Directing alum Alexander Molochnikov '25 and Creative Producing alum Jean Chapiro '25 won a National Board of Review Student Grant for their short film Extremist. The film, which was written and directed by Molochnikov and produced by Chapiro, follows a young Russian artist as she becomes an activist facing jail time for her stand against the war in Ukraine.
"This is the story of an artist, and thus the world, through the eyes of an artist, which gives me, as a director, the opportunity to showcase the gray reality of war, prison, and judicial Russia through the colorful lens of a bright artist’s consciousness," said Molochnikov.
Extremist won both the Live Action Award and the Special Jury Award at the 2025 BAFTA Student Awards. The film was nominated for a National Board of Review Student Grant after a strong showing at the 2025 Miloš Forman/Mike Hausman Columbia Film Festival, where it won Best Film, Chapiro won the 3Pas Studios Award for Excellence in Producing, and Molochnikov won the James Ponsoldt Award for Best Director.
The National Board of Review has promoted the development of film as art and entertainment since the earliest days of cinema, 1909. The organization was the only major group to award Best Film to pictures like Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard. Their acclaim often presages the Oscars, putting films like Mad Max: Fury Road into awards conversation.
While the National Board of Review has a firm place in cinematic history, the group reaches into the future with its student grant awards, which have gone on to win Student Academy Awards.
"Through the Student Grant Program, The National Board of Review promotes the cinematic future by helping young filmmakers finish their projects and exhibit them around the world at such film festivals as Sundance, Slamdance, Telluride and New Directors/New Films, among others," said the group.
Alexander (Sasha) Molochnikov is a director and writer of theater, film, TV, opera, and ballet. His Bolshoi ballet The Seagull won a Golden Mask Award. After working at the Moscow Art Theater and creating hit works like Tell Her and Monastery, he left Russia for Columbia University after opposing the war in Ukraine.
Jean is a filmmaker and journalist from Mexico. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from The University of Pennsylvania in 2021. She holds an MS in Documentary Journalism from the Columbia Journalism School and an MFA in Creative Producing at Columbia. Her film Hasta Encontrarlos won a Student Academy Award in 2023.
