This year, the Columbia University Film Festival will present the 20th Annual Andrew Sarris Award to Cherien Dabis ’04.

Named for the world-renowned critic, theorist and film program professor, the Andrew Sarris Award was created by film students to honor outstanding artistic achievement of distinguished alumni. In addition to teaching at Columbia, Andrew Sarris worked extensively as a film critic and is the author of numerous books, including the landmark, American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929-1968 and many other influential works. Cherin Dabis will accept the award virtual on April 23rd during Screenwriting Night. 

Cherien Dabis is an award-winning narrative film and television writer, director and actor. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Palestinian immigrant parents and raised between small town Ohio and Amman, Jordan. Studying dance and theater in her youth, she went on to earn her MFA in film from Columbia University.

Her feature films AMREEKA (2009) and MAY IN THE SUMMER (2013), in which she made her acting debut, both had their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival. AMREEKA went on to win the coveted FIPRESCI International Critics Prize at Cannes as well as a dozen more international awards. It was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, 3 Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture, and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. Dabis is currently in development on her third feature WHAT THE EYES DON’T SEE, a 2020 Athena List winner and recipient of the 2018 Sundance Sloan Commissioning grant. The script is an adaptation of The New York Times notable book by the same name. Anonymous Content is producing.

Dabis has worked extensively in television as a writer/producer and director. Her credits include Showtime’s original groundbreaking series THE L WORD, USA Network’s THE SINNER, Fox’s EMPIRE and Netflix’s OZARK. She’s also a co-executive producer and director on Hulu’s critically acclaimed RAMY, the first half hour Arab American comedy on television. She has several projects in development, including a pilot for Wiip Studios and State Street Pictures. Dabis is the recipient of dozens of grants and fellowships from Creative Capital, Guggenheim, USA Rockefeller, Tribeca Film Institute, New York Foundation for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, National Geographic and the New York State Council on the Arts. She is an alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab, Film Independent Director’s Lab and Tribeca All Access. She has been an advisor for the Sundance Screenwriter’s Labs in both Turkey and Jordan and has returned several times to teach in the graduate film program at her alma mater Columbia University.

Past Andrew Sarris Award Winners

2019 – Phil Johnston (Film ’04)

2018 – Laura Ricciardi (Film ’07) and Moira Demos (Film ’08) 

2017 – Ben Odell (Film ’04)

2016 – Annemarie Jacir (Film ’02)

2015 – James Ponsoldt (Film ’05)

2014 – Jennifer Lee (Film ’05)

2013 – Adam Davidson (Film ’91)

2012 – Malia Scotch Marmo (Film ’88)

2011 – Greg Mottola (Film ’91)

2010 – Simon Kinberg (Film ’03)

2009 – Kathryn Bigelow (Film ’81)

2008 – Kimberly Peirce (Film ’96)

2007 – Ron Nyswaner (Film ’81)

2006 – Nicole Holofcener (Film ’88)

2005 – Jeffrey Sharp (Film ’01) & Jay Russell (Film ’85)

2004 - Sabrina Dhawan (’02) & Al Berger (’83)

2003 - Shari Springer Berman (’95) & Robert Pulcini (’94); James Mangold (’99)

2002 - Lisa Cholodenko (’97)

2001 - Andrew Sarris