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| MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
MARCH 2025
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Mason Film Festival 2025
The 2025 Mason Film Festival will take place in the Johnson Center Cinema on April 29,
April 30, and May 3, 2025.
Registration is open! Please register for each day that you plan to attend.
We anticipate that the Senior Showcase on Saturday, May 3 will sell out. We recommend reserving your seats as early as possible.
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Congratulations to our poster design contest winner, Nancy Jamison!
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Nancy is a senior at George Mason University and is set
to graduate in the spring of 2025 with a Graphic Design Certificate. Alongside her studies, she works as a graphics assistant at Mason’s College of Science. Nancy has a background in design and fine arts and loves combining
her abilities with her interests in web design and video game development. She also enjoys listening to music, playing video games, and painting. After graduation, she plans to pursue a career in web design.
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Visiting Filmmakers Series
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Masterclass with TV Writer-Producer
and George Mason Alum Andy Reaser
Hosted by Professor Peter Kimball
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 | 1:30pm
Monson Grand Tier III (3rd floor of Center for the Arts)
Andy Reaser, a writer-producer with over two decades of experience in television, working on shows such as Charmed, Pretty Little Liars, and seven seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, will hold a masterclass discussing his experience in the film industry, screenwriting tips, and more.
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Mason Vision Day: April 3-4, 2025
The university’s giving day, Mason Vision Day, is a 24-hour period where all George Mason supporters – alumni, friends, volunteers, faculty, staff, parents, and students – can make a difference by supporting one of George Mason’s many causes. This year, the College of Visual and Performing Arts has a matching challenge of $3,500 donated by an anonymous alumni Mason Arts Board member for the CVPA Scholarship Fund.
To directly support Film and Video Studies scholarships, visit the Mason Arts Giving Page and type "Film and Video Studies" in the box under “Other Fund.” Help us support the next generation of filmmakers!
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Meet our New Post-Production Coordinator
Welcome Melanie Smedira!
Melanie is the Post-Production Coordinator for the Film and Video Studies program at George Mason University. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Motion Picture Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 2024, where her areas of focus were color management, color correction, and post-production workflows.
She previously worked as a Color Assist at RIT's MAGIC Spell Studios, where she set up, maintained, and supported editors in utilizing the color correction suite. She also gained hands-on experience creating a Digital Imaging Technician (DIT) Cart, which featured on-set playback and color correction. Additionally, she worked at the RIT Sports Network, where she was part of a team of editors who created highlight reels for various school athletic competitions.
Through her work on student films, she gained experience as a colorist, grading footage for various projects, including those shot with a virtual production LED wall. She also gained experience as a DIT, providing live data management, color correction, and color management on set.
Outside of school, she has played tuba for several years, including in the RIT pep band.
You may find her working over in C100 or in any of our post-production labs. Be sure to stop by and say hello and welcome her to our amazing community!
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Registration Reminder
Summer registration has begun and Fall registration begins in early April. Below are some of the courses that we will be offering this summer. All courses are online async.
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FAVS 225 Introduction to World Cinema
Session A | Online Async
Professor Cynthia Fuchs
This course explores examples of many kinds of films from around the world, including documentary, fiction, and experimental. Students will learn to analyze film language and structures, with attention to cinema's many contexts, including economic institutions, historical events, political and social issues that shape and are shaped by movies.
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FAVS 250 Business of Film
Session F | Online Async
Instructor: Professor Lisa Thrasher
This course provides an overview of the film and television industry from a business perspective. Students learn basic filmed entertainment business practices and protocol, including film financing, copyright & trademark, anti-trust, trademark, IP licensing, agents & managers, entertainment unions & guilds, film distribution, and marketing techniques.
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FAVS 260 Video Editing for Film
Session A | Online Async
Professor Maura Ugarte
In this course, students practice creative storytelling through video editing. They learn by doing, working with a range of editing software, watching and discussing movies, and engaging in hands-on individual and group projects.
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FAVS 280 Writing For the Moving Image
Session C | Online Async
Professor Amanda Kraus
This course is an introduction to writing for the moving image through lecture, discussion, and critiques of exercises and written works. By the end of the semester, each student will have produced a variety of analyses and/or blueprints for creative moving image projects including short fiction, commercial advertisement, scripted television, collaborative fiction, short non-fiction reality programming, and other forms.
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Faculty Accomplishments
Professor Mel Jones created a teaser that screened during the “How America’s 33M Small Businesses Can Grow and Prosper” panel at SXSW. Her teaser announced a partnership between Clover, Tabitha Brown, and Mel’s production company, Invisible Collective. The panel was hosted by Tabitha Brown and Mark Cuban.
Professor Jones also directed the Clover commercial that stars Tabitha Brown. The commercial aired during Shark Tank’s March 14th episode.
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Professor G. Chesler’s documentary Connection | Isolation, focused on trans community during the COVID-19 pandemic, is screening locally again! The film screened on March 31 at the Transgender Day of Visibility event at the Parkway Theater in Baltimore Maryland.
If you missed the campus screening, please join them for:
Gender + Justice Initiative, Georgetown University, April 2nd at 6pm. Free! RSVP here.
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On March 17, Professor Tommy Britt presented his paper, “Words of War and Peace in Independence Day (1996) and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)," at the “Political Speeches in Film” conference, at the Université de Lorraine in Nancy, France.
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From left to right: Anora crew at the wrap party, Ryan Elliott at the premiere of Anora at Cannes, and Anora crew at the New York Oscars party.
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Rhyan Elliott ('20) worked as Production Supervisor on the film Anora, winner of 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing.
Anora made Oscar history, as Sean Baker, the film's director, writer, and editor, became the only person ever to win four Oscars in the same night for the same film.
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“Anora was made by a small group of dedicated, passionate, indie filmmakers. From the PAs to the Producers, there wasn’t a single person on our crew that wasn’t integral to creating the magic scene on-screen and propelled into success.
I am so lucky on this film journey of mine to continually work with people who uplift me, inspire me, and encourage me to keep going, keep growing, and keep creating.”
-Rhyan Elliott
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Tony Marquez ('13) is fundraising for his next short film, Sundown. Based on personal experience, Sundown is about a dutiful yet exhausted caregiver who shares a special bond with her Dementia patient.
With this project, Marquez hopes to help raise awareness surrounding Dementia-related illnesses and Alzheimer's disease. His team plans to give back a portion of proceeds from their crowdfunding campaign to the annual Walk To End Alzheimer's, which takes place in October around the United States.
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Staff and Alumni Spotlight
The FAVS community had quite a presence at the Indie Shorts Film Festival in Charlottesville, March 21-23. Three films were either created or crewed by FAVS staff or alumni. These included:
Andrew Jorgensen’s MFA Thesis film The Secret Lives of Our Parents; Dissonant, a short film directed by George Mason School of Theater alum Rebecca Wahls, with FAVS Alumni working as crew; and Humanity, a 48-Hour Film directed by FAVS alum Will Sidaros (‘19). James Woolard (‘19) cowrote the screenplay with Will Sidaros and Joseph Frank.
Watch Will’s award-winning moment below here:
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Film Opportunities and Resources
Festival Submissions:
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Did you miss our last newsletter?
Check out the archives here.
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We want to hear from you! If you have news you would like to contribute, please send it to film@gmu.edu. We are looking for regional film events and updates from Film at Mason alumni. Keep up-to-date on all the current Film at Mason news at film.gmu.edu.
Film and Video Studies
College of Visual and Performing Arts
4400 University Dr. MSN 5D8
Fairfax, VA 22030
703-993-3287 | film@gmu.edu
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