Bruce Sinofsky (TSOA ’78) co-directed the wrongful-imprisonment saga Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, which was nominated for Best Documentary Feature… The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, directed by Lucy Walker (TSOA ’98), was up for Best Documentary Short Subject… Andrew Bowler (TSOA ’96) wrote and directed the sci-fi comedy, Time Freak, which scored a nod for Best Live Action Short Film… The Help, produced by Chris Columbus (TSOA ’80) and Michael Barnathan (TSOA ’80), won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture… At the Film Independent’s Spirit Awards, Sophia Lin (TSOA ’97) was given the Piaget Producers Award for the apocalyptic thriller Take Shelter, while writer-director Dee Rees’s (TSOA ’07) coming-of-age drama Pariah, executive-produced by Spike Lee (TSOA ’82, HON ’98), earned the John Cassavetes Award, given to the best feature made for less than $500,000… Martin Scorsese (WSC ’64, STEINHARDT ’68, HON ’92) was named Best Director at the Golden Globe Awards for Hugo. Scorsese also won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. The show’s cast, including Heather Lind (TSOA ’10) and Paul Sparks (TSOA ’95), won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series… At the Sundance Film Festival, Derek Connolly (TSOA ’98) received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Safety Not Guaranteed, directed by Colin Trevorrow (TSOA ’99)… Musa Syeed (TSOA ’06) won the dramatic World Cinema Audience Award for writing and directing Valley of Saints, which also shared the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize with Robot & Frank, written by Christopher Ford (TSOA ’04)… Glen J. Mazzara (WSUC ’89, GSAS ’93) has taken over as showrunner for AMC’s hit zombie drama The Walking Dead… In Wes Anderson’s latest film, Moonrise Kingdom, Bob Balaban (WSUC ’77) stars alongside Bill Murray and Frances McDormand… The MacArthur Foundation named 22 new “genius” fellows, including conductor/pianist Francisco J. Núñez (STEINHARDT ’88), who founded the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, and composer/percussionist Dafnis Prieto, who teaches jazz studies at Steinhardt.
—Renée Alfuso