2008/2009 Penn Cinema Studies Flesch Awards

Best Honor Thesis:
Sara Gold, Senior, SAS, COL, Cinema Studies

Best Cinema Studies Essay:
Nikolas Stergiopoulos, Freshman, SAS, COL, Undeclared
Harrison Unger, Junior, SAS, COL, Cinema Studies

Best Student Activity:
Kendall Hoechst, Senior, SAS, COL, English and Psychology

Best Screenplay:
Kevin McMullin, Senior, SAS, COL, Communication

Benjy Brooke, Penn undergrad, just won the screenplay competition at the Ivy League Film Festival held at Brown this past April 21-26. He wrote a SHINING-like film about a monstrous albino buck that becomes the target of an increasingly deranged hunter... Benjy's an artist as well as a writer, and one of the reasons his script is so successful is that he was able to mix his visual sensibility within the context of a dramatic, well-told story. His win is a fairly big deal - at least, in the mainstream Hollywood world, in that it's the largest student-run film festival in the country, and attracts major filmmaking talent/professionals. This year, for example, the keynote panel was with Jack Nicholson, Robert Evans and Brad Grey (president of Paramount); last year was Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro and Tom Rothman, (president of Fox).

Peter Decherney, Penn English and Cinema Studies, won the Dean's Award for Innovation in Teaching.

Timothy Corrigan, Penn English and Cinema Studies, on Penn Cinema Studies at Penn: Click here.