Columbia Filmmakers Screen at 60th New York Film Festival

Three films worked on by Columbia filmmakers have been selected to screen at the 60th New York Film Festival, which began on September 30 and will run through October 16, 2022.

Presented by Film at Lincoln Center, the New York Film Festival (NYFF) highlights the best in world cinema. An annual bellwether of the state of cinema that has shaped film culture since 1963, the festival continues a long-standing tradition of introducing audiences to bold and remarkable works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent.

Same Old, directed by Lloyd Lee Choi and produced by alumnus Tony Yang '20 will make its New York premiere at NYFF on October 10 as part of the festival’s New York Shorts Program. The film takes place in post-pandemic Manhattan and follows a Chinese immigrant working nights as a delivery worker whose world begins to unravel: his e-bike is stolen, and with it, his livelihood. In inky night scenes and desaturated neon, Same Old captures the precarity of life on the city’s social and economic margins. The film was recently awarded an Honorable Mention for the IMDbPro Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Same Old previously screened in the Short Films Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was selected from over 3,500 submissions. Current Film Program student Ricardo Varona served as the grip on the short as well.

Tony Yang is a Chinese-American film producer based in New York City. He has produced three feature films and over twenty short films including Leotard, Snow Queen, Alice, Tin Elephant, Man Of War, and Pettinga’s We Don’t Eat. His films have screened at numerous festivals including the Traverse City Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival, Chelsea Film Festival, Oceanside International Film Festival, Austin Spotlight Film Festival, and Miami International Film Festival. In addition to his film producing, Yang has also worked on several TV series, including The Get Down (Netflix), Mating (Showtime), and Agent Carter (ABC).

Alumna Cheryl Wang ’22 served as the music coordinator for Armageddon Time. Written and directed by James Gray (Ad Astra, The Immigrant), Armageddon Time is set in 1980 Queens, against the backdrop of a country on the cusp of ominous sociopolitical change. The film follows Paul Graff (Banks Repeta), a sixth grader who dreams of becoming an artist. At the same time that Paul builds a friendship with classmate Johnny (Jaylin Webb), who’s mercilessly targeted by their racist teacher, he finds himself increasingly at odds with his parents (Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway), for whom financial success and assimilation are key to the family’s Jewish-American identity. Paul feels on firmest ground with his kind grandfather (Anthony Hopkins), whose life experiences have granted him a weathered compassion. Rejecting easy nostalgia for a more difficult, painful form of recall, Gray’s film—shot with intimate naturalism by Darius Khondji—is a perceptive and humane coming of age story that does what only cinema can do, elevating the smallest moments into the greatest drama.

Cheryl Wang is a Chinese filmmaker based in New York. With a background in finance and accounting, she launched her career at major film studios like DreamWorks. Wang produces short films, commercials, and documentaries. She also works in music supervision, recent projects including X (A24) and The Last Movie Stars (CNN/HBO Max).

Alumna Holly Andrews ’22 worked on The Inspection, a new film from A24 that will have its US premiere at NYFF on October 14, 2022. Andrews served as Director’s Assistant to filmmaker Elegance Bratton on the project. The Inspection is a knockout drama based on Bratton’s own experiences as a gay man in Marine Corps basic training following a decade of living on the streets. Tony– and Emmy–nominated actor Jeremy Pope is run through an emotional and physical gauntlet as a young man dealing with the intimidation of a sadistic sergeant (Bokeem Woodbine), his desire for a sympathetic superior (Raúl Castillo), and his complicated feelings toward the mother who rejected him (Gabrielle Union).

Holly Andrews is a graduate of the Creative Producing program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts. Prior to Columbia, she served in the United States Marine Corps in Japan, Malta, Indonesia, and Rwanda with the US State Department. She has produced multiple short films in New York City. She has a degree in Political Science and Sociology from Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Click here to see the complete list of this year’s New York Film Festival lineup.