The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has chosen seven student filmmakers from six U.S. film schools as nominees in the 2012 ASC Andrew Laszlo Student Heritage Awards. A ceremony announcing the winners in each category will be held June 16. The awards are designed to showcase the artistic abilities of the next generation of filmmakers, with a focus on their cinematography skills.
The nominees are:
Graduate
Josephine and the Roach by Damian Horan, University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts
Narcocorrido by Benjamin Kitchens, American Film Institute
The Bullet Catcher by John Walstad MacDonald, Chapman University, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts
Undergraduate
Aexis by H.R. McDonald, Art Center College of Design
The Drop by Nicholas Wiesnet, Chapman University, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts
Reclamation by Adam Lee, Loyola Marymount University, School of Film and TV
Documentary
Language of the Unheard by Travis LaBella, Northwestern University
Each year, the ASC Heritage Award is rededicated in memory of an individual who advanced the art and craft of cinematography. A Hungarian native, Andrew Laszlo, ASC was a talented cinematographer whose film and television career spanned more than 50 years, amassing such credits as You’re a Big Boy Now, The Night They Raided Minsky’s, The Out of Towners, The Owl and the Pussycat, The Warriors, Southern Comfort, First Blood, Streets of Fire, Innerspace, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. He earned Emmy nominations for his work on Shogun and The Man Without a Country. Laszlo dedicated many years to teaching future directors of photography at workshops, seminars and schools around the world, and authored several books, including It’s A Wrap, a compilation of his experiences on movie sets around the world.
To reach this stage, professors at film schools recommended one student for each category from their school, who then submitted their film for judging. A blue ribbon panel of ASC members judged the 40-plus entries and narrowed it to this field. That same panel will select the winners.
The ASC Heritage Award was inaugurated for the purpose of encouraging filmmakers to pursue careers in cinematography. “It’s a competitive industry but these emerging talents have shown they have the vision and skill set to use lighting and composition to convey moods,” said Isidore Mankofsky, ASC, chairman of the ASC education committee. “We hope this recognition encourages them to follow their dreams.”
Past ASC Heritage Award winners have gone on to prolific careers, including Lisa Marie Wiegand (Necessary Roughness, Dollhouse, Adventures of Power), Lukas Ettlin (The Lincoln Lawyer, Battle Los Angeles), Masanobu Takayanagi (Warrior, The Grey) and Nelson Cragg (Homeland, CSI).
