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Tisch Asia Board of Director Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell has been named a member of President Obama's Arts Committee.
From The New York Times' Art Beat
President Obama has announced three new members to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the committee said on Wednesday. The three new appointees are George Stevens Jr., the founding chief executive of the American Film Institute and producer of the Kennedy Center Honors; Margo Lion, the theater producer whose Broadway credits include “Hairspray,” “Angels in America” and “Jelly’s Last Jam”; and Mary Schmidt Campbell, the chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts and dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Mr. Stevens and Ms. Lion will serve as co-chairs of the committee, which works with federal cultural agencies and in the private and public sectors to further the White House’s cultural objectives, and Ms. Campbell will serve as vice chairwoman. The appointments are effective immediately.
Tisch Asia Cinematography faculty Bobby Bukoskwi’s work wins prize for Oren Moverman’s The Messenger.
Congratulations to Bobby and Oren!
From the AFP:
DEAUVILLE, France — The top prize at the 35th Deauville American Film Festival in France was Sunday awarded to "The Messenger", a movie directed by Oren Moverman about a soldier back from the Iraq war.
Judges gave the Grand Prize to the film which tells the tale of Sergeant Will Montgomery (played by Ben Foster), who is given a tough new job at home after coming back from the frontline.
On his return to the United States, the soldier is handed the task of breaking the news to families when their relatives are killed in combat.
The film revolves around the difficult relationship between Montgomery and the officer who is in charge of training him.
This year's festival in the Channel resort closed Sunday with the awards ceremony where the jury, chaired by "Amelie" director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, selected "The Messenger" from 11 feature-length films.
The festival aims to boost the fortunes of independent American cinema and most of the films shortlisted fell into this category.
"The Messenger", the first film directed by Moverman who was previously known as a screenwriter, also won the international critics' prize at Deauville.
The awards, which attract tens of thousands of film lovers each year, were this year attended by Hollywood stars Meryl Streep, Harrison Ford and Robin Wright Penn.
Tisch Asia Instructor Todd Solondz' latest film Life During Wartime won Best Screenplay at the 66t Venice International Film Festival.
Congratulations Todd!
Below is a full list of the winners:
Venezia 66
- Golden Lion for best film: Lebanon by Samuel MAOZ (Israel, France, Germany)
- Silver Lion for best director: Shirin NESHAT for the film Zanan Bedone Mardan (Women Without Men) (Germany, Austria, France)
- Special Jury Prize: Soul Kitchen by Fatih AKIN (Germany)
- Coppa Volpi for Best Actor: Colin FIRTH in the film A Single Man by Tom FORD (USA)
- Coppa Volpi for Best Actress: Ksenia RAPPOPORT in the film La doppia ora by Giuseppe CAPOTONDI (Italy)
- “Marcello Mastroianni” Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress: Jasmine TRINCAin the film Il grande sogno by Michele PLACIDO (Italy)
- "Osella" for Best Technical Contribution: Sylvie OLIVÉ for the film Mr. Nobody by Jaco VAN DORMAEL (France)
- "Osella" for Best Screenplay: Todd SOLONDZ for the film Life During Wartime by Todd SOLONDZ (USA)
Orizzonti
- Orizzonti Prize to Engkwentro by Pepe Diokno (Philippines)
- Orizzonti Prize for Best documentary to 1428 by DU Haibin (China)
- Special Mention to Aadmi ki aurat aur anya kahaniya (The Man’s Woman and Other Stories) by Amit Dutta (India)
Controcampo Italiano
Controcampo Italiano Prize to: Cosmonauta by Susanna NICCHIARELLI (Italy)
Kodak will offer to the awarded director 40,000 euros in negative film stock - 35 or 16mm, chosen by the winner - to shoot a new feature film.
- Special Mention: Negli occhi by Daniele ANZELLOTTI and Francesco DEL GROSSO (Italy)
Corto Cortissimo (Prizes awarded on 10th September 2009)
- Corto Cortissimo Lion for Best Short Film to Eersgeborene (First Born) by Etienne Kallos (South Africa, USA)
- Venice Nomination to the European Film Awards 2009 to Sinner by Meni Philip (Israel)
- Special Mention to Felicità by Salomé Aleksi (Georgia)
“Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film
- Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film to Engkwentro by Pepe DIOKNO (Philippines) - ORIZZONTI
as well as a prize of 100,000 USD, donated by Filmauro, to be divided equally between director and producer
Persol 3-D Award for the Best 3-D Stereoscopic Film of the Year (Prize awarded on 11th September 2009)
- Persol 3-D Award: The Hole by Joe Dante (USA)
Jaeger-Le Coultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award
to Sylvester Stallone
Tisch Asia's own Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour will be participating in the 2009 Kyoto Filmmakers Lab from September 27 - October 1, 2009.
Emmanuel will get the chance to work with 30 other international filmmakers to participate in workshops about the Japanese film industry presented by local filmmakers. In addition, the participants of the program get to work together as a production team to produce 5 minute short films on the Jidaigeki lots of Toei/Shochiku studios.
Congratulations Emmanuel!
Tisch alumni and Tisch Asia instructor Todd Solondz' Life During Wartime is screening at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend. It's already garnering rave reviews:
"In revisiting his darkly comic 1998 ensembler Happiness, Todd Solondz may have made his best film with Life During Wartime," proposes Todd McCarthy in Variety. "The distinctive, boundary-pushing writer-director has had the eccentric inspiration to resurrect the same central characters a decade later, but using entirely different actors. Winning result, which reels off one riveting scene after another, stands as both a unique sort-of sequel and a film that requires no prior reference points; it's entirely satisfying either way, though even richer if you recall the antecedent."
Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, has announced that the Tisch School will hold its annual gala, This is Tisch!, on Monday, November 2 at the renowned Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. This is Tisch! will honor Academy Award® winning producer Brian Grazer, two-time Academy Award® winning director Ron Howard, Academy Award® and Tony Award® winning actress and Tisch alumna Marcia Gay Harden, arts philanthropist Diana King, and Academy Award®, Emmy Award® and Peabody Award® winning Sheila Nevins, president of HBO Documentary Films.
In addition to a fundraising event and gala dinner, This is Tisch! is a celebration of some of the nation’s most distinguished artists and philanthropists with students and alumni performing live at the Frederick P. Rose Hall. The star-studded performance will be produced by Ken Davenport and directed by Stafford Arima. Past Tisch galas have included performances from Tony Award® winning Broadway shows such as Spring Awakening and from some of the entertainment industry’s most celebrated talent such as Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, Wyclef Jean, Bill Cosby, Elaine Stritch, Raúl Esparza and Jesse L. Martin.
Scheduled award presenters will include the Chairman, CEO & President of Sony Corporation, Sir Howard Stringer, and award-winning director, Spike Lee, both members of the Tisch Dean’s Council, and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner.
“The 2009 gala will raise critical scholarship dollars which will be used to support those students who would not otherwise be able to afford an NYU Tisch education,” said Campbell. “In an ambitious effort to scout new talent as proactively as elite schools scout for members of their athletic teams, the Tisch School is committed to finding, enrolling and retaining the country’s most talented young people, regardless of their ability to pay.”
Honoree Marcia Gay Harden added, “I am very proud to be honored by Tisch on November 2. The education and training that I received there enabled me to find my voice as a young artist and gave me the skill and confidence that I needed to succeed in a very competitive field. What I am most proud of, though, is what Tisch is doing today to reach and enroll those students in this country, and even around the world, who have a great gift, but who are not able to afford or access the fantastic training that I received.”
Student short films from Tisch School of the Arts Asia will be screened at the 2009 Palm Springs International ShortFest on 23-29 June. News of the school's appearance at the film festival has sprung up in hollywoodreporter.com, indiewire.com, and The Desert Sun of Palm Springs.
Tisch Asia student films in the festival are The Smallest Cinema in the Universe by Uta Arning; Jonathan's Home by Nathanael Carton; Alexandria and Master of His Domain by Eric Elofson; Teleglobal Dreamin' by Eric Flanagan; Joyce Agape by Hsieh Chun-Yi; Intersection by Shivani Khattar; Rare Fish (Ikan Langka) by Basil Mironer; Godverdomme! by Rene Pannevis; Double Happiness by Jordan Schiele; Delilah, Before by Melanie Schiele; and Connections International by Putnam Trumbull.
In just four hours, tickets for the exclusive premiere of Oliver Stone’s W. sold out in Singapore. And with word that Stone would appear for a rare question-and-session with the public, fans flocked to the theatre on 14 April 2009.
Stone, who serves as the artistic director for New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia, was in Singapore this week to teach writing and directing workshops for students at the school.
The presentation of W. was made possible by Stone and presented by Tisch School of the Arts Asia and the 22nd Singapore International Film Festival.
Special guests included Pari Sara Shirazi, Ph.D., president, Tisch School of the Arts Asia; Jasmine Ng, Tisch School of the Arts alumna and board of directors, Singapore International Film Festival; and Geoffrey Malone, founder Singapore International Film Festival. Katherine Lindberg, film professor, Tisch School of the Arts Asia, moderated the question-and-answer session.
Invited guests, students and faculty members were on campus for a double-bill screening of The Mudge Boy by Michael Burke, a faculty member from the graduate film and Gone Shopping by Wee Li-lin, a student from dramatic writing on 8 April 2009. Both screenings were followed by a Q&A with the respective directors of the films.
Viewers were curious how Li-lin managed a shoot in Mustafa, a popular 24-hour shopping mall in Singapore that is almost always crowded with people. Just before this screening, Gone Shopping premiered in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. This movie also took part in international film festivals in Hawaii, Puchon, Shanghai, Rome and Hong Kong. Li-lin shared her experience as both the writer and the director of this film and the challenges of working on this film.
The Mudge Boy tells the story of a sensitive boy growing up in a harsh rural environment. The movie is a remake of the short film Fishbelly White by Michael Burke who is an alumnus of Tisch School of the Arts and a faculty member in film at Tisch School of the Arts Asia. The Mudge Boy premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and in 2003 and 2004 it made the rounds at several gay and lesbian and independent film festivals around the United States. The Mudge Boy was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It won a Grand Jury Award LA Outfest.
When Tisch School of the Arts Asia opened, so did a new series of traditions. Each February, first year graduate film students in Singapore and New York meet online for the first time to celebrate 20 of the best short silent (MOS) films made during the fall term. The Second Annual MOS Celebration, held 14 February 2009, is designed to foster collaboration between the artists on both campuses.
Top 20
Earlier in the year, students and faculty voted for the 10 best films from each campus to be screened during the celebration.
Gabrielle Demeestere (New York) The Last Cigarette
Nathanael Carton (Singapore) A Married Woman
James Edward Franco (New York) The Feast of Stephen
Kyle Haskett (Singapore) Dark Country
Ken Ing Kirsten Tan (New York) Cold Noodles
Jordan Schiele (Singapore) Prank
Brantley Jones (New York) Errands
Kenny Gee (Singapore) Meat at Block 320
Nikita Liamzine (New York) Product
Mary Beth Dickerson (Singapore) Embers
Shiva Bajpai (New York) The Singhs
Chun-Yi Hsieh (Singapore) Toy Man
Margaret Shin (New York) People Watching
Anya Hoerlein (Singapore) Anil Goes to Work
Michael Wood (New York) Around the Block
Shi Jie Tan (Singapore) A Bright Bright Afternoon
Hye Mee Na (New York) The Bag
Emmanuel Osei-kuffor (Singapore) When Doors Open
Jose Angel Avila del Pino (New York) Boy Meets Girl
Christopher Broe (Singapore) The Rescuer Hero
What is MOS?
MOS, a common phrase among filmmakers, means without synchronous sound. The MOS shorts are a test of the filmmaker’s ability to tell a story without the use of dialogue.
How Did They Do That?
The 13-hour time difference between Singapore and New York means that most often when one class is working, the other class is sleeping. In this case, exceptions were made. The screening in New York started at 9 p.m., Friday, February 13, and in Singapore, it was already 10 a.m., Saturday morning.
What Did They Learn?
The students learned they have more in common than they initially thought. During the interactive video chat, laughter filled both rooms. A student studying in New York remarked that she had traveled all the way from Singapore to New York for the same education. And, both classes have a student named Ash, who was born in Bombay and raised in the United Kingdom.
A 13-hour time difference did not prevent Jim Taylor, an Academy Award winning writer and alumnus of Tisch School of the Arts, from presenting a lecture to the student body at Tisch School of the Arts Asia, on February 10.
Taylor logged on to Skype and presented the video chat to students, faculty and staff, who packed into the school’s Theatre 2.
Taylor emphasized the importance of collaboration in the writing process, and spoke of his twenty-year partnership with co-writer Alexander Payne.
Stephanie Bousley, second-year film student, especially appreciated hearing from a top-rate writer in the industry. “That’s a path I hope to take; it was great to talk with someone on the writing side of the industry,” she said.
Tisch School of the Arts Asia chosen to host local educators in Art and Music as part of the 2009 Art & Music Conference organized by Singapore’s Ministry of Education.
Forty art and music educators from various schools in Singapore were on campus 3-4 Feb 2009. The Ministry of Education chose NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia as one of the schools to host a panel of Singaporean educators in Art and Music. The conference was organized to inspire and enthuse educators on the values of Arts and Music, create awareness of current trends and innovative practices in the Art and Music scene and to provide avenues for networking and exchange of ideas.
Pari Sara Shirazi, president of Tisch School of the Arts Asia, said “It is important for Tisch School of the Arts Asia to be active citizens in the local arts scene and to be a part of its greater environment. It is even more important that we connect with our other colleagues in the education industry to exchange and inspire one another.”
Visitors got a better understanding of the school’s Master of Fine Arts programs through presentations from each department. Student work was screened, including, Hotballs, a short film by Eric Elofson, a second year film student; a presentation of readings by the students from the Dramatic Writing department; and animation and digital arts projects were screened.
Staff and students at Tisch School of the Arts Asia gathered outside sound stages on 29 Jan 2009 to celebrate Chinese New Year over “lo-hei” and traditional Chinese goodies. For most of the faculty members and students at Tisch School of the Arts Asia, it was their first time celebrating Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year is an important festival for the Chinese. Following the Chinese lunar calendar, the new year is celebrated over the last day of the previous year and first two days of the next year. The “lo-hei” is also popularly known as “yusheng” taken traditionally on the seventh day of Chinese New Year. The yusheng is a teochew (a Chinese dialect group) style raw fish salad created in Singapore by a Chinese chef. It usually consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon) mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients.
Yusheng literally means "raw fish" but has a similar sound to another word which means an increase in abundance. Therefore, yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor. A string of auspicious phrases is often recited when preparing and tossing the salad as high as one can to symbolize good tidings and a good year ahead
At the Tisch School of the Arts Asia celebration, many were really curious how salmon will taste like with Chinese plum sauce, peanuts and preserved red ginger. Others wanted to know what each ingredient symbolized, what was being recited while tossing the salad and why one had toss the yusheng as high as one can.
When Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009, students at Tisch School of the Arts Asia along with faculty, staff, friends and family watched the telecast in Theatre 2.
“It felt good to watch it on big screen, together as a community… it echoes what we saw on the screen at the ceremonies, unity and a sense to community," said David K. Irving, chair, Department of Graduate Film.
This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Tisch School of the Arts Asia in the School News category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
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