Milcho Manchevski's film MOTHERS won two awards at Belgrade FEST 2011.

MOTHERS won the critics' award (named after the late film critic and writer Nebojse Djukelic) for best FEST film. The film critics emphasized the "original storytelling and courageous experimenting with the film language and genres."

Manchevski's film also won the Special Jury prize in the sole competitive program, "Europe Out of Europe".

The international rights are handled by Rendez-vous Pictures (Paris) and Manakifilm (Skopje).

Here are some recent updates of awards that Cinema-Photography students and alumni have won.  Some of these items have had full stories published about them and some have links to full stories elsewhere.  If you know of any other awards or updates, please keep us updated. 

MFA student, Lauren Roberts
Won a Director’s Guild Award
http://www.dga.org/news/pr_expand.php3?674

MFA Alum Steve James
Won Best Director at the Midwest Film Festival for No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson

Undergraduate Student, Jon Klemke
Our undergrad student, Jon Klemke, just won first place for his short script, "Prombies," in the 8th Los Angeles Comedy Festival: Screenplay Competition.
http://www.LAComedyfest.com/performers.html

Photo alum, Sarah Paz Hyde
Sarah Paz Hyde, Photo alumni, BA May 2007, and Carbondale native, currently living in Boulder, CO.  Sarah has won a Bronze prize at National Art Museum of Sport in Indianapolis, IN for her photograph taken in Peru, “el futbolito.”
http://www.namos.iupui.edu/home.html

Cinema alum, John Scott III
John Scott III, one of our alumni, just won the first prize in the Thriller/Horror category at the 2010 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, for his script, "Maggie." He was also a finalist (one of ten) in another category, Science Fiction, for his script, "Annexus." There were over 4400 entries.
http://pageawards.com/

MFA alum, Melissa Coleman
Melissa Coleman's (MFA graduate and minority filmmaker award winner in CP last year) thesis project is
official selection of the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Black Film Festival.

Cinema Undergraduate, Colin Olsen
Film screened at the 2010 Illinois International Film Festival (IIFF)

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Voice of the Salukis -- Mike Reis -- has been named the Illinois Sportscaster of the Year, as voted on by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

Reis is in his 32nd year of doing radio play-by-play for Southern Illinois University football, basketball and baseball. He also hosts weekly call-in shows for men's basketball coach Chris Lowery and football coach Dale Lennon, and produces Saluki Sports Today, a daily feature that airs across the Saluki Radio Network.

"It's a peer vote of Illinois sportscasters, and the fact they think I'm worthy of this award is very humbling," said Reis, who won his first broadcasting award. "I'm especially thankful to Bradley play-by-play man Dave Snell for nominating me."

A 1978 SIU Radio-TV graduate, Reis has described many of the greatest moments in the history of Saluki Athletics. Among his highlights are broadcast of SIU's 1983 I-AA National Championship football season, the 2007 I-AA Final Four football campaign and a pair of men's basketball trips the Sweet 16 in 2002 and 2007. In all, he has brought to life the accomplishments of nine NCAA Tournament basketball teams, seven Missouri Valley Basketball Conference regular-season championship teams, four Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Tournament Championship teams, games in the 1977 College World Series, and four NCAA Baseball Tournament teams.

"Mike Reis is an institution in southern Illinois," said SIU's Director of Athletics Mario Moccia. "When it comes to Saluki Athletics, everyone wants to know what Reis thinks. His professionalism, his passion for his job and his knowledge of sports comes through crystal clear in every broadcast."

Reis began his student sports casting career at WSIU Radio and WSIU-TV in 1975. He became a part-time sportscaster at WCIL Radio in 1976, and moved to full time in 1978.

The Cincinnati, Ohio-native was inducted into the SIU Athletics Hall of Fame, and in 2006 he was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of the 2007 SIU Alumni Association Achievement Award for Service. He was also the recipient of the 2008 John Sanders Spirit of the Missouri Valley Conference Award and was the SIU College of Communications and Fine Arts Commencement speaker as the College's Alum of the Year.

In 2005, the UNESCO General Assembly approved October 27 as the World Day for AV Heritage to raise awareness of the importance of AV documents as integral part of national identities and draw attention to the urgent need to protect them.

The Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Association has established a website to collect news about how the world will be celebrating the event, as well as information on significant AV documents worldwide as listed in UNESCO's Memory of the World (MOW) Programme Register. The theme for the 2010 World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is "Save and Savour Your AV Document - Now." Click here for the website.

Increasingly, our cultures are reflected through moving images – as news, entertainment, and historical artifact.  This year AMIA celebrates its 20th anniversary as an association of people dedicated to preserving those moving images. As part of our 20th Anniversary and in celebration of World Day for Audio Visual Heritage, AMIA launched its first short film competition. The challenge? To create a film or video that conveys the importance of preserving the world’s moving image heritage.

The winning entry is presented here to celebrate World Day for Audio Visual Heritage, and to celebrate AMIA's 20th Anniversary.

HIS FIRST DAY
Director/Writer: Brian Rose
Cinematographer: Brian Rose | Music by Josh Gumiela

Synopsis: This is the story of a kid who grew up watching "the flickers," who aspires to make movies, and has just landed his dream job on a 1930s studio lot. And on "His First Day" he has to help move dozens of reels of old film. Most would hate such menial labor, but he's thrilled! Yet he is soon to discover a harsh reality to life in show business, and before the day is out, will have to make a choice with serious consequences.

Inspiration for the Film: "His First Day" was inspired by the stories of dozens of films that would have been lost forever ... were it not for a few individuals who thoguht they were worth saving. My own work owes a huge debt tot he silent cinema, and I shudder to think what that work would be like, and what kind of person I would be, had someone not cared to save films like "The Passion of Joan of Arc" or practically anything by Buster Keaton. That is the ultimate message of my film: that one person's decision to save a single film can have an untold and lasting impact on generations of filmmakers and film lovers. The lesson is that we cannot make the choice for them, deciding which films they shall know, and which films they shall only read about. It is for their sake that every film that can be saved must be saved!

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Her home is now New York City, and she will candidly tell you that her filmmaking career has her living in "airports and airplanes." But Southern Illinois University Carbondale provides many special memories for Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning producer and director Hilla Medalia.

"It's always good for me to come back to a place that I lived for so long, and then of course, because I learned so much here and so much of my career started here," Medalia said Monday. She returned to campus as a keynote speaker at a two-day interdisciplinary conference focused on the Middle East conflict.

Medalia's first feature documentary, "To Die in Jerusalem," details the lives of two 17-year-old girls -- one Palestinian and one Israeli -- whose lives and families link together after a bomb blast in a Jerusalem market in March 2002. A black purse the Palestinian girl carried -- armed with explosives -- detonated, killing both girls, a security guard, and injuring 30. In addition to earning the George Foster Peabody Award, the film earned three 2008 Emmy nominations from the News & Documentary Emmy Awards including Best Documentary, and "Outstanding Informational Programming -- Long Form."

It was while Medalia, an Israeli citizen, was at SIUC that the film got its start as an award-winning thesis short-film, "Daughters of Abraham." The film won the 2004 Angelis Award, aired in a special screening at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and earned the SIU Alumni Association's 2004 Outstanding Thesis Award.

Medalia said she "really learned the tools of filmmaking" along with discipline while at SIUC. She was also involved with award-winning projects while working with alt.news 26:46, WSIU, and in the classroom.

"I had some really, really good professors who guided me through the process and during my thesis project really guided me through from storytelling to production and how to make it and how to get out in the real world," Medalia said.

She said another important factor is taking the tools you have and implementing them. She used a lot of her classroom work on projects that contributed to her later success. Medalia said she also took advantage of "really good equipment and the freedom that I got" while in school.

"I think I was a student who really wanted to make things happen and really wanted to make my projects," she said. "The University really allowed me the freedom to take the equipment and to go do. If you are motivated to go do things then the University and the department really gave me the opportunity to do what I wanted to do."

A dual SIUC degree graduate, Medalia earned her bachelor's degree in radio-television in 2001, and a master's degree in professional media practice in 2004.

While on campus this week, Medalia also spoke to a master's level class in radio-television, and spent time visiting with former women's track team coaches. She competed in the triple jump for the Saluki women's track team.

Medalia's 2009 documentary "After the Storm," is the story of Broadway theater professionals resurrecting a musical arts program for teens in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The film is about "how love, art and community can actually help people rebuild their lives," she said. The film won a Crystal Heart Award and Audience Choice Award last October at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, Ind.

Medalia said she realized the pivotal power that films can have as millions viewed "To Die in Jerusalem" when it began airing on HBO in November 2007.

"I really decided to focus my work on films that have social importance -- that to me are subjects that I think are very important to discuss and for people to know about," she said.

Filmmakers are always working on new projects that are in various stages of being completed, she said. Medalia is finishing a new film that focuses on post-traumatic stress disorder, and plans to work on another film in China. Much of her time is spent on location shoots, film festivals, and speaking engagements about her films.

Success, she said, is relative.

"I'm really fortunate that I am able to really take what I learned here in Southern Illinois and actually do what I wanted to do, which is making films," she said. "But I have big dreams. You reach a goal and then you already have a new goal.

"It was true when I was running track here in Southern Illinois and it's also true today for my work in films," she said. "I think the synergy of having your film and work out there is that it makes it easier in a way to get your film, get your next film, or your next project and also when you are trying to get financed or when you are calling places. It obviously helps when you have something to show them that you have done."

Medalia admits that life for burgeoning film directors can be difficult. It's not only how talented a filmmaker you are but also how much you push, she said.

"But if you want it enough and you keep doing it then it's very possible," she said. "Especially now in this time and age where actually the whole structure of distribution really has changed and you no longer need the overall deal of the big guys. Everything is available. There is the Internet and it's just much easier in a way to get your film out there, especially for the younger generation who are very Internet-savvy and can really put their work out there."