After two semesters of immersive learning in film production, editing, and marketing, the 2023-2024 Fiction Filmmaking Capstone Class at Michigan State University will premiere its film, Feast Your Eyes, about the life of an amateur TV show producer who becomes captivated by his subject’s repressed hunger for human flesh. A team of 25 Fiction Filmmaking students brought their Film Studies education to life under the guidance of Executive Producers Jeff Wray, Professor in the Department of English and Timnick Chair in the Humanities, and Pete Johnston, Academic Specialist in the ..read more

FILMETRY, a film festival that celebrates the union of film and poetry, will give extra emphasis to that union in this year’s festival, when poetry goes to the movies on the page and the screen. As part of the festival, which is free and open to all, 11 short new films adapted from poems informed by films will premiere on Friday, April 19, at The Fledge, 1300 Eureka Street in Lansing, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Before each film screening, audience members will have a chance to see each poem on the screen and hear audio-only narration of the poem. The fifth annual FILMETRY Festival is presented in ..read more

Encouraging critical engagement through art with the past, present, or future, the CREATE! Micro-Grant program recently awarded $500 grants to 13 Michigan State University students to fund their proposed creative projects, which represent a variety of disciplines and mediums, including poetry, painting, music composition, screenplay, and sculpture. Offered by MSU’s College of Arts & Letters and facilitated by the Dean’s Arts Advisory Council (DAAC) with support from the MSU Federal Credit Union and departments across the university, the CREATE! Micro-Grant program offers students the oppor ..read more

Two Department of English students were selected to receive the department’s 2023 Outstanding Senior Awards. Sponsored by the Dianna S. Cavett Endowment for English Literature, this faculty-nominated award recognizes senior English and Film Studies majors who have demonstrated excellence in academics and co-curricular activities and who have made significant contributions to the department community beyond the classroom. The selection committee then chose the following two students to receive this honor:  Nithya Balakrishnan, Film Studies senior SaMya Overall, English senior As the 2023 ..read more

After two semesters of hands-on experience in film production, editing, and marketing, the 2023 Fiction Filmmaking Capstone Class at Michigan State University premiered its short film, Promises, Promises, to a sold-out theatre on May 3 at Studio C! in the Meridian Mall. An on-campus screening also took place on May 4 at Wells Hall and was followed by a Q&A session with the cast and crew as well as a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the short film. Promises, Promises trailer Under the supervision of Executive Producers Jeff Wray, Professor and Associate Chair ..read more

Madeline Strong is graduating from Michigan State University in Spring 2023 with a B.A. in Film Studies. During her time at MSU, she gained experience working as a videographer for MSU’s Culinary Services and for the MSU Student Organic Farms. Pete Johnston, Academic Specialist and Digital Media/Film Production Manager, had this to say about Strong: “Maddie has always been a strong (no pun intended!) student, a great writer, and a committed filmmaker. Good filmmakers can work across disciplines, they’re well-rounded. Maddie has written great scripts, made some really clever shorts, worked in t ..read more

Kaveh Askari, Associate Professor and Director of Michigan State University’s Film Studies Program, is the 2023 recipient of the prestigious Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award, presented by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. He received the award for his new book, Relaying Cinema in Midcentury Iran: Material Cultures in Transit, published by the University of California Press. “We assessed 100 submitted titles on far-ranging topics. It was a challenging task,” said Haidee Wasson, Professor in the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University, who chaired the committee for the ..read more

Arts Launch, a week-long celebration of the vibrant arts scene on Michigan State University’s campus, will take place September 12-18, which coincides with National Arts in Education Week, where educators in communities across the country will join together to tell the story of the transformative impact made by the arts in education. Dedicated to showing the importance of the arts at MSU, Arts launch events are open to all MSU students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the public to showcase and to introduce the greater MSU community to the many arts-based opportunities that are available on campus ..read more

MSU’s Film Studies program announced the 2022 winners of the Laurence Allen Tate Film Writing Awards. Josie Mitchell took the 1st place prize, Mary Claire Zauel was awarded 2nd, and Mitchell Griffith took 3rd place this year. This is the fourth year this endowed award has been presented, which is open to majors and minors in Film Studies and minors in Fiction Filmmaking and in Documentary Production. “The quality of the entries for this year’s Laurence Allen Tate Award was the highest it has ever been,” said Professor Bill Vincent, chair of the award committee. “The judging committee found it ..read more

Garrett Boudreaux, who is graduating from Michigan State University this spring with a bachelor’s degree in Film Studies, was accepted to the School of Theater, Film, and Television’s screenwriting program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  A lofty goal since his days in high school, Boudreaux will travel to California to start the two-year Master of Fine Arts degree program in Fall 2022 where he also plans to write his next feature script. His next goal is to work for Monkeypaw Productions, a production company founded by actor and filmmaker Jordan Peele. Garrett ..read more