On July 25, the LA Shorts International Film Festival held its final awards ceremony, where alumni from New York Film Academy (NYFA) swept the entire “Chinese New Wave” film category.
Alumni Shi Tanxuan and Jin Lingxi were awarded “The Best Chinese New Wave Filmmaker” award and “Special Mention in the Chinese New Wave,” respectively. The films of both alumni beat out several highly competitive films from other prominent and respectable film and art universities.
Shi Tanxuan started the MFA in Filmmaking program at New York Film Academy in Summer 2017 at NYFA’s Los Angeles campus. His film, Lip Reader: Game of Detective, which he wrote and directed, has a cast and crew of several other Chinese students and alumni from NYFA, including:
General Executive Producer
Peipei Duan
2017 Fall MFA Producing
Second Unit Director
Kaibo Xu
2017 Fall MFA Filmmaking
1st & 2nd Assistant Director
Fei Chen
Mengmeng
2018 Fall BFA Filmmaking
Post Supervisor
Cherry Cao
2015 Fall MFA Filmmaking
Post Production Coordinator
Zhenghao Yang
2016 Fall MFA Filmmaking
Cast:
Klay Li
2016 Spring MFA Filmmaking
Demi Ke
2015 Spring MFA Acting for Film
Xinran Cao
2018 Summer MFA Acting for Film
Yiwen Sun
2016 Fall BFA Acting for Film
Jiani Yang
2017 Fall BFA Acting for Film
Shi’s previous work has earned several awards and accolades, including from the Beijing University Student Film Festival, the Guangzhou University Student Film Festival, and other domestic and international film festivals.
Jin won for his film, The Outlying Islands, which was also produced and shot by a group of NYFA alumni. Production took place at the gorgeous Shengsi Islands in Zhejiang province, China. The film perfectly showcased the specific vision and style of Jin, who recently graduated from New York Film Academy with a BFA degree in Filmmaking. The crew of The Outlying Islands included multiple NYFA alumni:
Producer
Zexia Wang
2015 Spring MA Film and Media
Screenwriter & Assistant Director
Jingwei Zhou
2016 Spring MFA Filmmaking
Cinematographer
Gaofei Zheng
2013 Fall MFA Cinematography
Colorist
Egor Povolotskiy
2013 Spring MFA Cinematography
The film has received several awards and accolades at various film festivals, including the Singapore International Short Film Festival, Shanghai Pride Film Festival, and other domestic and international film festivals.
The Los Angeles International Short Film Festival (LA Shorts) is one of the world’s largest international short film festivals. It was founded in 1997 and has been successfully held 23 times, with more than 300 films per year. LA Shorts is hailed as the largest international short film festival on the West Coast and not only has a high degree of recognition in the American film industry, but also is accredited by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. LA Shorts is an official qualifying event for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) short film awards.
New York Film Academy congratulates NYFA alumni Shi Tanxuan and Jin Lingxi on their awards at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival!