Motherland, by Columbia University School of the Arts Film Program alumnus Shariq Siddiqui ('11 SOA) won the Audience Prize for Best Short Film at the first edition of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival. The festival ran June 6 - 12, 2012 in Paris, and was co-presided by actors Lambert Wilson and Michael Madsen.
Two other Audience Prizes were presented at the closing night ceremony on Tuesday evening at the Publicis Cinema—best feature-length film from the USA, was awarded to Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present by Matthew Akers, and best short film from France was awarded to It's a Miracl'House by Stéphane Freiss.
The Champs-Elysées Film Festival, created by Sophie Dulac, included some 50 films and enabled Parisian audiences to discover a variety of productions from France and the United States in the five cinema theaters of the Champs Elysees: the Balzac, Gaumont Champs-Elysées, the Lincoln, the Publicis Cinéma and UGC George V.
Several other Columbia films were screened, including Rolling on the Floor Laughing, by Russell Harbaugh ('11), Crossing by Gina Atwater ('11), Off Season by Jonathan van Tulleken ('10), The Hirosaki Players by Jeff Sousa ('10) and Hatch by Christoph Kuschnig ('12).
