The CUNY Film Festival is the official film festival of
CUNY
, mottoeng = The education of free people is the hope of Mankind
, budget = $3.6 billion
, established =
, type = Public university system
, chancellor = Fél ...
. The festival promotes creative collaboration between filmmakers from CUNY's four-year schools, two-year schools, and graduate programs offering students a chance to promote their own work, review the work of their peers, and engage with industry professionals. The festival is held annually in the spring and is open to the public. CUNYFF also offers free career development workshops throughout the year.
The first annual festival was in 2008.
History
CUNYFF was founded by
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
film student Daniel Cowen in 2008. Cowen had made a short film and planned to enter it into CUNY's film festival when he was surprised to find that CUNY did not have one that drew on work from numerous CUNY schools. In starting CUNYFF, Cowen hoped to foster a "sense of community and to promote cross campus projects" among students at CUNY's various four-year commuter colleges.
CUNYFF's inaugural festival was held on March 29, 2009 at the
Macaulay Honors College
William E. Macaulay Honors College, commonly referred to as Macaulay Honors College or Macaulay, is a highly selective honors college for students at the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. The college awards full-tuition ...
and screened 14 CUNY student films to over 150 attendees. CUNYFF 09 received seventy-four submissions from students of seven CUNY four-year colleges.
CUNYFF 09 hosted a master class on March 22, 2009 that featured Melvin McCray, Senior editor at
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
; Greg Rhem, Manager of Documentary acquisitions at HBO; Matt Kohn, documentary filmmaker and director of Call It Democracy.
In 2009, CUNYFF was sponsored by HBO and The City of New York Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting.
CUNYFF 2010 received over one hundred films. The festival was held on March 20, 2010. CUNYFF 2010 was sponsored by
Thirteen
Thirteen or 13 may refer to:
* 13 (number), the natural number following 12 and preceding 14
* One of the years 13 BC, AD 13, 1913, 2013
Music
* 13AD (band), an Indian classic and hard rock band
Albums
* ''13'' (Black Sabbath album), 2013
* ...
,
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
The 2009 CUNYFF was judged by several CUNY film Professors and Greg Rhem of HBO. For CUNYFF 2010 judging, a panel of 20 CUNY film professors was convened.
Currently, the judging panel is composed of professors from various CUNY institutions and people from the media industry.