Celebrating excellence as the academic year draws to a close

115 new cinematographers, directors, editors, producers, production designers and screenwriters were congratulated by luminaries of the Hollywood community as they gathered with distinguished faculty and staff, proud families and friends in the hills of the AFI campus for the 2006 commencement ceremony of its Conservatory program.

AFI Director and CEO Jean Picker Firstenberg was joined by Conservatory Dean Robert Mandel, Executive Vice President Jonathan Estrin, and AFI Board of Directors Chairs Jon Avnet and John Cooke to confer Masters of Fine Arts degrees and a host of well-deserved awards to this fresh crop of moving image and storytelling artists.

Honorary Degrees

Four of the creative community's most renowned and well respected professionals - actor James Earl Jones; director Sydney Pollack; television pioneer Charles W. Fries; and esteemed film historian Jeanine Basinger. Distinguished participants in the ceremony included George Lucas and writer/producer Joss Whedon, who presented James Earl Jones and Jeanine Basinger, respectively, with their honors.

Previous recipients of AFI honorary degrees include Robert Altman, Maya Angelou, Michelangelo Antonioni, Steven Bochco, Roger Corman, Robert Daly, Norah Ephron, Lee Grant, Ray Harryhausen, Chuck Jones, John Lasseter, Karl Malden, Gena Rowlands, Thelma Schoonmaker, Jack Valenti, Haskell Wexler and Alfre Woodard.

From left to right: Charles Fries, Jeanine Basinger,
Sydney Pollack and James Earl Jones.

New Orleans Delegation

The day's events were also attended by a delegation visiting from New Orleans, as a continuation of a collaboration between the AFI Conservatory and the University of New Orleans Department of Film, Theatre and Communication Arts (FTCA) that began this past winter. As a response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, AFI faculty members and fellows traveled to New Orleans to provide a series of lectures for FTCA students over a ten-week period.

Awards and Honors

As part of The Sherrill C. Corwin Scholarship Program, Barbara Stepansky was awarded the Franklin J. Schaffner Fellow Award for her thesis film THE TROJAN COW and Anthony Leonardi was given The Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award for his thesis EXISTENCE. Graduating Fellow Zal Batmanglij was chosen by his peers to speak at the ceremony.

The Sherrill C. Corwin Scholarship Program was established in honor of Sherrill C. Corwin, a founding AFI trustee as well as an exceptional friend and supporter of AFI. A number of scholarships have been established under this program, including these given out today:

Director Stepansky received The Franklin J. Schaffner Fellow Award of $10,000 and a trip to the Sundance Film Festival for her Thesis production, THE TROJAN COW. The Franklin J. Schaffner Fellow Award was established in 1991, by Jean Schaffner in honor of her husband Franklin J. Schaffner, a longtime champion of AFI and chair of the AFI Conservatory Advisory Committee and is presented to an outstanding Directing Fellow as selected by a panel of distinguished jurors from the artistic community.

Director Leonardi was given The Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award of $10,000 for EXISTENCE, his Thesis production. Awarded in memory of Richard P. Rogers- filmmaker, teacher, mentor and friend-who died in 2001, at the age of 57, this honor is conferred on a graduating Directing Fellow whose commitment to excellence and contribution to the class best exemplify Rogers' spirit.

The William J. Fadiman Award for Screenwriting Fellows is given to a Screenwriting Fellow who has shown outstanding achievement in screenwriting. The award is named in honor of William J. Fadiman, a distinguished and longtime story editor at Warner Bros. and MGM, and a member of the AFI faculty from 1974-1982. Screenwriter Ian Simpson receives the $15,000 award for his screenplay, MOTHER OF FRANKENSTEIN.

This year also saw the inaugural presentation of the $7,500 narrative short film grant given by Animal Content in Entertainment, a division of The Humane Society of the United States. Awarded to a Thesis film's production team for bringing an engaging and imaginative perspective to an animal issue, this year's grant was conferred on Diana Romero for NINA QUEBRADA (BROKEN GIRL). Exploring the underground world of illegal prostitution rings in the U.S., the film focuses on the exploitation of a young Mexican girl juxtaposed with the cruelty of the multi-million dollar cockfighting industry.

From Left to Right: Joss Whedon, George Lucas,
James Earl Jones, Jeanine Basinger, Sydney Pollack,
Charles Fries, Jon Avnet and John Cooke.