June 9, 2020
AFI Movie Club: MUDBOUND
MUDBOUND is directed by Dee Rees and features cinematography by Rachel Morrison, a graduate of the AFI Conservatory. The film made history at the Oscars® – Morrison became the first women nominated for Best Cinematography and Rees was the first black woman nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. In this exclusive AFI Archive video, MUDBOUND cinematographer…
May 10, 2020
AFI Movie Club: TERMS OF ENDEARMENT
AFI Life Achievement Award recipients Shirley MacLaine (2012) and Jack Nicholson (1994) came together to help bring you to tears in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. And director James L. Brooks is the Artistic Director of the AFI Conservatory! Watch Naomi Watts announce the film: Movie Trivia about TERMS OF ENDEARMENT -DID YOU KNOW the film…
May 7, 2020
DID YOU KNOW? This cinematographer was nominated for a record-breaking 10 Academy Awards® for Best Cinematography, winning twice for THE ROSE TATTOO (1955) and HUD (1963).
In a fifty-year career that spanned the transition from silent film to sound and color, Chinese-American cinematographer James Wong Howe filmed over 130 feature films and pioneered camera technologies, including deep focus, wide-angle lenses and hand-held cameras. Howe also directed three features, beginning with CHIJKU WO MAWASURU CHIKARA (1930), the little-known, first Japanese-language sound film made in Los Angeles….
April 26, 2020
AFI Movie Club: MOONLIGHT
MOONLIGHT, a poetic tour de force, was one of the 2016 AFI AWARD honorees and “illuminates the peerless power of cinema to inspire empathy for others and embrace a greater understanding of ourselves.” Movie Trivia for MOONLIGHT: –DID YOU KNOW MOONLIGHT is based on an unpublished play written by Tarell Alvin McCraney called “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”? –DID…
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…
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