The Directors Guild of America (DGA) announced that the application period for the 24th Annual DGA Student Film Awards for African-American, Asian-American, Latino, and women directors is now open. The awards are designed to honor, encourage and bring attention to exceptional direction by diverse student filmmakers in film schools and select universities across the country.
Over the years, the DGA Student Film Awards have highlighted dozens of African American, Asian American, Latino and Women filmmakers. Winners of the DGA Student Film Awards in each category will receive a $2,500 prize from the DGA and have their films screened in a special ceremony at the DGA Theater.
A number of past winners have gone on to enjoy successful directing careers, including:
- Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II; Grown-ish; Rapture; The Land)
- Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians; Now You See Me 2; G.I. Joe: Retaliation; Step Up 3D)
- Ryan Coogler (Black Panther; Creed; Fruitvale Station)
- Nicole Kassell (Westworld; The Americans; The Following; The Killing)
- Patricia Riggen (Miracles From Heaven; The 33; Lemonade Mouth; Under the Same Moon)
- Sylvain White (Slender Man; The Americans; Hawaii Five-0; Empire; Stomp the Yard)
This year’s application period runs from April 18-October 5, 2018, and the winners in each category will be announced in November.
Eligible films must be made in the 2017/2018 school year (September 2017 through August 2018), and produced as a student project under the supervision of a faculty member. Dramas, comedies and documentaries are all eligible. Animated films, experimental films, commercials, music videos and webisodes are not eligible. Applicants must be enrolled in, or be a recent (one-year) graduate from, an accredited post-secondary institution located in the United States and selected by the DGA. Eligible films are those in which a student holds every major crew position.
The DGA Student Film Awards application and submission process is entirely online. For more information, or to begin the application process, visit here.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More