The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) presented this year’s Student Heritage Awards during a virtual presentation on Saturday (3/5). Chosen for demonstrating exceptional cinematography skills in their submitted work, the three winning student filmmakers are:
- Lawrence Sher, ASC presented the Judy Irola Student Heritage Award (Graduate Category) to Seth MacMillan of the American Film Institute for My Life Stopped At 15.
- The Isidore Mankofsky Heritage Award (Undergraduate Category) was presented by Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, ASC to Zhili “Evan” Feng of Chapman University for Where The Bird Goes.
- And Shana Hagan, ASC gave the Haskell Wexler Documentary Award to Tristan Owen of Florida State University for The Castle Builder.
ASC president Stephen Lighthill, Student Awards co-chairs Crag Kief and Armando Salas, and Sony’s manager of digital cinema camera sales and business development Daniel Perry also took part in this special ceremony. As this year’s student awards sponsor, Sony bestowed gift packages to all the winners.
The ASC Student Heritage Awards are designed to encourage and support the next generation of cinematographers, and to celebrate the memory of an ASC member. Irola was a cinematographer, documentarian and educator (An Ambush of Ghosts, Niger ‘66: A Peace Corps Diary). Mankofsky, a longtime chairperson of the ASC Student Awards, earned three Emmy® nominations and shot feature films including The Jazz Singer and Somewhere In Time. The Documentary category is enduringly dedicated to Oscar®-winner Wexler, ASC (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Bound For Glory)
The ASC Student Heritage Award program was inaugurated in 1999. Many of the students previously recognized have gone on to have successful careers in filmmaking, including the Student Awards Committee co-chairs Kief and Salas, alongside other ASC members Nelson Cragg, Masanobu Takayanagi and Lisa Wiegand.
SMPTE elects board officers, regional governors
SMPTE®,the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has revealed the board officers and regional governors who will serve terms beginning in January 2025.
Three new officers--Richard Welsh as SMPTE president, Eric Gsell as SMPTE executive VP, and Polly Hickling as SMPTE Education VP--have been elected for a two-year term from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2026. One SMPTE officer, Lisa Hobbs, will be continuing her service as SMPTE secretary and treasurer for another two-year term. Additionally, Raymond Yeung will be stepping into the role of standards VP on Jan. 1, 2025.
“SMPTE’s membership has spoken,” said SMPTE interim executive director Sally-Ann D’Amato. “These officers have been tasked with an important responsibility, one each of them is prepared to tackle head-on. These next two years are looking bright for SMPTE!”
In addition to the officers, 10 regional governors were elected by the Society to serve two-year 2025-2026 terms.
These include the following regional governors, re-elected to continue their service:
Asia-Pacific Region Governor
Tony Ngai, Society of Motion Imaging Ltd.
EMEA - Central & South America Region Governor
Fernando Bittencourt, FB Consultant
United Kingdom Region Governor
Chris Johns, Sky UK.
USA - Central Region Governor
William T. Hayes, Consultant
USA - Eastern Region Governor
Dover Jeanne Mundt, Riedel Communications
USA - Western Region Governor
Jeffrey F. Way, Open Drives
Also elected were four newcomers to the SMPTE Board:
Canada Region Governor
Jonathan Jobin, Grass Valley
USA - Hollywood Region Governor
Allan Schollnick, Voxx... Read More