Columbia Wraps New Works Fest

by Mark Rabinowitz

Columbia University wrapped up its '98 Polo Ralph Lauren New Works Festival, by presenting several awards to students in the Graduate Film Division, including three sponsored by Polo Ralph Lauren and three by New Line Cinema, totaling $40,000. Four of these sponsored awards went to the director of the film, while the remaining two awards (one from each sponsor) were given as development awards to two teams of writer/director/producers.

The Ralph Lauren awards were Best Film, presented to Lisa Collins for "Tree Shade" and Best Screenplay to Perry Lin for "17 Years to Earth." The New Line awards went to Most Original Film, "Siesta" by Julia Solomonoff and Best Director to Amy Talkington for "Second Skin." Talkington told indieWIRE that she was "very thrilled" to win the award, adding that it was for a film made in part using the development award she won last year at the 1997 New Works fest. Talkington also won a 1997 award for her previous short, "Number One Fan." The award winning films will be screened in Los Angeles on May 11th at Paramount Pictures.

Other awards handed out included the REI Media Group Award for Editing (Jennifer Atkins, "The Deep End"), Best Screenplay (Shuping Roman, "The Widow"), the Frank Daniell Award for exceptional work in screenwriting to Svea Vocke and the Best Film of the Night, which went to Caroline Kava ("Number One"), Rona Mark ("The Final Days of the Ministry of Tea") and Shari Rothfarb ("Fur").

At press time the Polo Ralph Lauren New Works Festival FILMMAKER Magazine Audience Award winners were not available. However, they will be screened in New York on May 4th from 5-7pm at the Screening Room in lower Manhattan. <

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