The Legacy of Milos Forman
In 1978, esteemed director Milos Forman and his Screenwriting mentor Frank Daniel were appointed co-chairs of the Film Program. Under their leadership, the program flourished and became the world-renowned institution of film education that it is today. In many ways, Forman was the "creative founder" of Columbia Film, having shaped and refined its commitment to narrative filmmaking anchored in strong screenplays. He gave it a character as distinct as his own—original, passionate, intelligent, and international.
News
The National Board of Review (NBR), a New York City-based nonprofit for film enthusiasts, has announced its 2026 Student Grant recipients, honoring 17 emerging student filmmakers from eight New York-area film programs and universities, including two Columbia filmmakers.
Adjunct Assistant Professor Deborah Devyn Chuang '26 is a recipient of the 2026 New Voices Filmmaker Grant for emerging directors from NewFest, New York City's largest LGBTQ+ film festival since 1988.
Film alum Annie Ning '25 is a 2026 recipient of the highly prestigious Cary Grant Film Honor from the Princess Grace Foundation, which she was nominated for by Columbia University. Among the runners-up for the award was Undergraduate Film and Media Studies alum María del Mar Rosario (GS '15), who was nominated by 2018 Princess Grace Award winner Rafael Samanez and received a Film Honoraria from the foundation.
The new sci-fi thriller, The End of Oak Street, written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, produced by Bad Robot and Jackson Pictures, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, featured work from Directing alum Sushant Chaudhary '21, who joined the team as Assistant Editor to John Axelrad, ACE.
On July 8, 2026, the Television Academy revealed its nominations for the 78th annual Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards—and Columbia alums were all over the list. Let's break it down.
Executive produced by Film alum Simon Kinberg '03, Apple TV's latest dark comedy Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed has received positive reviews from The Hollywood Reporter, Collider, and Vulture.
Smriti Mundhra '09—the DGA-winning, two-time Oscar-nominated, and Emmy-nominated filmmaker who created Netflix's hit Indian Matchmaking—is among the group of 12 renowned screenwriters selected for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, set to take place June 29–July 2, 2026.
Film alum Jeremy Robbins '13 wrote Apex—a lean action film starring Charlize Theron as a wilderness climber and kayaker hunted by a single-minded killer (Taron Egerton) in the Australian outback—because he wanted to watch it.
La Mar, a stunningly intimate account of community resilience by Mexican filmmaker, journalist, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, Jean Chapiro '25, has been longlisted for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Student Awards.
This Is Who We Are is a series featuring Columbia University School of the Arts' professors, covering careers, pedagogy, and art-making. Here, we talk with Directing Concentration Head and Professor of Professional Practice Bette Gordon about artistic freedom, learning through experimentation, and why curiosity and play remain the guiding pillars of her filmmaking practice and her pedagogy as a teacher.
An interview with producer and Undergraduate Film alum Gabriel Mayers (CC '17).
The Son-in-Law (El yerno), produced and co-written by Professor of Professional Practice in Film and Media Studies James Schamus, hit Netflix on May 1, 2026.
