First Run Film Festival
The First Run Film Festival is the longest continuously running film festival in New York City. This annual festival is the debut venue for most NYU student films, and many will later go on to screenings at international film festivals, cable television and Sundance. The films are all written and directed by graduate and undergraduate students in the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts.
The weeklong festival kicks off with the Craft Awards ceremony; and culminates in the Wasserman Awards ceremony featuring the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation prizes. They are, for both graduate and undergraduate divisions: 1st place, $10,000; 2nd place, $7,000; and 3rd place, $5,000. In addition, four Wasserman Awards for $2,500 each and underwritten, in part, by the King Family Foundation, will be presented for Best Director and Best Screenplay. These last awards honor the late Lew Wasserman and his wife Edie, generous benefactors of the Tisch School. A distinguished panel of judges representing the film industry will select the winners.
2017 WASSERMAN AWARDS WINNERS
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Graduate First Prize King Award Winner, $10,000
Nicholas Colia, Alex and the Handyman
A precious nine year old boy develops a crush on the moody twenty-five year old handyman who works in the mansion where he lives.
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Graduate Second Prize King Award Winner, $7500
Haley Anderson, Get Out Fast
A narrated character portrait about Coyote Boy, a kid who starts hopping trains after growing bored in his small town and disappearing.
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Graduate Third Prize King Awarad Winner, $5000
Tony Koros, Chebet
A pregnant woman in the Kenyan highlands decides to take drastic action against her alcoholic husband when she finds him passed out in front of their house yet again.
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2017 Wasserman Awards Winners Tisch Asia
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Tisch Asia Award 1st Prize. $10,000
Philip Giordano, Supot
After refusing a ritual intended to usher him into manhood, Rene-boy (10), tries alternate methods to remove this mark of cowardice.
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Tisch Asia Award 2nd Prize, $7500
Anand Kishore, Disco Obu
The relationship between a journalist and his subject, a former Bollywood child star who now drives an autorickshaw, is tested over the course of a day.
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Tisch Asia Award 3rd Prize, $5000
Seran Kim, Kimchi Taco
Traumatized by the brutal murder of her husband in Spanish Harlem, a Korean shopkeeper finds an unexpected ally in a young Mexican woman with a secret.
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Wasserman Award in Directing $2000, Graduate Film
Mamadou Dia for Samedi Cinema
King Award in Screenwriting $2500, Graduate Film
Francesca Mirabella for Modern Love
Wasserman Award in Directing, Graduate Film Tisch Asia
Eric McEver for Paleonaut
Festival Award in Screenwriting $2500, Graduate Film Tisch Asia
Anand Kishore for Disco Obu