The Sidney Poitier New American Film School

Highlights from 2023-24

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2024’s Influential Latinos in Media

The Sidney Poitier Film School’s Peter Murrieta, deputy director in LA and Emmy Award-winning creator of popular series like “Wizards of Waverly Place” and “Mr. Iglesias,” was honored among the Imagen Foundation’s 2024 class of Influential Latinos in Media. The leading advocacy organization for Latinos in the entertainment industry honors industry executives who do the “business of the business” and strengthen the Latino community’s presence in the industry. “It means a lot to me because it says that people are seeing the value of what I’m doing at ASU, building our programs in Los Angeles,” Murrieta said. Murrieta accepted the award during the 38th Annual Imagen Awards reception in LA and brought along five of his film students to experience the evening.

 

Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 

Two Poitier Film School alums debuted films at the Sundance Film Festival, one of which won the festival’s coveted Grand Jury Prize. Daniel Tantalean and Latavia Young were producers on feature film “In the Summers” and short film “Grace,” respectively. Tantalean’s touching family drama about two sisters and their relationship with their loving but volatile father during yearly summer visits in Las Cruces, New Mexico, won the top prize in the festival’s dramatic competition. “This film is not only a symbol of our culture but our culture’s ability to persevere against all odds and exist in spaces that don’t truly want us,” Tantalean said. Read more. 

Special preview screening

ASU students had the opportunity to experience the global blockbuster Hunger Games prequel, “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” weeks ahead of its worldwide release in theaters, thanks to a relationship between The Poitier Film School and Lionsgate, the studio that produced the film. The special screening was followed by an exclusive, live Q&A with the film’s director and producer, Francis Lawrence and Nina Jacobson. “We are looking forward to growing this partnership and providing even more thrilling opportunities to our students,” said film school director Cheryl Boone Isaacs.

Borderlands Studios

Twenty acclaimed storytellers convened in downtown Los Angeles in September at the ASU California Center Broadway for “The Border is a Story,” marking the launch of Borderlands Studios, an initiative within The Sidney Poitier New American Film School. The event celebrated this new initiative as a space for world-class filmmakers to create new cinematic works that are grounded in the social experience of the “borderlands” and elevated in craft and form. Four fellows were also announced and awarded a $50,000 grant each to develop new films and produce stories that challenge conventional narratives about the borderlands. Learn more.

Sound mixing winner 

In fall 2023, film student Cambelle Gregory celebrated her second win in an Audio Engineering Society (AES) contest for students in sound mixing and attended the AES conference in New York with classmate Ameerah Webster and Assistant Professor Rodrigo Meirelles. It was Gregory’s second year attending the conference — and second consecutive year winning the student competition, which is open internationally. “To see my hard work be noticed and acknowledged is just a huge honor and privilege,” Gregory said. 

Photo credits:
Peter Murrieta courtesy photo 
Grand Jury Prize at Sundance photos courtesy of the alumni
Special preview screening photo by Ghassan Al Balushi
Borderlands Studios photo by Samantha Chow
Sound mixing winner photo by Taylor Blackmore

Interested in news from The Sidney Poitier New American Film School? Stay up to date at film.asu.edu/about/news.

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