Dean’s Message

Welcome to the Miloš Forman / Mike Hausman Columbia University Film Festival! We are extremely grateful to Mike Hausman and to Martina Forman for their generosity in supporting this wonderful annual program, named for two distinguished alumni and faculty of our program. This year represents the 38th year of the Columbia University Film Festival.

This festival is the culminating event for our MFA Film students. As these films show, our MFA filmmakers have spent their years at Columbia honing their creative vision and immersing themselves in their craft. Their skill and creativity are on view in these films, and their spirit is infectious.

In their time at Columbia, these directors, screenwriters, and creative producers have worked collaboratively on their projects, supporting one another, even as they have grown as independent artists. During difficult times, these artists have remained focused on their work.

When the Festival began in 1987, it consisted of only four shorts followed by a panel discussion. Over time, the Festival has grown to become a robust and beloved Columbia tradition, one that has helped to launch the careers of many exceptional filmmakers. The event includes several days of screenings, readings, interviews, panels, and events in New York and Los Angeles. This year we will screen 37 films over several days.

The films you will see are varied in their styles, convictions, and preoccupations. They represent a student body that is diverse in every measure, and whose films traverse traditions, genres, languages, and interests. What unites them is the power of their stories and the integrity of their ideas.

I hope you enjoy this festival! Please join me and the whole School of the Arts in congratulating our student filmmakers and thanking the dedicated faculty and staff who have guided them over the years. I could not be more proud of these artists or more certain that, as they go forward, their stories will help to enrich our society and enhance our collective future.

Sarah Cole
Dean of the School of the Arts
Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature

Chair’s Message

My first Columbia University Film Festival was in 2013, which was my first year as a Columbia adjunct. Having seen a lot of student films, I knew what to expect: raw talent, uneven acting, random artsiness, and a constant subliminal undertone of “Look at me! Look at me!”

I was so wrong. That was the night I realized that Columbia’s nickname of “the story school” wasn’t just a marketing phrase, but a reality. The films I watched had surprising, involving, emotional stories. In addition, they were remarkably eclectic in subject, approach, and setting, spanning the entire planet. They were made with a maturity and thoughtfulness that knocked me sideways. That night quite literally changed my life, and led directly to my being here as Chair today.

Since then, I’ve attended CUFF every year, and I’ve been similarly rewarded. It’s even sweeter now that I’ve had the privilege of watching these Columbia filmmakers grow in skills and confidence from their first days in the program to the triumphant screening of their thesis films.This festival is the culmination of everything they’ve been working toward for years, and we on the faculty and staff are as proud of their achievements as any doting family.

I can’t wait to see this year’s CUFF films. Every film represents years of hard work, dedication, and collaboration. Every filmmaker participating in the festival will have the joy of seeing their film play before an audience—the first of many to come. And every audience member might have the same potentially life-changing experience I had in 2013. To quote a cinema classic, The Great Muppet Caper: “I wish I were you people seeing this for the first time!”

Jack Lechner
Chair of Film
Columbia University School of the Arts