui (undergraduate) for When We Were Grown Ups.
Filmmaker and Wasserman Award winner Oliver Cheetham with
Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell.
“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 talents. 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 10 awards (five graduate and five 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.
First Run Film Festival 2005 included a week-long series of public screenings of 131 advanced and intermediate student projects n 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 King Family Foundation. The Wasserman Awards honor the late Lew Wasserman and his wife Edie, benefactors of the Tisch School of the Arts.
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