January 13, 2020
Did You Know? The first X-rated film to be nominated for an Academy Award was…
Fifty years ago this year, MIDNIGHT COWBOY was the first X-rated film to be nominated for and win an Academy Award. It won an Oscar for Best Picture, Directing and Writing at the 42 Academy Awards on April 7, 1970. Despite the X-rating, which prevented a wide release, it became one of the top-grossing films…
January 13, 2020
AFI Alums earn Oscar Noms
On January 13, 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards®. Congratulations to the following AFI Conservatory alumni for their Oscar nominations: Scott Silver (AFI Class of 1992) Best Adapted Screenplay – JOKER Robert Richardson (AFI Class of 1979) Best Cinematography – ONCE UPON A TIME…IN…
December 17, 2019
AFI Alumni Shortlisted for Academy Awards
Congratulations to the AFI thesis film MILLER & SON which has been shortlisted for an Academy Award® in the Live Action Short Film category! It was just two months ago that MILLER AND SON director Asher Jelinsky (AFI Class of 2018) won a Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards®. And STAY CLOSE, a labor…
November 22, 2019
AFI FEST 2019 Announces Audience and Jury Awards, 2020 Dates
AFI FEST 2019 presented by Audi announced today the films that received this year’s Jury and Audience awards. The Shorts section, which included 40 films from filmmakers from all over the world showcasing their distinct international viewpoints, was the only juried section of the festival. The Grand Jury Award winners for Live Action and Animated…
October 29, 2019
AFI Alumnus David Lynch Receives Honorary Oscar
On October 27, the Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded David Lynch (AFI Class of 1970) with an honorary Oscar® at the Governors Awards. The award was presented by his long-time collaborators Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern and Isabella Rossellini, and the star-studded audience gave Lynch a standing ovation. Lynch has been previously recognized by the…
January 23, 2018
AFI Conservatory Alumna Rachel Morrison Is First Woman Ever Nominated for Cinematography Oscar
AFI Conservatory alumna Rachel Morrison (AFI Class of 2006) has made history as the first woman ever nominated for an Academy Award® in the Cinematography category, for MUDBOUND.
February 27, 2017
Congratulations to Oscar Winner Asghar Farhadi
At Sunday night’s Academy Awards® ceremony, Iranian director/writer Asghar Farhadi took the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® for his drama THE SALESMAN. The American Film Institute congratulates Farhadi on his second Oscar win — he won previously for A SEPARATION (2011) — as the filmmaker has served as the AFI Conservatory Artist-in-Residence for the past two…
February 29, 2016
Congrats to AFI Conservatory Alumni on Their Oscar-Winning Films
AFI is proud to highlight the AFI Conservatory alumni featured in the 88th Academy Awards®, which followed an unprecedented awards season run for AFI graduates. Producer Steve Golin (AFI Class of 1981) received the Best Picture Oscar® for SPOTLIGHT. The film’s credits also include cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi (AFI Class of 2002) with a special thanks to Pulitzer…
February 19, 2016
AFI Grad Michael Rezendes on the True Story of SPOTLIGHT
Before Michael Rezendes won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, he was a Screenwriting alumnus of the AFI Conservatory (Class of 1999). Played by Mark Ruffalo in the Oscar®-nominated SPOTLIGHT, he’s one of a group of Boston Globe reporters who, in 2002, exposed a shattering clergy sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Known collectively as…
February 5, 2016
Watch: George Miller on Making MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
At a recent Harold Lloyd Master Seminar on the AFI campus, director George Miller discussed the making of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD with Fellows of the AFI Conservatory. Now up for 10 Academy Awards® including Best Picture — and an AFI AWARDS 2015 official selection — this exhilarating fourth installment in the MAD MAX series came to the…
January 14, 2016
Congrats to AFI’s 2016 Oscar Nominees
Four AFI Conservatory alumni have been nominated for 2016 Academy Award® — in the Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, Best Live Action Short and Best Cinematography categories. Director/writer Henry Hughes’ (AFI Class of 2014) AFI Conservatory thesis film DAY ONE received a Live Action Short nomination following an awards season winning streak that included the gold medal at…
October 25, 2015
The AFI FEST Interview: IXCANUL Director Jayro Bustamante
Jayro Bustamante’s hypnotic debut feature IXCANUL is Guatemala’s first-ever submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® — and one of the 11 films screening in the New Auteurs section at AFI FEST 2015. It follows a young Mayan woman living at the base of a volcano, who becomes pregnant outside of an impending arranged…
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