UCLA to Honor Stacey Snider, Lawrence Bender & Lisa Cholodenko

UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) 2011 Festival of New Creative Work will honor prominent entertainment industry leaders Stacey Snider, Lawrence Bender and Lisa Cholodenko during the week-long event; it was announced today by Teri Schwartz, Dean of UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

Stacey Snider will receive TFT's prestigious Champion Spirit Award. Selected by TFT students, the award recipient is an industry professional who throughout their career has demonstrated great courage, foresight and integrity to nurture, mentor and champion emerging talent.

Snider is a 1985 graduate of the UCLA School of Law. After graduation she decided against practicing law and went directly into the entertainment business starting in the mailroom of the Triad Agency, eventually moving to Simpson-Bruckheimer, Guber-Peters, CEO of Universal Pictures, and now Co-Chairman & CEO of DreamWorks Studios. Snider was recently honored as the UCLA School of Law Alumnus of the Year. The Champion Spirit Award will be presented to Snider closing night of the festival, June 9th.

Bender will be the 2011 recipient of the TFT PGA Vision Award which will be presented on June 7th at the Billy Wilder Theater. Bender, a producer and political activist, has a career spanning two decades of highly successful films. Those films include Inglourious Basterds, Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting. All three received three Best Picture Oscar® nominations. His film An Inconvenient Truth won the Academy Award® for Best Documentary. His latest documentary, Countdown to Zero, features commentary from global world leaders and details the urgent risk posed by proliferation, terrorism, and accidental use of nuclear weapons.

The Vision Award is given to a producer whose career is distinguished by the highest standards and whose body of work exemplifies quality, persistence and integrity. The award is presented by the UCLA TFT Producers Program and the Producers Guild of America. Established in 2003, previous Vision Award recipients are Mark Gordon, Cathy Schulman, Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa and Hawk Koch. .

2011 Oscar® nominee, director and writer Lisa Cholodenko will be presented with the Filmmaker of the Year Award closing night of the festival, on June 9 at the Director's Guild. The Kids Are All Right, the film she wrote and directed was nominated for four Academy Awards®, another seven wins, including two Golden Globes®, and 60 nominations from critic's groups and film organizations worldwide. She previously wrote and directed the critically acclaimed features High Art and Laurel Canyon. Her success on the small screen includes directing the hit cable series sensations Hung, The L Word and Six Feet Under. Filmmaker of the Year Award honors filmmakers who tell stories with a voice and vision that impact the way people look at the human condition and demonstrate the spirit and message of the independent filmmaker.

"The annual week-long festival showcases and screens the works of TFT's emerging artists, and honors the work of the entertainment industries brightest and most respected," says the Festival's Producer and Professor, Myrl Schreibman. Honorees are chosen by students voting within their particular discipline. The festival begins Friday, June 3 and runs through Thursday, June 9, 2011.
Please join the weeklong festival of showcases and screenings and experience the future potential of emerging artists.

For more information on the 2011 Festival of New Creative Work, please log on to http://legacy.tft.ucla.edu/festival/ or www.tft.ucla.edu/festival

About UCLA TFT:
The vision of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television is to serve as a premier global interdisciplinary professional school that develops outstanding humanistic storytellers, industry leaders and scholars whose diverse, innovative voices enlighten, engage and inspire change for a better world. Consistently ranked as one of the top two elite media arts institutions in the world, the School offers an innovative curriculum that integrates the study and creation of live performance, moving image media and the digital arts. Our distinguished graduate and undergraduate programs include acting, directing, writing, producing, animation, cinematography, lighting design, set design, costume design and sound design, and offers PhDs in Theater and Performance Studies and Cinema & Media Studies. For more information, visit www.tft.ucla.edu.