Film and Media Arts: Awards and Achievements

Film students and alumni swept the Television, Internet and Video Association (TIVA) Awards winning gold, silver and bronze in several film productions. Ellen Tripler, Aditi Desai, Mary Ratliff, and Kai Fang won the Peer Gold Award in Student Dramatic Production for "Cookies", Ted Roach, Alex Morrison and Caroline Aguila won the Peer Gold Award in Student Non-Dramatic Production for "Chesapeake Gold", Carolina Aguilar, Brad Allgood, J.P. Eason, Dustin Harrison-Atlas, Danny Ledonne, Alex Morrison, Ted Roach, and Suzanne Taylor won the Peer Silver Award in Student Non-dramatic Production for "EcoViews; Reclaiming the Bay"and Jin-Wei Wang won the Peer Silver Award in Dramatic for "Flowers in the Mirror". Lauren DeAngelis and Joe Bohannon joined several other SOC students winning Peer Awards this year. Their film, A Place to Land, picked up a Student Academy Award earlier this year.  Alum Ted Roach won the Peer Gold Award for Non-Dramatic Editing (30 minutes and longer) and the Peer Bronze Award for Non-Dramatic Production (30 minutes or longer) for "Somay Ku: A Uganda Tennis Story", which he produced and edited.

Laura Waters Hinson, MFA '07, won a Student Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last year for As We Forgive, a documentary about reconciliation efforts in Rwanda.

Alexandra Garcia, BA '05 and Washington Post photographer/videographer, was recently nominated for an Emmy for her project "Healing Fields," which covers an event in the rural Appalachia where a small army of health-care professionals provides free treatment to 2500 uninsured and underinsured Americans.

Annie Coburn and Colin Foster's original films were declared winners in the DC Shorts Screenplay Competition. Coburn won for her script, "Pretty All the Time," and Foster won for his "Man with a Bolex Movie Camera." Both are MFA candidates in Film and Electronic media, and co-founders of Media Offline, a filmmaker's collective.

Heather Danskin and Olha Onyshko's video called "Partners in Parks - United for America" for the National Park Hospitality Association was given to members of Congress, and screened at the Department of the Interior and NPHA's Board of Directors meeting. There will be 1,000 copies distributed nationally as part of a campaign to improve declining park attendance.

Leena Jayaswal’s film Crossing Lines won a Bronze Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival, was named best documentary at the California Arts Association's First Digital Short Film Festival and received a Gracie Allen Award for Outstanding Documentary Short-Format from the American Women in Radio and Television. It has been nominated to be a Faculty Juried Screening Finalist at the University Film and Video Association and was also nominated for Best American Documentary at the Heart of England Film Festival. To learn more about the film click here.

A still photo shoot of the migration of red knot birds, by Doug Gritzmacher, '05, is featured in the October issue of Smithsonian magazine. Gritzmacher also won an Emmy in September for his work as a video journalist for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting’s "Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica" which won the award for New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Arts, Lifestyle and Culture.

Beating out dozens of competitors, alum Patrick Flynn's film Ghost Date is one of 13 finalists for Best of the Los Angeles 48 Hour Film Project. Awards will be presented following the Best of LA Screening August 19 at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard, 90027 and is being presented in association with The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Watch Ghost Date on YouTube

MFA candidate Sarah Katz was a finalist in the the FOTOBAMAWEEK International Photography Contest, sponsored by FotoWeek DC and the Newseum. The photo will be exhibited at the Newseum, and will be included in a limited edition book later this year. Katz took the photo for her Principles of Photography course, taught by prof. Leena Jayaswal.

Professor Claudia Myers' documentary, 'The Long Road Back', won a Silver Telly award and has been nominated for a regional Emmy Award. The film follows three veterans whose healing process continues long after they were severely injured.

Lagan Sebert’s documentary BUSCO PERSONAS: The Faces of Colombia’s War won the audience award for the Short section at the AFI Film Festival awards.

The LA Urban League honored professor Russel Williams with the Whitney Young Award 2009.

Two SOC alumni who double-majored in Business and Film and Media Arts were featured by a local news station on their new movie. Filmmaker Kenton Bartlett (left) and cinematographer John Arturo are working on a drama currently titled “Missing Pieces.” Watch the trailer here.

Pat Aufderheide, SOC prof and director of the Center for Social Media (CSM), has been awarded iDMAa's Career Achievement Award.