City University Film Festival

The City University Film Festival (CUFF) is the official film festival of CUNY's four-year colleges. The festival promotes creative collaboration between filmmakers from CUNY's four-year schools, offering students a chance to promote their own work, review the work of their peers, and engage with industry professionals. The festival is held annually in the spring and is open to the public. CUFF also offers free career development workshops throughout the year.

CUFF 2012 will take place from March 14–18 with opening night workshops, camera demos, and a resource fair at the Skylight Room at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York NY on Wednesday 3/14. A special "Kickstarter Panel" with past CUFF filmmakers and a representative from Kicstarter.com will convene on Friday 3/16 at 6pm at Macaulay Honors College, 35 West 67th St, New York NY. Closing night festivities, including the premieres of new student shorts, will take place Sunday 3/18 at Macaulay Honors College.

The Artistic Director for the 2012 City University Film Festival is Nick Shimkin (Brooklyn College '08) The Assistant Director is Thomas Flynn (Hunter College '13)

History

CUFF was founded by Hunter College film student Daniel Cowen in 2008. Cowen had made a short film and planned to enter it into CUNY's film festival when he was surprised to find that CUNY did not have one that drew on work from numerous CUNY schools. In starting CUFF, Cowen hoped to foster a "sense of community and to promote cross campus projects" among students at CUNY's various four-year commuter colleges.^[1]

CUFF's inaugural festival was held on March 29, 2009 at the Macaulay Honors College and screened 14 CUNY student films to over 150 attendees. CUFF 09 received seventy-four submissions from students of seven CUNY four-year colleges.

CUFF 09 hosted a master class on March 22, 2009 that featured Melvin McCray, Senior editor at ABC; Greg Rhem, Manager of Documentary acquisitions at HBO; Matt Kohn, documentary filmmaker and director of Call It Democracy.

In 2009, CUFF was sponsored by HBO and The City of New York Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting.^[2]

CUFF 2010 received over one hundred films. The festival was held on March 20, 2010. CUFF 2010 was sponsored by Thirteen, HBO, and the New York City Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting.^[3] CUFF 2011 received over 150 films.

Judging

CUFF 09 was judged by several CUNY film Professors and Greg Rhem of HBO. For CUFF 2010 judging, a panel of 20 CUNY film professors was convened. The CUNY faculty panel continues for the 2011 season.

References

External links

CUFF Homepage
Macaulay Honors College