CCNY MFA students win film awards

Eight current and recent students from the MFA Film Program at The City College of New York are recipients of awards and scholarships for their short documentary and fiction films.

CCNY’s film program was founded in 1941 by Dada artist and filmmaker Hans Richter as the Institute for Film Techniques. Notable names in the film industry past and present to emerge from the program include Woody Allen, Judd Hirsch, Stanley Kubrick, Jackie Mason, Richard Schiff, Eli Wallach and Ben Gazzara. 

The students and their awards are:

Rituparna Das Datta and Sarah Wemy each received a New York Women in Film & Television NYWIFT Ha Phuong Scholarship. Ritu, Class of 2018, received the scholarship in recognition of her short fiction thesis film “Canvas,” and Sarah (‘19) will use the scholarship toward the production of her thesis documentary, “Once in a Lifetime.”

Cyprien Kodjo ('18) won the Bronze Award for Best Documentary Short at the Independent Short Awards - Los Angeles, with his thesis “Not Rich Yet.”

Fatima Matousse (’18) received an Honorable Mention for Best Documentary Short at the Independent Shorts Awards - Los Angeles, for her thesis “Family in Exile.”

Emmanuel Adu Poku (’19) and Rafael Samanez (’19) are the recipients of this year’s British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) New York Media Studies Scholarship program.

Emmanuel Adu Poku received a BBC America Scholarship; Rafael Samanez received a BAFTA New York Documentary Scholarship in Honor of John Grist. 

The scholarship fosters a strong relationship with the scholars offering them networking occasions presented by BAFTA New York. 

Vivian Rivas (‘18) won Best Short Documentary in The Americas Film Festival - New York for "Ebb Tide," her thesis documentary. 

Jiage Tong (‘18) received a National Board of Review (NBR) Student Grant for her fiction thesis film “Seventy,” set in a remote Chinese village. Through the Student Grant Program, the National Board of Review promotes the cinematic future by helping young filmmakers finish their projects.

 About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. Today The Chronicle of Higher Education ranks CCNY #2 among public colleges with the greatest success in ensuring the social mobility of our student body; at the same time the Center for world University Rankings places it in the top 1.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight professional schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself.  View CCNY Media Kit.