ASC announces the 2022 Student Heritage Award nominees

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has announced nominees in the 2022 Student Heritage Awards competition. The awards are one of several educational programs designed by the organization to support a new generation of talent in the early stages of their cinematography careers. Winners will be revealed on March 5, 2022.

To qualify, a student’s undergraduate, graduate or documentary project is submitted and judged by an ASC blue-ribbon panel for demonstrating exceptional cinematographic skill.

Each year, the ASC Student Heritage Awards honor the memory of an esteemed ASC member.

The 2022 ASC Graduate Award is named in recognition of cinematographer, documentarian and educator Judy Irola, ASC (AN AMBUSH OF GHOSTS, CINE MANIFEST, NIGER ’66: A PEACE CORPS DIARY).

This year’s Undergraduate Award honors Isidore Mankofsky, ASC, who earned three Emmy® nominations, and shot such memorable feature films as THE JAZZ SINGER, SOMEWHERE IN TIME and THE MUPPET MOVIE. Mankofsky was a longtime chairman of the ASC Student Heritage Awards committee.

The Documentary category is enduringly dedicated to Oscar®-winner Haskell Wexler, ASC (WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, BOUND FOR GLORY).

Contenders for the 2022 ASC Student Heritage Awards, sponsored this year by Sony, are:

Judy Irola Student Heritage Award – Graduate Category

– Carlos Estrada for EL FANTASMA (University of Texas at Austin)

– Kadri Koop for SPACESHIP (American Film Institute)

– Joshua Ladd for YOU’RE NOW BEYOND HOPE, ARIZONA (Chapman University)

– Chaochen Li for ASYNC (University of Southern California)

– Yifu Li for NORTH COUNTRY (Chapman University)

– Seth McMillan for MY LIFE STOPPED AT 15 (American Film Institute)

Isidore Mankofsky Heritage Award – Undergraduate Category

– Ariano Trevino Angelone for SHADOWBOXING (University of North Carolina School of the Arts)

– Shili “Evan” Feng for WHERE THE BIRD GOES (Chapman University)

– Joey Hunt for LIVE AT THE DOWNBEAT! (University of Texas at Austin)

Haskell Wexler Documentary Category

– Ethan Denning for DAMASCUS (University of Southern California)

– Yifan Huang for NEURODIVERGENT (University of Southern California)

– Scott Larson for THESE MOMENTS (Chapman University)

– Jordan Martin for BULLDOZER (The University of Oklahoma)

– Giridhar Nayak K for DHĪVARAḤ: A WAY OF LIFE (Full Sail University)

– Tristan Owen for THE CASTLE BUILDER (Florida State University)

Many of those recognized by the ASC Student Heritage Award program since it was inaugurated in 1999 have gone on to have successful careers in filmmaking, including the Student Awards Committee Co-chairs Craig Kief and Armando Salas, alongside other ASC members Nelson Cragg, Masanobu Takayanagi and Lisa Wiegand.