Alumni Cherien Dabis ’04 to Receive Andrew Sarris Award at CUFF

April 19, 2021
Cherien Dabis

The Columbia University Film Festival (CUFF) will present its annual Andrew Sarris Award to Palestian-American filmmaker and Film Program alumna Cherien Dabis ’04. Dabis is a Cannes-winning filmmaker who has in recent years directed acclaimed television series for Netflix, Hulu, Fox, Showtime, ABC, and elsewhere. The Sarris Award, named for the late School of the Arts Film Program professor and world-renowned critic and theorist Andrew Sarris, honors outstanding service and artistic achievement of distinguished Film Program alumni.

The annual Andrew Sarris Award winner is selected by current School of the Arts Film Program students. Past recipients include Phil Johnston ’04 (ZootopiaWreck-It Ralph), Laura Ricciardi ’07 and Moira Demos ’08 (Making a Murderer), Benjamin Odell '04 (How to be a Latin Lover, Overboard), Kathryn Bigelow ’81 (The Hurt LockerZero Dark Thirty), James Ponsoldt ’05 (SmashedThe Spectacular Now), Jennifer Lee ’05 (FrozenA Wrinkle in Time), James Mangold ’99 (LoganWalk the Line), Kimberly Peirce ’96 (CarrieBoys Don’t Cry), Simon Kinberg ’03 (LoganDeadpool), Lisa Cholodenko ’97 (Olive Kitteridge,The Kids Are All Right), Albert Berger ’83 (NebraskaLittle Miss Sunshine), Nicole Holofcener ’88 (Enough SaidPlease Give), Malia Scotch Marmo ’88 (RafinaMadelineHookOnce Around), Greg Mottola ’91 (Superbad), Sabrina Dhawan ’02 (Monsoon Wedding), Adam Davidson ’91 (The Lunch DateSix Feet UnderLostCommunity), and Shari Springer Berman ’95 and Robert Pulcini ’94 (American Splendor).

Dabis is an award-winning narrative film and television writer, director and actor. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Palestinian immigrant parents and raised between small town Ohio and Amman, Jordan. Studying dance and theater in her youth, she went on to earn her MFA in film from Columbia University.

 

Her feature films Amreeka (2009) and May in the Summer (2013), in which she made her acting debut, both had their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival. Amreeka went on to win the coveted FIPRESCI International Critics Prize at Cannes as well as a dozen more international awards. It was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, three Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture, and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. Dabis is currently in development on her third feature What the Eyes Don’t See, a 2020 Athena List winner and recipient of the 2018 Sundance Sloan Commissioning grant. The script is an adaptation of The New York Times notable book by the same name. Anonymous Content is producing.

Dabis has worked extensively in television as a writer/producer and director. Her credits include Showtime’s original groundbreaking series The L Word, USA Network’s The Sinner, Fox’s Empire and Netflix’s Ozark. She’s also a co-executive producer and director on Hulu’s critically acclaimed Ramy, the first half hour Arab American comedy on television. She has several projects in development, including a pilot for Wiip Studios and State Street Pictures. Dabis is the recipient of dozens of grants and fellowships from Creative Capital, Guggenheim, USA Rockefeller, Tribeca Film Institute, New York Foundation for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, National Geographic and the New York State Council on the Arts. She is an alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Film Independent Directors Lab and Tribeca All Access. She has been an advisor for the Sundance Screenwriters Labs in both Turkey and Jordan and has returned several times to teach in the graduate film program at her alma mater Columbia University.

This year’s festival will take place virtually via the online platform Filmocracy. The festival will open with Screenwriting Night on Friday, April 23 at 7 pm ET. Dabis will accept the Sarris Award as part of the opening night event.

Visit the CUFF website for up-to-date information and additional events, as well as a full list of festival films, synopses, filmmaker bios, and ticket information.