WINSTON-SALEM – Several alumni from the School of Filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts have received honors or awards in recent weeks.

*Paul Schneider (Class of 1999) will see his first feature film have its world premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. PRETTY BIRD was chosen to screen as one of 16 films in the Dramatic Competition at Sundance, to be held Jan. 17-27, 2008, in Park City, Utah. The film, which was written and directed by Schneider (who is also an accomplished actor), is a comic tale of would-be entrepreneurs who set out to invent a rocket belt. The film stars Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, Kristen Wiig and David Hornsby.

This year’s 16 films in the Sundance Dramatic Competition were selected from 1,068 submissions. All films selected to screen in competition are eligible for Grand Jury Prizes, Cinematography Awards and Directing Awards.

*Tom O’Keefe’s (Class of 2007) senior thesis film B FOR BEEKEEPER has been chosen to screen in the documentary shorts competition at the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival. More than 2,000 short films from more than 40 countries were submitted to Slamdance for 2008, while only 67 were selected to screen in five categories. Each of the 67 shorts will be eligible for a Grand Jury Award.

B FOR BEEKEEPER is about North Carolina beekeeper Bill Waddell. The film premiered at the Student Shorts Festival in Toronto in October and had its U.S. premiere at the Cucalorus Film Festival in November. Cary Gallagher (Class of 2007) was the cinematographer, Joey Vigour (Class of 2007) edited, Katie Haggerty (current student) produced and Lucas Hausrath (current music student) composed the score.

Slamdance runs concurrently with the Sundance Film Festival, Jan. 17-25, in Park City, Utah.

*Craig Zobel (Class of 1999) won Breakthrough Director for GREAT WORLD OF SOUND at the Gotham Awards last month. A music-industry satire, GREAT WORLD OF SOUND topped all nominations with three: Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor and Best Picture.

Zobel was one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” for 2007.

In addition to Zobel, producers of GREAT WORLD OF SOUND include alumni Melissa Palmer (Class of 1998), David Gordon Green (Class of 1999), and Richard Wright (Class of 1999). Alumnus Adam Stone (Class of 1999) was the cinematographer. Current NCSA students (Class of 2008) Jason White, Tyler Cook, Setu Raval, Jeremy Grant, Jesse Hoffman, Patrick Bullion, Na'imah El-Amin interned in key crew positions on the film, which was shot in North Carolina. The film recently screened at Cinema SECCA.

Presented by IFP, the largest membership organization of independent filmmakers in the United States, the Gotham Awards recognize independent filmmaking through six competitive awards decided by separate juries.

*Several NCSA School of Filmmaking alumni recently received Independent Spirit Award nominations. The awards ceremony will be broadcast on IFC (the Independent Film Channel) on Feb. 23, 2008.

GREAT WORLD OF SOUND was nominated in the Best First Feature Category and Best Supporting Male categories. (See above for alumni connections.)

Two other alumni films received Independent Spirit Award nominations for the John Cassevetes Award (given to the best feature film made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer):

1.   Nominated for the film QUIET CITY were director Aaron Katz (Class of 2004), producers Brendan McFadden (Class of 2004) and Ben Stambler (Class of 2004), and writers Aaron Katz (Class of 2004), Erin Fisher (Class of 2004), and Cris Lankenau. Many other NCSA alumni served as cast and crew for this film, which will be released on DVD by Benten Films on Jan. 29, 2008.

2.   Nominated for the film SHOTGUN STORIES were writer/director Jeff Nichols (Class of 2001) and producers Nichols and David Gordon Green (Class of 1999). SHOTGUN STORIES was edited by Steven Gonzales (Class of 1998), while Adam Stone (Class of 1999) was the cinematographer and Paul Skidmore (Class of 2002) served as associate producer and unit production manager. Other NCSA alumni – including several from the NCSA School of Drama -- served as cast and crew.

SHOTGUN STORIES also was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at the Vienna International Film Festival (Viennale) by the International Association of Film Critics, as well as the Grand Jury Prize for New American Cinema at the Seattle International Film Festival, the Jury Prize for Narrative Film at the Austin Film Festival, and was an official selection of the 2007 Berlin Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival and many more.