Film Professor Michael Hausman and film alumni Joseph Castelo (MFA '98) and Jonathan Hludzinski (MFA '98) swept the 2001 Hamptons International Film Festival with their film, "American Saints," the story of a young out-of-work actor who enlists the help of a New York City cab driver to get him to an audition in Los Angeles.

"American Saints" won the Golden Starfish for Best American Independent Feature Film; the Zickerman Family Foundation Award for Screenwriting; the Kodak Cinematography Award, and the Perrier National Bubbling Under Award.

Click to read more about "American Saints" and these awards

While Hausman, Castelo and Hludzinski were working on "American Saints," Eric Litra (MFA, '96) was writing the screenplay for "God's Water." The film tells the story of an African American groundskeeper in South Carolina who is willed the property of his deceased white employer in the 1950s, and the ensuing complications when the employer's estranged son and a cola bottling company each make bids on the property.

Litra was a finalist for the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, a prestigious screenplay competition sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Litra was one of 11 finalists selected from more than 5,500 submissions. Click to read more about Litra and his screenwriting accomplishments.