Recognizing student achievement in cinema
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On April 28, 2016 the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema held its annual awards ceremony, which recognizes outstanding student achievement in all three of its programs – film animation, film production and film studies.
Professor Catherine Russell, chair of the cinema department, addressed faculty, staff, students, donors and advisors of the School at the event. Here is an excerpt from her speech.
The annual Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema awards ceremony event is not about celebrity or red carpets, but about shining a light on our best students and acknowledging the generosity of our donors. Philanthropy is not something to be taken lightly and I suspect that our donors have chosen our students because they are confident that the education we offer at the School of Cinema is the best in the country, and that our students will make a difference through their creativity, ingenuity, good judgment and critical thinking, as well as their ability to be collaborative team players.
We have quite a number of new endowed awards to announce this evening. I would like to mention two new awards that we have inaugurated this year for incoming students. This means that the recipients of these awards have been selected from among the successful applicants for admission, but are not yet students at Concordia.
I am pleased to announce the creation of the Formula Growth Undergraduate Entrance Scholarship for students in film animation and film production, made possible by Randall Kelley of Formula Growth. This award will be given to a new student.
The Susan Pigott Fellowship, of which I am especially proud, goes to an Indigenous student in film production or animation. It is enough money to offset all the student’s expenses during their time at Concordia, and we have established a juried competition to select the winner. This year we invited award-winning filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin to sit on the jury along with Professor Jason Lewis from the department of Design and Computation Arts, along with professors Shira Avni and Marielle Nitoslawska from our department. I am pleased to announce Christopher Grégoire-Gabriel as the inaugural fellow.
A third new award of note is the Oksana and John Locke Award. This prize was recently endowed Professor John Locke and his wife Oksana Dykyj, who many of you know as the Moving Image Resource Centre’s head librarian. This special award will be given to students dedicated to students and faculty doing research on the first 100 years of cinema. In fact, the award will in fact rotate on a three-year basis among the undergraduate and graduate film studies and part-time faculty.
I am pleased to announce that Katarina Mihailović, PhD student, is the first winner of the “First 100 years” award, PhD student.
See the complete list of award winners.
During the ceremony, Russell also noted that the evening is an opportunity for the various areas of the department to get together to celebrate another year over and done. She thanked the staff and faculty who “help us get through all the usual hurdles of the academic year.”
She also acknowledged the School’s Advisory Board – comprised of members of the Montreal film community – for their advice, counsel and financial support. Finally, she congratulated Mel Hoppenheim, who was recently made a member of the Order of Canada in recognition of his enormous contribution to the Quebec film industry and his philanthropic generosity. Mr. Hoppenheim was in attendance at the event, and has been at many previous events over the past two decades.
The awards ceremony was followed by a cocktail reception.