Documentary makers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater received a Pew Fellowship for their international award winning social documentaries focusing on women’s lives.
Long Cheng edited Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower which received seven international festival awards and 15 nominations including one Oscar nomination. He edited Yimou’s Riding Alone for a Thousand Miles which was named “Best Asian Film”at the 2007 Hong Kong Film Awards, and “Best Foreign Film” at the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards. Prior to that he edited the Academy Award nominated House of Flying Daggers and was personally nominated for a British Academy Award, the BAFTA Award, the OFSC Award, and the Satellite Award for Best Editing. Long has recently completed editing a project for director John Woo.
Gary Dauberman is working with director-producer Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) on a film adaptation of DC Comics’ Deadman for Warner Brothers.
Brothers of the Head directed by Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe received the “Best British Feature Film Award” at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film’s screenplay is by Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) and features Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean), Ken Russell (as himself), and introduces the Treadaway twins. Brothers of the Head received the Special Jury Prize from the Boston Independent Film Festival, and was an Official Selection at the British Independent Film Awards, Toronto International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Philadelphia Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Melborne International Film Festival, Sofia International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival (London), Tribecca Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, and the Independent Spirit Awards.
Joe Gatta, head of Millennium Films, has optioned the mystery Bangkok 8 and signed James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) to direct.
William Goldenberg edited National Treasure: Book of Secrets starring Nicolas Cage, Gone Baby Gone directed by Ben Affleck, Domino directed by Tony Scott starring Keira Knightley, and Miami Vice directed by Michael Mann for which Goldenberg was nominated for the 2006 Satellite Best Film Editing Award.
Derek Guiley, writer of Chasing Liberty, is co-screenwriter of The Krazees starring Robin Williams.
Wolfgang Held was Director of Photography for Disappearances starring Kris Kristofferson and Camera Operator on the dramatic feature Down in the Valley starring Ed Norton. He served as DP on the documentaries American Teen Movie, Nimrod Nation, and Crazy Love (nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival), and was Director of Photography for the fiction film Teeth, awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
Cheryl Hess received Pew Fellowships in Media Arts. Her documentary La Promesa, filmed in Cuba, received “Best Documentary” awards at the Philadelphia International Film Festival, the Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, the Big Muddy Film Festival, and was an Official Selection at SilverDocs, the Boston Latino International Film Festival, the Latin American Film Festival in London, and the Tribeca Film Festival.
David Jacobson's third feature as writer-director Down in the Valley stars Ed Norton, David Morse and Bruce Dern. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to strong international reviews, opened to national theatrical release in 2006, and aired on Showtime in 2007. David has been signed by Columbia Pictures to direct and develop Roadside Picnic based on the book by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky.
Producer Ross Katz (nominated for Oscars for In the Bedroom and Lost in Translation) visited several FMA classes in April and was hosted by his former professors David Parry and Allan Barber. His latest production Marie Antionette directed by Sophia Coppola received an Academy Award in 2007 for Best Costume, as well as three BAFTA nominations, a Goth Award nomination, and was an Official Selection & Golden Palm nominee at the Cannes Film Festival where it received the Cinema Prize of the French National Education System. Ross is helping to place FMA students in significant internship positions in the film industry.
Jan Krawitz' documentary Big Enough was aired nationally on PBS on P.O.V. and broadcast internationally in Australia, ABC Asia, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Israel and Gaza, Latvia, and Croatia. Big Enough received the Cine Golden Eagle, First Prize at the East Lansing Film Festival, First Prize at the Carolina Film Festival, the Video Librarian’s Best Documentaries Award, The Heart of the Festival Award at the Vermont International Film Festival and recognition at over two dozen other festivals.
Srinivas Krishna wrote and directed the feature film A Tryst With Destiny a thriller set in 1940s India. directed the pilot episode of Spicy Fusion for the Showcase Channel, and developed a four-hour dramatic mini-series Silent Witness for Canadian television based on the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182. His first professional feature, Masala, completed as part of his MFA thesis in the 1990s was recently voted among the best South Asian films of the 20th century by the British Film Institute.
Chris Manley was the Director of Photography for the feature films Gracie (a winner in the 2007 Heartland Film Festival) and Hollywood Horror, plus an episode of Drive and eleven episodes of the TV series Prison Break.
Larry Mcconkey was camera operator on American Gangster directed by Ridley Scott starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, The Good Shepherd directed by Robert DeNiro starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, The Hoax starring Richard Gere, The Return starring Sam Shepherd, and The Black Dahlia directed by Brian DePalma. McConkey’s camerawork graces classics like Kill Bill, Vanilla Sky, Three Kings and Goodfellas.
Zilan Munas received the 2006-07 Leeway Foundation Transformation Award for her documentary films on American converts to Islam and on the tsunami that killed over 44,000 Sri Lankans and left 900,000 homeless.
Rich Murray wrote and produced the hip-hop feature Death Before Dishonor directed by Peter Torres starring Ja Rule, and produced the feature films Menace and Money Power Respect.
Josh Olsen was nominated for both the American and British Academy Awards in Screenwriting for A History of Violence starring William Hurt and Ed Harris. The film was recipient of “Best Feature Film” awards from the Bodil Toronto Film Critics Association, Ohio Film Critics Association, Online Film Critics Society, Directors Guild of America, a National Society of Film Critics Award, and “Best Foreign Film” awards from the French Syndicate of Film Critics and the Sant Jordi Awards. Josh is currently working on the feature film Until Gwen as its writer/director, and the feature screenplay adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's Monster for New Line Cinema.
Jason Pinardo was location manager for Cover starring Louis Gosset Jr., and location manager for ten episodes of the TV series What Goes On.
Thamrong Prinyaknit was director of special effects for the feature film Ruang Rak Noi Nid Mahasan which received the Grand Jury Prize as “Best Asian Film” from the Fant-Asia Festival, the AQCC Award, the Bangkok International Film Festival Prize, the Thailand International Film Association Award, the Upstream Prize at the Venice Film Festival and numerous other awards and nominations.
Kimi Takesue received both the Guggenheim Fellowship in Film and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Film. Her 35mm featurette Summer of the Serpent has received international recognition at festivals in Rotterdam, Créteil France, Brisbane, Vancouver, the Hamptons, Singapore, Kerala India, Tampere Finland, Galgary, Shanghai, Greece, Cork, Ireland, Toronto, and the Grand Jury Prize of the Brooklyn International Film Festival. She is currently developing a feature-length film project with Vox3 Films.
Shanti Thakur received the International Feature Project Impulse Fellowship and is developing a feature entitled Pulse. She recently accepted a faculty position at Hunter College.
Leo Trombetta was the editor of Little Children starring Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly which was nominated for three Academy Awards. Little Children was Iowa Film Critics Best Picture of the year, San Francisco Film Critics Best Picture, and received Best Picture of the Year nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, London Critics and was on top 10 lists throughout the country. Leo also edited the pilot film for the HBO series Big Love starring Bill Paxton, Chole Sevigny and Harry Dean Stanton. A cover story on Leo Trombetta’s editing appeared in Videography spring 2007.
Adam Trunell was named a 2006 Feature Writing Fellow with Walt Disney Studios/ABC Television in partnership with the Writers Guild of America.
Julia Wang is editor of Good Luck Chuck starring Jessica Alba.