Undergraduate Filmmaker Award
2024-25 Criteria and Application
This award recognizes undergraduate students whose filmmaking and/or media production explores social justice issues, tells stories that increase the visibility of underrepresented and marginalized identities, and challenges inequality in all its forms. An award of up to $500 will be given to the top recipients. Deadline to apply is April 4, 2025 at noon (PT).
For a longer description of UO’s framework for addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion, please visit https://inclusion.uoregon.edu/ideal-framework.
The student who is eligible for this award meets the following criteria:
- Students must be a sophomore, junior, or senior currently enrolled as a full or double major in the University of Oregon Department of Cinema Studies.
- Students working in any single position and/or a variety of positions across pre-production, production, and post-production are welcome to apply. One of the goals of this award is to highlight the collaborative aspects of filmmaking and recognize the array of contributions by people working on a production.
- Applications for the 2024-25 Undergraduate Filmmaker Award should include work performed or completed in Spring 2024, Fall 2024, or Winter 2025.
Students must submit the following:
- The online application form.
- An artist’s statement of no more than 1000 words. This statement should provide a general introduction to you and your work and describe your vision, goals and strategies as an artist exploring social justice issues. This statement should also explain how this award will help you continue to produce this kind of work in the future. You may use some or all of the following questions to guide your statement.
- How does your project align with this award’s social justice mission to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion?
- How does your project question or reframe mainstream discourse or stereotypes around your subject? Please describe how your project might transform existing beliefs and values.
- Is your project designed to aesthetically expand or experiment with film or new media storytelling genres and conventions? If so, how?
- How was your project produced? What steps did you take to ensure that the labor and collaborative work process of your production was equitable and inclusive? (i.e. did the decision-making and collaborative process respect diverse voices within the project team?)
- One sample of work, such as: a screenplay; a short film; a work-in-progress; specific clips or scene selections that showcase your work; a video essay, interactive, or web-based content, etc.
- Work sample (media) should be no longer than 15 minutes; screenplays should be submitted in PDF format and be no longer than 25 pages.
- You must submit your sample via URL. You may use Vimeo, a personal webpage, or share a link through WeTransfer or Google Drive (compressed files should use the H.264 codec).