News

Alumni Nana Dakin ’18 and Keenan Tyler Oliphant ’21 join Clubbed Thumb’s 2020/2021 Directing Fellowship, held at the Obie winning theatre and mentored by Anne Kaufman, Daniel Aukin, Niegel Smith and Laurie Wooler.

Out of the Past, Into the Future is a bi-weekly series that aims to chronicle a limitless scope of work by Columbia filmmaker’s representative of the past, present, and future.

Associate Professor Miya Masaoka, Director of the Sound Art MFA program, has been awarded a prestigious new Music Commission and residency from EMPAC, the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Three films, written and directed by students and alumni, premiered at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, running September 25 to October 30. They are, Lonely Blue Night, written, directed and edited by alumnus Johnson Cheng '20, produced by alumna Apoorva Charan '18 and associate produced by alumnus Ewing Luo '18Death of Nintendo, written and produced by alumna Valerie Castillo Martinez '16 and edited by alumnus Cyril Aris '17, and Mirror, written and directed by student Christina Yoon and…

Entre tú y Milagros, a short film directed by Mariana Saffon '19, written by Saffon and alumna Nathalie Álvarez Mesén '19, produced by Saffon and student Jorge Granados Ross, associate produced by alumnus Saim Sadiq '19 and edited by alumnus Andrew Stephen Lee '18 continues to make waves on the festival circuit by taking home the Best Narrative Short Film award at the Oscar-qualifying 28th Hamptons International Film Festival.

The Columbia University School of the Arts hosted the third listening party of its 2020 International Play Reading Festival series with May 35th, written by Candace Chong Mui Ngam.

Theatre Program Phase 2 Production Protocols

Acting alumnus Hal Miers ’20 is a series regular on the fifth season of Gabi DeMartino’s Blood Queens and recently wrapped filming on Daniel Roebuck’s Lucky Louie

 

Former Visiting Professor Thomas Elsaesser has a new book, which will be released posthumously in March from Routledge, called The Mind-Game Film. Developed from the course Elsaesser taught at Columbia, The Mind-Game Film was completed by his colleagues and former students, among whom is Adjunct Assistant Professor Seung-hoon JeongJeong came from Korea to teach the course in Spring 2020 after Elsaesser’s passing. This book represents the culmination of Thomas Elsaesser’s intense and passionate thinking about the Hollywood mind-game film from…

Theatre Alumnus Marc Atkinson ’16 was recently awarded the 2020 Gate Bursary from The Gate Theatre, Dublin. The award facilitates the development of new work both at the theatre and remotely. Atkinson will receive institutional support during a year-long residency. 

MFA Film, 1st Year Students, 10-23-2020, Chair Update
Dear Second Year Students. It's been a hectic week as we ready for Fall B. An end of week update:
Still at work on Phase 2, with a lot of focus on the Production Testing Plan. Our new goal date to get Phase 2 approved is Monday, November 16. As promised, I’ll send weekly updates until we get there.

James Cañón was born and raised in Colombia. His debut novel, Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men, has been translated into eleven languages, published in over twenty countries, and was made into a film. It was also selected as one of the “Ten Best Books of the Year” by the American School Library Journal. James has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix du Premier Meilleur Roman Étranger, and the Prix des Lecteurs de Vincennes. His short stories and essays have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies in the US, Mexico,…

Greetings Grads, Welcome to the start of the MFA core curriculum which will begin this Monday 26 October.