The Andrew Sarris Award
The School of the Arts Film Division is pleased to present the second annual Andrew Sarris Award to Lisa Cholodenko. Named after the world-renowned film critic and theorist and member of the faculty of the Film Division, the award was created by the students to recognize outstanding service and high achievement of distinguished faculty and alumni. The award will be presented at the Screenplay Readings on Thursday, April 4, 2002.

Raised in Los Angeles, Lisa Cholodenko worked as an assistant film editor before moving to New York in 1992. While earning her MFA in screenwriting and directing from Columbia University, she made short films including dinner party, winner of the UK's Channel 4 TX prize. High Art, her first feature film, was screened at the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and won several awards, including the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance, the Jury Prize at Deauville, and Best Actress awards from both the Independent Spirit Awards and the National Society of Film Critics for Ally Sheedy's performance. She has directed episodes of NBC's Homicide and HBO's Six Feet Under as well as television commercials. Her second feature, Laurel Canyon, featuring Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, and Kate Beckinsale, will be released by Sony Pictures Classics in the fall.

Andrew Sarris received his Bachelor‚s and Master's degrees from Columbia University and has taught at the university since 1969. He is the author of The American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929-1968 and You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet: The American Talking Film, 1927-1949, among many other books. He is considered by many to be the most influential film critic in American film history.

more...