Documentary pioneer Fred Wiseman picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award, and numerous LMU students were honored for their work at the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television’s 2010 Film Outside the Frame festival this weekend.
The event, held Saturday Oct. 16 at the Paramount Pictures lot in Hollywood, also honored writer-directors Jay and Mark Duplass and cinematographer Wally Pfister with the Breakthrough in Filmmaking and Distinguished Cinematography awards, respectively.
“Film Outside the Frame is the perfect setting to honor prominent artists in areas where so many of our students are focused: documentaries, independent film and cinematography,” said Stephen Ujlaki, dean of the School of Film and Television. “The honorees are inspirations for our students, and indeed for anyone creating projects that matter.”
“Cowboys and Indians,” directed by George Valos and produced by Nikos Bellas and Jesse Morrison, was named Best Picture. William Carnahan received a Panavision camera package valued at $65,000 as winner of the Best Cinematography award for his work on “The Cave.” The Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave students Joe Taranto, Sheila Flores and Anayo Amuzie $5,000 each to finance their film production work this year.
The three-time Emmy-winning Wiseman has been making documentaries since 1967. The week of the awards, he taught a master class on visual literacy and screened his most recent work, “La Danse – Le Ballet de L’Opera de Paris,” at LMU.
Pfister has been director of photography on all six of director Christopher Nolan’s films, beginning with “Memento” and including both recent Batman films and this year’s “Inception.” Nolan presented the award to Pfister, calling the interaction between cinematographer and director “one of the make-or-break relationships in filmmaking.”
Actor Steve Zissis, who collaborated with the Duplass brothers on such films as “Cyrus” and “Baghead,” presented the pair with their award. “Faith is an important term to describe Jay and Mark,” Zissis said. “It takes incredible faith and patience to make films the way they do.”
All of the student winners are listed below.
Best Picture – “Cowboys & Indians,” Producers: Nikos Bellas, Jesse Morrison; Director: George Valos
Best Director – “Cowboys & Indians,” Director: George Valos
Best Screenplay – “Cowboys & Indians,” Writer: George Valos
Best Comedy – “Eugene,” Director/Writer: Mark Chaput
Best Doc – “Spieleplatz Stadt,” Director: Sam Shimizu-Jones
Best Cinematography – “The Cave,” DP: William Carnahan; Director: Leonard Menchiari
Best Editing – “The Big Drop,” Editor/Director: Ryan Faulkner
Best Sound Design – “Spacefest Destiny,” Sound Design: Jonathan Moran; Director: Kevin Posnanski
Best Animation – “282,” Director/Writer: Shawn Adeli
The Golden Lion Award
“The Good Things” – Director: Casey O’Brien
The Silver Lion Award
“Going for the Green” – Director: Katie Schafer
The Cub Award
“Release” – Director: Daniel Loiewski
Student Choice Award
“IR” – Director: Kelsi Ephraim
Honorable Mention Award:
“A Memory” – Director: Marlena Steiner
The distinguished judges for this year’s student competition included Newsweek movie critic David Ansen; Ayo Davis, vice president of casting for ABC Entertainment Group; and independent feature film producer Ted Kroeber. An alumnus of LMU, Kroeber ’99 BA, ’06 MA serves on the Dean’s Council at the School of Film and Television.