Two Film Alumni Win Prestigious NBR Awards
The National Board of Review selected two Purchase film alumni among the 17 Student Grant Program winners.
The National Board of Review (NRB) has dedicated its efforts to the support of cinema as both art and entertainment since 1909 with core values of identifying new talent and nurturing young filmmakers.
The NBR’s Student Grant Program “promotes the cinematic future by helping young filmmakers finish their projects and exhibit them” at major film festivals around the world.
Purchase is proud to have two grant winners in the 2024 cohort: film alumni Oliver Pezzano ’23 and Ruby Rose Makkena ’22.
Penny tells the story of an eccentric acting professor who convinces one of her students to act as her dead sister in her apartment.
Pezzano, an actor, writer, director, and editor from Westchester County, NY, has been making videos online for almost a decade. His films often employ absurd humor, surreal concepts, and stylized visuals.
The cast and crew on Penny inlcuded many Purchase collaborators.
On the Ridge follows Ronald, a precocious eleven year old boy living in the New England suburbs, who spends his free time hunting squirrels in the woods in an attempt to escape the confines of his dysfunctional home. When he wakes up one morning to discover that school has been cancelled due to a snow day, he ventures into the woods with his rifle. Despite following his usual day-off routine, Ronald will soon discover that this day is, in fact, not like every other.
Makkena is a Brooklyn-based writer/director and cinematographer raised in NYC. Her BFA focused on cinematography and she won the Outstanding Senior Award in Filmmaking.
Makkena discovered her love for visual storytelling at a very young age, with her work initially originating in comedy. With her roots still in comedy, her style has developed towards slice-of-life storytelling and character portraits, attempting to explore both the humor and melancholia that exist in the nooks and crannies of the seemingly mundane.
Her primary focus has been on film production and cinematography, recently completing her first feature-length film as a lead producer, Characters Disappearing.
Makkena is currently taking a year off from filmmaking to absorb and reconnect with life off-set as a part of her creative process, and plans to return to writing/directing in 2025.
Purchase has seven previous NRB Student Grant winners and is one of only 15 schools that have produced grant winners overall.