Greeting from the Curator
It is a distinct pleasure to once again curate New York University’s Next Reel International Student Film Festival.  This year’s selections represent a broad range of themes and interests, from large-scale narrative “mini-features” to works of an experimental and documentary nature.  In the interest of making the festival as accessible as possible to general audiences, all films have been organized into programs emphasizing common themes or generic interests.  It is also hoped that such a structure will highlight the relative strengths and nuances of each individual entry.

As in the past, I am deeply impressed with the high level of technical achievement and creative insight this year’s entries evince, a sure sign of the robust state of film education throughout the world.  Congratulations to all those whose films have been selected for screening and best of luck to everyone in both their current and future creative endeavors. 

Michael J. Bowen
Festival Curator

Michael Bowen is a New York-based film historian and programmer.  He has organized screenings for such organizations as Harvard University, Anthology Film Archive, the Cinémathèque française, the Torino Film Festival, and the Andy Warhol Museum.  This is his third year as acting curator for the Next Reel International Student Film Festival.