BFA Animation and BFA Film present the 28 ^th Dusty Film & Animation Festival, which will take place at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23^rd Street, NYC, on Friday, May 5 through Monday, May 8. The festival culminates with the Dusty Awards, honoring the achievement of outstanding film and animation thesis students and SVA alumni, on the evening of Monday, May 8. Award-winning producer Annie Flocco is the producer/director of the festival.

Named after SVA Founder Silas “Dusty” H. Rhodes, the four-day festival will screen over 100 film and animation projects to fulfill its mission of providing a leading platform to showcase SVA’s stellar emerging film and animation talent from its BFA Film and BFA Animation programs. Each year, outstanding projects are recognized during the Dusty Awards. Voted on by a jury of industry professionals, 15 awards will be handed out in categories ranging from Outstanding Film, Documentary and Animation, as well as special awards from New York Women in Film & Television and IFP. For the first time, two student virtual reality projects will be exhibited during the animation screenings on Sunday, May 7.

The film screenings will take place from Friday, May 5 – Sunday, May 7. The animation screenings will take place on Sunday, May 7. The award ceremony will begin at 6:30pm on Monday, May 8. For more information and to watch the Dusty Awards live, click here. To RSVP to the award ceremony, please call 212.592.2129 or email dustyawards@sva.edu.

In conjunction with the event, SVA will present Dusty Outstanding Alumni Awards to Academy Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino (BFA 1990 Film and Video)-Up, Lost, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story); director/producer and founder of Titmouse, Chris Prynoski (BFA 1994 Film and Video-Motorcity, Nerdland, and Metalocalypse); and producer and founder of Titmouse, Shannon Prynoski (BFA 1994 Film and Video)-The Venture Bros., Niko and the Sword of Light/Amazon Original and Nerdland).

SVA continues to attract top talent and was recently named the #1 animation college on the east coast and #5 nationally among the top two percent of schools by Animation Career Review, one of the top animation school rankers in the country. Achievements of its alumni this year include Gillian Robespierre (BFA 2005 Film and Video), writer and director of the feature Landline, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2017 and was acquired by Amazon; Randall Emmett (BFA 1994 Film and Video), producer of the Oscar-nominated 2016 feature Silence; and BFA Film senior Ameer Kazmi, winner of the 2016 Coca-Cola and Regal Films national competition with his 30-second spot, Blindfold, which was shown in Regal theatres nationwide.

The Dusty Festival’s headlining sponsors include AbelCine, ARC-Adorama Rental Co, Animation Magazine, B&H Photo, Bryan Singer-Bad Hat Harry, Carlos Saldanha-BottleCap Productions, Foto Care, Gotham Sound, IFP, KitSplit, New York Women in Film & Television, Nice Shoes, Nickelodeon, Radical Media, Randall Emmett-Emmet/Furla/Oasis Films, Rota6, SCS Agency, Inc., SVA Campus Store, Technicolor PostWorks New York and Toon Boom Animation. 100% of the sponsors’ donations directly benefit the film and animation thesis students through grants and in-kind awards.

Special Event

28th Dusty Film & Animation Festival

SVA Theatre