NYU Announces Wasserman Winners

by indieWIRE

The 56th Annual First Run Festival culminated on Saturday, with the presentation of the 1998 Wasserman Awards for outstanding filmmaking among undergraduate and graduate filmmaking students at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In addition, two student screenwriters were honored with the New York Picture Company Awards. First Prize awards of $1,000 went to graduate student Joel Hopkins for his 29-minute film "Jorge" and undergraduate Aaron Cohen for his 27-minute film "The Census Taker."

Graduate student Patrick Cady and undergraduate Vilka Tzouras took home the second prize of $750 each for their films "Gossamer" and "Soldier's Bride," respectively, while graduate Greg Pak ("Fighting Grandpa") and undergrad Wi Ding Ho ("Still") picked up the third place prize of $500. The New York Picture Company Awards for Best Comedy and Best Drama in screenwriting were given to Jason Greiff for his comedy "Grandma's Departure," while the best drama screenplay award went to Joe Meyer for "One of Us."

In a prepared statement Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of the Tisch School of the Arts congratulated the winners and filmmakers who screened at First run, adding, "The future of American Filmmaking resides not only in the evolution of technology but in the telling of stories that spring from every culture and every community." She continued, "The range and power of this year's stories is certainly a credit to the Tisch school's tradition of excellence."

Presenting the awards were former Wasserman Award winner writer/director Nancy Savoca (NYU grad, 1982; "True Love," "Dogfight") and director Chris Eyre (NYU grad student) who's thesis film, "Smoke Signals," won the Filmmakers Trophy and Dramatic Audience Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Jurors for this year's awards included The Shooting Gallery's Larry Meistrich, screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi ("Goodfellas," "Casino") and Sandra Forman from the Directors Guild of America.

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The First Run Festival is a yearly event comprising of a week-long series of public screenings of over 100 short films and videos made by NYU's graduate and undergraduate students, ending in the Wasserman Awards, named for Edie and Lew Wasserman, long-time benefactors of the Tisch School. Lew is former chairman of MCA/Universal. Login to recommend this article » posted on April 6, 1998 Films to Snag Login to Leave a Comment »