ASC Announces Student Nominees in 2017 Heritage Award Competition

Named this year for ASC members Haskell Wexler and Andrew Lesnie, these awards recognize rising cinematography talents.

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has chosen 13 nominees for its 2017 Student Heritage Awards recognizing graduate, undergraduate and documentary student works. This year’s nominees are students from 10 different U.S. film schools. Winners will be revealed on October 14.

The 2017 ASC Student Heritage and Student Documentary Awards are named in honor of members Haskell Wexler and Andrew Lesnie, respectively (seen at top of this page).

Finalists for the student awards this year are:

ASC Andrew Lesnie Student Heritage Award – Graduate Category:

• Favienne Howsepian from the American Film Institute for Snowplow

• Justin Moore from Chapman University for James Joyce’s The Sisters

• Marcus Patterson from University of California, Los Angeles for Boy in the Elvis Suit

• Michael Phillips from Chapman University for Night Call

ASC Andrew Lesnie Student Heritage Award – Undergraduate Category:

• Ziryab Ben Brahem from San Diego State University for The Negative

• Diego Cordero from the School of Visual Arts - New York for Silver

• Bryce Drobny from Columbia College - Chicago for Paranoia

• Logan Fulton from Loyola Marymount University for Widow

• Megan Hagstrom from University of Nevada - Las Vegas for An Arrangement of Skin

• Dillon Leland McEvoy from Chapman University for G.R.E.T.A.

ASC Haskell Wexler Student Documentary Award:

• Rachel Bardin from University of Texas at Austin for Lavoyger

• Connor Ellmann from University of Southern California for Forever Home

•  Elijah Guess from Chapman University for Parched

Lesnie took home the Best Cinematography Oscar in 2002 for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He earned a 1998 ACS Award of Distinction for Doing Time for Patsy Cline, which also won the Australian Film Institute and The Australian Film Critics’ awards for Best Cinematography. He has twice won the ACS Cinematographer of the Year Award, in 1995 for You Seng and in 1996 for Babe. Lesnie’s feature credits include the Lord of the Rings sequels (The Two Towers and The Return of the King), Babe: Pig in the City, Fair Game, The Delinquents, Two If by Sea, Spider & Rose, The Sugar Factory and the Hobbit Trilogy.

Wexler began his career shooting documentaries and remained a passionate documentarian throughout his career. He earned an Academy Award in 1966 for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and a second Oscar in 1976 for Bound for Glory. He also received nominations for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (shared with Bill Butler, ASC), Matewan and Blaze. In 1969, Wexler wrote, directed and shot Medium Cool, which is studied by film students worldwide for its cinéma vérité style. In 1992, he was honored with the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award.

Many ASC student Heritage Award winners have gone on to have successful careers in filmmaking, and several have later been invited to be ASC members themselves.