Page 67 – NYFA

NYFA Alum Wins ‘Best Feature Film’ at Visions du Réel Competition for Her Film ‘Puntasacra’

New York Film Academy (NYFA) alum Francesca Mazzoleni’s documentary feature length film, Puntasacra wins the ‘Sesterce d’or la Mobilière’ (Best Feature Film) at the 2020 Visions du Réel competition, held virtually from April 17 to May 2.

‘Puntasacra’ (Directed by Francesca Mazzoleni, courtesy of True Colours)

Mazzoleni atteneded the 4-Week Music Video Workshop at NYFA’s New York City campus in 2017. In addition to Puntasacra, Mazzoleni has directed feature film Succede and short films 1989, L’etoile de Mer, Lo so che mi senti, Nowhere, and Il Premio.

Puntasacra, her latest feature, is a documentary that tells the story of the inhabitants of Idroscalo di Ostia, a coastal outer district of Rome and the last portion of habitable land at the mouth of the Tiber, Punta Sacra. With half of the community’s houses destroyed by a fire in 2010, the documentary navigates the daily lives of the coast village’s inhabitants and naturally portrays the conversations between neighbors surrounding communism, familial secrets, and community altercations.

The film was one of 14 feature-length documentaries that were selected for main competition in the prestigious Swiss festival, Visions du Réel, in Nyon (this year online). After winning the Sesterce d’or la Mobilière with a cash prize of CHF 20,000 (£16,657), top Italian sales distributor, True Colours, acquired sales rights for the film.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_vSf3KBaa-/?utm_source=ig_embed

Mazzoleni, who could not be there in person to accept her award since the ceremony was held online, made her own award from the items in her home and thanked her ten-person team, with whom she “shared a very complicated and wonderful adventure”. She also thanked the community of Idroscalo di Ostia who gave her the confidence to make her film. She closed her Instagram acceptance speech by telling her followers, “our journey begins today, be patient, the cinemas will reopen.”

Francesca Mazzoleni behind the scenes of her film ‘Succede’

New York Film Academy would like to congratulate Francesca Mazzoleni on the success of her latest documentary film and her recent win at Visions du Réel, and encourages everyone to check out Puntasacra when it becomes available in theaters or online.

New York Film Academy Student Produces Korean Reality TV Show and Wins Bronze Remi Award at Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival

From K-Beauty to K-Pop, South Korean’s pop culture is taking the world by storm, flooding the internet with the latest YouTube influencers or musical supergroups and artists. New York Film Academy (NYFA) student, Seoyeon Chloe Shin, decided that now more than ever it was time to create a new kind of reality show, one centered around a pop up salon in Vietnam, affording customers the opportunity to transform themselves using K-Beauty techniques.

Seoyeon Chloe Shin is an award-winning director and producer, who has produced and directed more than ten documentaries and 100 TV shows that have been broadcasted nationwide and internationally. For the last 16 years, Shin has worked at Taegu Broadcasting Corporation (TBC), a major local broadcasting corporation located in Daegu, South Korea.

Her show, K-Beauty Salon, was in collaboration with TBC and a local Vietnam TV station. The show went on to win a Bronze Remi Award at Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival in April 2020. Shin has also previously been awarded ‘Best Picture in Local TV Show’ at the Korean Producer Awards (2018) and a ‘Best Picture for Children’ award at the Korean Producer Awards (2017).

Choi Soo Kyung, Ashley – Ladies’ Code, Park Si-hwan, and Cheon Min-kyu

“These days, K-Pop culture is so popular worldwide, including the styles of many K-Pop stars,” says Shin. “I wanted to make a cross-cultural entertainment program in Vietnam about K-Beauty.” The show, K-Beauty Salon, follows top Korean stylists as they spread K-Beauty in Da Nang, Vietnam by setting up a pop-up shop to showcase their outstanding beautician skills and have discussions with local customers who come into the shop along the way.

The cast of characters includes real-life professional stylists and personalities known throughout Korea and internationally including Cheon Min-kyu, a hair designer for various K-Pop stars and Superstar K5 winner and K-Pop singer Park Si-hwan, among others. “These days, entertainment shows should be more internationally focused,” says Shin. “So we planned to use K-Beauty to transform others to look like K-Pop stars.”

Seoyeon Chloe Shin being interviewed for ‘K-Beauty Salon’

Shin, who currently studies in NYFA’s 1-Year Filmmaking Conservatory program, decided to study at NYFA to gain an international perspective and learn the visual aspect of filmmaking in order to hone her craft for future shows and films. According to Shin, being at NYFA is a “good opportunity for me to go back to the basics and enhance my skill to make the show [and all projects] more precise.” She also notes that getting a taste of the other disciplines like acting has been “helpful for me to understand the actors.”

New York Film Academy congratulates Seoyeon Chloe Shin on her Bronze Remi Award and looks forward to seeing her continue to make her own path in international filmmaking for television.

To watch a full episode of K-Beauty Salon, watch the full video below or click here.

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Acting for Film Alum Stars in Fox’s ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Acting for Film alum Ronen Rubinstein stars in Fox’s procedural drama 9-1-1: Lone Star, created by American Horror Story creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.

Rubinstein, who graduated from NYFA in 2013 from a 1-Year Conservatory program for Acting for Film, has also starred in Eliza Hittman’s It Felt Like Love, horror film Some Kind of Hate, and Dude starring opposite Awkwafina and Lucy Hale. Rubinstein also landed a guest star role on an episode of season three for Netflix’s Orange is the New Black.

Rubinstein along with the cast of ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’

9-1-1: Lone Star premiered on January 19, 2020 and was recently renewed for a second season after being declared a hit on the network and receiving a positive response from viewers. The series is a spinoff of 9-1-1, which takes focuses on Los Angeles first responders. In 9-1-1: Lone Star, Rubinstein stars opposite Rob Lowe and Liv Tyler, as Tyler Kennedy “TK” Strand, an openly gay firefighter/paramedic and recovering opioid addict.

The show mainly focuses on Owen, played by Lowe, who is the lone survivor of a Manhattan firehouse following the events of 9/11 and seeks to rebuild his station. After this occurs, he moves to Austin with his troubled firefighter son, played by Rubinstein to help out a new firehouse rebuilding from tragedy. Much like its predecessor 9-1-1, each episode focuses on a different local tragedy or crises revolving around characters in the community.

When asked about what it has been like working with celebrities like Rob Lowe and Liv Tyler, in an interview, Rubinstein responded, “this whole thing is a dream come true. Getting to work with legends like Rob Lowe and Liv Tyler, every time you show up on set you get to learn from [people] who’ve been doing this [acting] for years.“

New York Film Academy would like to congratulate Ronen Rubinstein on the renewal of his show 9-1-1: Lone Star and looks forward to seeing what is next from the NYFA alum.

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Hosts SAGindie Executive Director Darrien Gipson on the State of the Industry During Covid-19

The New York Film Academy recently hosted an Industry Speaker session with the Executive Director of SAGindie, Darrien Gipson. Students and Faculty from all NYFA campuses attended as Gipson addressed the state of the industry during Covid-19. With all sectors of the industry focused on returning to work, it was a prescient discussion moderated by NYFA Producing Chair Neal Weisman.

Gipson spoke of the various protocols that are being proposed once production resumes. While a certain degree of uncertainty prevails, and as the industry awaits government guidelines, a consensus around various parameters is formulating. They include reduced crew sizes, staggered work hours, “pods” of crew alternating on set, various departments working timed shifts, longer days sanctioned by the unions, strict enforcement of social distancing, personal and set/equipment sanitizing regimes, monitoring for symptoms, and isolating actors.

NYFA Producing Chair Weisman with SAGindie’s Darrien Gipson

On a positive note, various “silver linings” are beginning to emerge from the current environment. Smaller productions with lower budgets, like student films and web series, are going to find it easier to handle the logistics and flexibility required to move forward. There will be a great hunger for projects as a result of the freeze on production in effect since March.

The smaller productions that can proceed at a quicker pace than the larger, more cumbersome projects will be better positioned for distribution. Gipson cited that a smaller number of “starry” submissions to festivals like Sundance will enhance the chances of less high profile films obtaining top-tier festival launches. Streaming platforms and other distribution entities will be seeking more product than ever. These observations connected with the NYFA audience as the conversation made it more apparent that there has rarely been a better time for emerging producers, filmmakers, writers, and actors to create content for a voracious audience.

The New York Film Academy has a long standing relationship with SAGindie, and thanks Executive Director Darrien Robbins for her insight and generosity. SAGindie is an invaluable resource for the NYFA community, as they not only assist in navigating the various paths forward working with the Screen Actors Guild, SAGindie will also offer guidance on a host of matters from financing to festival strategies, and more. SAGindie welcomes NYFA students who would like to reach out and learn more.

For more information on SAGindie and how to contact them click here.

The Criterion Channel releases the series “Tell Me: Women Filmmakers, Women’s Stories”

The Criterion Channel has recently made available a collection of films based on the acclaimed series “Tell Me: Women Filmmakers, Women’s Voices,” originally screened at The Metrograph in 2018.

The films, all documentaries, all directed by women, share women’s stories through the startling intimacy that’s created between the subject and the camera. As the films vary from cinéma vérité to essay to agitprop The Metrograph, as one of the few independent theaters left in New York City, presented as an ideal venue for the original series. Known for its atmosphere, it aims to create the ultimate film enthusiast’s space where one can immerse themselves in film alongside movie professionals who screen and discuss their work.

The series adopted an Adrienne Rich quote from Motherhood: The Contemporary Emergency and the Quantum Leap (1979) as it’s raison d’être:

“One of the most powerful social and political catalysts of the past decade has been the speaking of women with other women, the telling of our secrets, the comparing of wounds and sharing of words… In order to change what is, we need to give speech to what has been, to imagine together what might be.”

Curated by Nellie Killian, Tell Me helped to highlight how the film industry has in many ways, failed women. They’re underrepresented as directors and as subjects in film – an issue the New York Film Academy’s 2018 Gender Inequality Infographic explored. These documentaries are so unique in that they are about women by women which give them a different tone and distinctive voice. These stories and the manner in which they’re told are so very different from anything mainstream filmmaking and even, many independent films have released.

While spanning five decades, the films of “Tell Me” have a common thread. They celebrate women filmmakers as well as the women in their films. By simply giving women a safe space to speak of their lives and experience without restraint, the films capture life-long frustrations and injustice painting intimate and complex portraits of its subjects. These groundbreaking films, all from the nineteen-seventies and early eighties, are mostly documentaries that run under 60 minutes.

Among the films in the collection is Growing Up Female (1971), which focuses on the story of six women, ages 4 to 35, and how stereotypes in the media and advertising, and their personal relationships influence their socialization. It offers an interesting insight into how much has changed over time and how much has remained the same.

The Camille Billops and James Hatch short documentary, Suzanne, Suzanne is a multigenerational story. It chronicles the devastation a life of physical and psychological abuse has wrought on a daughter Suzanne, who is a recovering drug addict, and her mother, Billie.

https://youtu.be/bWSPE_T9vXE

In Dis-Moi -Tell Me (1980), whose title inspired the name of the series, the director Chantal Akerman sits with and gives a voice to elderly Jewish women who are all survivors of the Holocaust as they recount their lives and family stories before and during World War II. Akerman’s mother is also featured in the film as she recounts tales of her own family. The film offers an intimate and delicate portrait of the lives of its subjects.

The complete collection of “Tell Me” features the following films:
Growing Up Female (Julia Reichert and Jim Klein, 1971)
Janie’s Janie (Geri Ashur, Peter Barton, Marilyn Mulford, and Stephanie Pawleski, 1971)
Betty Tells Her Story (Liane Brandon, 1972)
It Happens to Us (Amalie R. Rothschild, 1972)
Joyce at 34 (Joyce Chopra and Claudia Weill, 1972)
Yudie (Mirra Bank, 1974)
Chris and Bernie (Bonnie Friedman and Deborah Shaffer, 1976)
Guerillère Talks (Vivienne Dick, 1978)
Inside Women Inside (Christine Choy and Cynthia Maurizio, 1978)
Soft Fiction (Chick Strand, 1979)
Dis-moi (Chantal Akerman, 1980)
I Am Wanda (Katja Raganelli, 1980)
Clotheslines (Roberta Cantow, 1981)
Land Makar (Margaret Tait, 1981)
Audience (Barbara Hammer, 1982)
Suzanne, Suzanne (Camille Billops and James Hatch, 1982)
The Ties That Bind (Su Friedrich, 1985)
Conversations with Intellectuals About Selena (Lourdes Portillo, 1999)
Privilege (Yvonne Rainer, 1990)
The Salt Mines (Susana Aiken and Carlos Aparicio, 1990)
The Transformation (Susana Aiken and Carlos Aparicio, 1995)
Mimi (Claire Simon, 2003)
No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, 2015)
Shakedown (Leilah Weinraub, 2018)

The New York Film Academy encourages everyone to check out Tell Me: Women Filmmakers, Women’s Stories on The Criterion Channel.

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Students and Recent Graduates Accepted Into the Academy Gold Program

The New York Film Academy (NYFA) is excited to announce that ten NYFA students and recent graduates have been accepted into The Academy Gold Program’s Internship Program for the summer. Out of 25 slots, ten NYFA students or recent graduates were selected to be part of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ (AMPAS) prestigious program.

Academy Gold Program official logo card

The Academy Gold Program is a multi-tiered educational and experiential initiative that gives top film entertainment, technology, production services, and digital media companies the opportunity to recruit and educate a nationwide pool of diverse talent. The program offers interns exclusive access to Academy members, screenings, industry professionals, and educational workshops.

Barbara Weintraub, Director of Industry Outreach and Professional Development at NYFA, invited members of the Academy Gold Program to meet with students at NYFA’s Los Angeles campus to explain best practices when applying for the Academy internship. The representatives included Niti Shah (Director, Academy Gold Talent, Development, Inclusion & Alumni Programs) and Bettina Fisher (Director of Educational Initiatives, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).

Scroll down to read more — NYFA students with AMPAS’ Bettina Fisher

During Shah and Fisher’s visit, they gave NYFA students a comprehensive outline of the internship program and the internship disciplines available for students to apply for, including: Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, and Sound. Each discipline is limited to five spots with the entire program only accepting a total of 25 interns.

On May 15, 2020, after a series of interviews, the Academy notified the successful candidates for the Gold Program and extended the offer to join the Academy Gold Program in Summer 2020.

NYFA students who were accepted into the Academy Gold Program include:

YUANHUA (GWENDOLYN) WANG – Sound (MFA Filmmaking, expected graduation Fall 2020)
CATERINA PICCARDO – Production Design (MFA Filmmaking, graduated January 2020)
VERONICA BADELL – Production Design (MFA Filmmaking, graduated January 2020)
JUNKE (COCO) LI – Production Design (MFA Filmmaking, graduated January 2020)
DESTINEE EASLEY – Costume Design (MFA Filmmaking, expected graduation Fall 2020)
GOWTHAM NAMASIVAYAM – Editing (MFA Filmmaking, graduated May 2020)
RODRIGO GOMEZ – Editing (1-Year Filmmaking, expected graduation Fall 2020)
EUNICET PAMELA RUBIO ROJAS – Cinematography (MFA Filmmaking, graduated May 2020)
JUAN SANCHEZ – Cinematography (BFA Filmmaking, graduated January 2020)
MAYUR PATANKAR – Cinematography (MFA Cinematography, expected graduation Fall 2020)

NYFA would like to congratulate its students and recent graduates who worked diligently to apply for the Academy Gold Program and looks forward to following each students’ success as they continue to pursue their careers.

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Alum John Saponara Starts Portrait Series While Working to Make PPE Equipment for Healthcare Workers

From businesses to hospitals to schools to families, COVID-19 has forced people into a season of great change and uncertainty, causing people to adapt to new circumstances in the age of social distancing. For many, this has been a cause for reflection and doing their part to stay alert and distance themselves in public. For others, like NYFA Documentary alum John Saponara, this has been a time of giving back to the community and utilizing creativity to bring awareness and hope to others.

John Saponara grew up in Yonkers, New York, a suburb just outside of New York City and recalls, “from as young as I can remember I wanted to be a photographer.” His photos have since appeared on book covers both nationally and internationally, including the New York Times bestseller Eat Pray Love. He also founded the crowd-sourced project, Picture Black Friday, and his commercial clients include: Sony, Intel, HP, Oprah, and New York Magazine, just to name a few.

A volunteer packing face shields in Bednark Studio (Photo courtesy of John Saponara)

Saponara has been working at Bednark Studio and volunteering his time with other organizations, while also documenting workers and volunteers who continue to make the community safer by providing personal protective equipment (PPE) and additional supplies for individuals and families in the age of COVID-19.

Bednark Studio, a full service fabrication company in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has been Saponara’s source of inspiration for documenting what is happening behind the scenes. “It’s there [Bednark Studio] that my portrait project formed,” he says. The portrait series follows the workers and volunteers who are working day and night to create PPE like face shields for medical workers or dividers for Uber/Lyft drivers.

Portrait of a volunteer in Bednark Studio (Photo courtesy of John Saponara)

“In the portraits, I’m there as a worker, so I do them when I can in my breaks or in a spare moment,” says Saponara. “In both cases, I don’t want to interfere; just be the proverbial fly on the wall.” The photographs are symbols of those who are working behind the scenes in NYC and all over the world, who are actively volunteering their time or working additional hours to provide PPE equipment or additional, essential supplies for others.

Masks for Docs volunteer headed to deliver PPE (Photo courtesy of John Saponara)

Another group Saponara has been volunteering with has been Masks for Docs, formed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “They connect PPE with doctors and medical staff that need it,” he explains. “Motorcyclists help get where it [the supplies] needs to go.” The grassroots organization is composed of volunteers from the tech, business, arts, and members of non-profit communities, who have banded together to make a difference for healthcare workers not only in New York City, but all over the world.

A volunteer for Brooklyn Mutual Aid buying supplies (Photo courtesy of John Saponara)

Saponara also mentions Bushwick Ayuda Mutua, who help “get food on the table of the neediest families in Brooklyn.” In just one weekend alone, Saponara mentions that he and other volunteers were able to feed 200 people in need. “We collect donations of food and money and use those collections to buy groceries that we then deliver to families.”

Saponara says the groups that he has been able to work with and document are “a combination of the private sectors innovation and the power of people and community to get things done to bring about change effectively and efficiently.”

New York FIlm Academy thanks alum John Saponara for his service to the community and for sharing his portrait series, and encourages anyone who is interested in learning more about each organization to click the links above for more information on how to get involved.

To view more images from Saponara’s portrait series and his other works, click here.

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Filmmaking Alumni Direct Music Videos in Collaboration with Josh Homme’s Desert Sessions

New York Film Academy (NYFA) filmmaking alumni Gabriele Fabbro and Jonathan Samukange were given the opportunity to collaborate with Josh Homme’s super group, the Desert Sessions, to create two diverse and unique music videos for two of the tracks off the Desert Sessions’ latest album, Vols. 11 & 12.

The Desert Sessions is a musical supergroup formed by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, who has been hosting his “Desert Sessions” retreats since 1997. Each session involves a different group of well-known musicians mixed with unknown talent, who come together in the desert to simply play music and experiment with new techniques and melodies.

Official photo courtesy of the Desert Sessions musical collective

“It is a really creative project that Jonathan Samukange and I have had the pleasure to be involved in,” says Italian filmmaker and NYFA alum Gabriele Fabbro. “Matador records and Josh Homme reached out to NYFA looking for filmmakers to shoot music videos for their latest album Vols. 11 & 12. We had a great first meeting with Josh [Homme], where he explained the nature of the sessions.” After pitching their ideas for their videos, Fabbro and Samukange were selected by Homme and given a production budget to create two videos for the Desert Sessions.

Still from “If You Run” (Directed by Gabriele Fabbro)

Fabbro’s video, “If You Run,” follows a young woman who witnesses something terrifying in the woods and tries to escape. The director’s inspiration for the video was taken from deadly attacks on European journalists. “I used to read a lot of news about murders,” says Fabbro. “I remember one [story] in particular that happened in a cornfield. That article came to mind while hearing ‘If You Run’.”

Filmmaker and NYFA alum Gabriele Fabbro

“I wanted to play with tension,” says Fabbro. “I wanted a video that would keep the audience at the edge of their seat.” To portray this, Fabbro made sure that every aspect of the video embodied a sense of fear and unease for the viewer “Every tool in the video, from the shakiness of the handheld shots to the distorted sound of the radio, serves to exaggerate this fear.”

The second video created for Desert Sessions was for the song “Move Together,” directed by NYFA Filmmaking alum Jonathan Samukange, who is also known as “Director O.” His video, filmed in his home country of Zimbabwe, is a reimagining of the story of Adam and Eve. The video enlisted residents of an entire village and utilized the region’s stunning natural landscape to create “a time capsule” and hallucinatory trip through time.

“Move Together” (Directed by Jonathan Samukange)

Before being involved with the project, Samukange says he wasn’t planning on staying in the U.S because his vision is to “change the face of cinema in Africa and bring new opportunities.” When he initially pitched his vision for the video, he knew it could only be filmed in his home country of Zimbabwe. “It was a huge risk, but I believed in my heart that the people in Africa have a lot to offer and that’s what I was bringing to the table.”

Filmmaker and NYFA alum Jonathan Samukange

When asked about his vision for the video, Samukange stated, “the theme of love and working together [in the lyrics] as well as the conflict that comes with such connections took me back to the time of Adam and Eve.” He explained that their love “created conflict in their lives and they still stayed together through thick and thin.” He wanted his audience to also feel the attraction of opposites and conflict by combining two opposite elements for the video. “I immediately fell in love with the idea of fusing rock and Afro House dance moves. In my opinion, when cultures clash, new relationships and ideas form.”

New York Film Academy would like to congratulate both Gabriele Fabbro and Jonathan Samukange on the release of their videos for Desert Sessions and looks forward to seeing what both alums will come out with next. NYFA also encourages everyone to check out Desert Sessions Volumes 11 & 12, out now, on Matador Records.

NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY (NYFA) STUDENTS AND RECENT GRADUATES ACCEPTED INTO THE ACADEMY GOLD PROGRAM

The New York Film Academy (NYFA) is excited to announce that ten NYFA students and recent graduates have been accepted into The Academy Gold Program’s Internship Program for the summer. Out of 25 slots, ten NYFA students or recent graduates were selected to be part of the prestigious educational program hosted by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Academy Gold Program official logo card

The Academy Gold Program is a multi-tiered educational and experiential initiative designed by AMPAS that gives top film entertainment, technology, production services, and digital media companies an all-inclusive pass to recruit and educate a nationwide pool of diverse talent. The program offers interns exclusive access to Academy members, industry professionals, screenings, and educational workshops, allowing NYFA students and recent grads the opportunity to continue to hone their craft.

Barbara Weintraub, Director of Industry Outreach and Professional Development at NYFA, invited members of the Academy Gold Program to meet with students at NYFA’s Los Angeles campus to explain best practices when applying for the Academy internship. The representatives included Niti Shah (Director, Academy Gold Talent, Development, Inclusion & Alumni Programs) and Bettina Fisher (Director of Educational Initiatives, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).

New York Film Academy Named by Variety as a Best Film School of 2018 — NYFA students with AMPAS’ Bettina Fisher

The room was packed by NYFA students with Shah and Fisher detailing the internship program and outlining the different internship disciplines: Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, and Sound. Each discipline is limited to five spots with the entire program only accepting a total of 25 interns.

On May 15, 2020, after a series of interviews, the Academy notified the successful candidates for the Gold Program and extended the offer to join the Academy Gold Program in Summer 2020.

NYFA students who were accepted into the Academy Gold Program include:

YUANHUA (GWENDOLYN) WANG – Sound (MFA Filmmaking, expected graduation Fall 2020)
CATERINA PICCARDO – Production Design (MFA Filmmaking, graduated January 2020)
VERONICA BADELL – Production Design (MFA Filmmaking, graduated January 2020)
JUNKE (COCO) LI – Production Design (MFA Filmmaking, graduated January 2020)
DESTINEE EASLEY – Costume Design (MFA Filmmaking, expected graduation Fall 2020)
GOWTHAM NAMASIVAYAM – Editing (MFA Filmmaking, graduated May 2020)
RODRIGO GOMEZ – Editing (1-Year Filmmaking, expected graduation Fall 2020)
EUNICET PAMELA RUBIO ROJAS – Cinematography (MFA Filmmaking, graduated May 2020)
JUAN SANCHEZ – Cinematography (BFA Filmmaking, graduated January 2020)
MAYUR PATANKAR – Cinematography (MFA Cinematography, expected graduation Fall 2020)

NYFA student Mayur Patankar, who was selected for the Cinematography internship program with the Academy Gold Program, shared, “I am so excited for the future training and opportunities.” Recent graduate Juan Sanchez told NYFA that getting into the program is “wonderful news” and that the program would begin this summer via Zoom before returning to practical sessions in the fall.

NYFA would like to congratulate its students and recent graduates who worked diligently to apply for the Academy Gold Program and looks forward to following each students’ success as they continue to pursue their careers.