Chris Columbus/Richard Vague Film Production Fund Awards Winners Set

The Kanbar Institute of Film, TV & New Media at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts has announced the three winners of the 2011 Chris Columbus/Richard Vague Film Production Fund awards. The awards support recent alumni and thesis students of The Kanbar Institute's graduate and undergraduate divisions, enabling talented young artists to create their first feature films. The three awards totaled $225,000 to cover production costs for the winning film projects.

This year's winners are:
Nicholas Brennan (BFA, 2010) for Hard Rock Havana, a documentary that follows Cuba's most popular heavy metal band, Zeus.
Alexandra "Sasha" Gordon (MFA, 2010) for It Had To Be You, a romantic comedy about a New York jingle writer on a journey of self-discovery.
Chloe Zhao (MFA, 2012) for Lee, the story of a daring Lakota boy on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

"The program is as nurturing as it is challenging, said Zhao. "Tisch has the best faculty and peers I can [only] dream of."

"I've never been so impressed by such an amazing crop of brilliant screenplays," said Chris Columbus (BFA, 1980), Tisch alumnus and acclaimed filmmaker behind hits such as Home Alone (1990), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and most recently The Help (2011). "We've seen it all this year, and I think we've seen some of the best projects yet." Columbus said the program is growing due to the major successes of recent winners.

Richard Vague, venture capitalist and founder of the fund, added, "The quality of the scripts this year was unbelievable. It was a difficult decision."

Past winners include Andrew MacLean (MFA, 2008) and Dee Rees (MFA, 2007), who used their awards to make On the Ice and Pariah. Both films were featured at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011. Rees' Pariah, the opening film at Sundance, will be released in theatres nationwide in December 2011 by Focus Features. MacLean's On the Ice went on to win Best First Feature at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2011.

"This process is exciting for us because we get to see what contributions the next generation of filmmakers are going to make." said Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell, who is celebrating her 20th year as head of Tisch School of the Arts.

To be considered for the Chris Columbus/Richard Vague Film Production Fund, Tisch alumni and thesis filmmakers submit a completed script, proposed budget and production schedule. In the final round, the strongest applicants are asked to pitch their films to a jury that includes Columbus and Vague.

About Tisch School of the Arts
For more than 40 years, Tisch School of the Arts has drawn on the vast resources of New York City and New York University to create an extraordinary training ground for the individual artist and scholar of the arts. Students learn their craft in a spirited, risk-taking environment that combines the professional training of a conservatory with the liberal arts education of a major research university.

As one of the nation's leading centers of undergraduate and graduate study in the performing and cinematic arts, Tisch offers programs of study that incorporate state-of-the-art facilities; a collaboratively oriented community of award-winning faculty members; internship opportunities with established professionals; and the incomparable artistic and cultural resources of New York City. Learn more at www.tisch.nyu.edu.