RTF students win major competitions

In the past year, RTF students have been winning some of the biggest film competitions—both nationally and internationally.

Annie Silverstein and Monique Walton

Writer/director Annie Silverstein (MFA 2013) and producer Monique Walton’s (MFA 2013) short narrative, SKUNK (made during their last year in RTF), won first prize at the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation Selection program, beating out over 1600 films from around the world. SKUNK also swept the 2014 British Academy of Film and Television Arts – Los Angeles student awards, winning both the Special Jury and Audience prizes. http://austin.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/05-22-14-austin-film-student-annie-silverstein-win-cannes-film-festival/

Elizabeth Chatelain’s (MFA 2013) thesis, MY SISTER SARAH, about her sister’s meth addiction, won the top student documentary prize from the International Documentary Association. http://moody.utexas.edu/news/radio-tv-film-mfa-student-wins-international-documentary-association-david-l-wolper-student

Beth Chatelain

At the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Los Angeles, Brian Schwarz’s (MFA 2012) thesis film, OL’ DADDY, won the Gold Medal in the narrative category in the 2013 Student Academy Awards.  http://www.utexas.edu/know/2013/06/03/and-the-student-academy-award-goes-to/

Ph.D. student Paul Monticone won first-place in the 2014 Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) Student Writing Award competition, for his essay, “Useful Cinema, of Limited Use?: Assessing the Role of Motion Pictures in the Largest Public Relations Campaign of the 1920s.” http://rtf.utexas.edu/news/media-studies/phd-student-paul-monticone-wins-2014-scms-student-writing-award

MFA student Amanda Gotera won the prestigious Princess Grace Award: http://rtf.utexas.edu/news/mfa-student-amanda-gotera-wins-princess-grace-award

PhD candidate Lokeilani Kaimana won and accepted the Five College Pre-Dissertation Fellowship for the 2014-15 academic year. http://rtf.utexas.edu/news/media-studies/phd-candidate-lokeilani-kaimana-wins-five-college-pre-dissertation-fellowship

At the 2013 International Communication Association Conference, Sujin Choi (PhD ’12) and Yoonmo Sang (PhD Candidate) won top papers. Choi won for the Korean American Communication Association session of the conference, and Sang won for the Communication and Technology Division, with a co-authored paper titled "Profiling Opinion Leaders in Twitter Discussion Network: The Case of the Wisconsin Recall Election." http://rtf.utexas.edu/news/media-studies/rtf-media-studies-scholars-present-2013-ica-conference

Claire Lee (Ph.D. student) and recent alum, Ji-Hyun Ahn (Ph.D. ’13), co-authored a paper that the won “Top Sudent Paper Award” at the National Communication Association (NCA) 99th Annual Convention—“Your National Identity Will Be Televised: Television Viewing and New Media Use among South Korean International Students in the United States."

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