LabTV Awards $16,000 to Student Filmmakers at 2014 Tribeca Film Festival

    NEW YORK, NY, April 25, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- At the Tribeca Film Festival here on April 25th, LabTV announced the first-ever winners of its Gold Awards to student filmmakers who submitted outstanding video portraits of young medical scientists who work in labs funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Also honored were student filmmakers in special categories, along with finalists and semi finalists for the awards.

A total of $16,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to the winning filmmakers, courtesy of LabTV. These are the first awards in what will be an ongoing series of semi-annual honors. Winners also receive a handsome certificate, signed by LabTV Chairman Jay Walker and by Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health.

LabTV is an innovative, web-based video platform that showcases short, engaging videos of young medical scientists in labs across America. The mission of LabTV is to inspire today's high school and college students to become "tomorrow's heroes of medical science."

In announcing the awards, LabTV's Jay Walker noted: "America's colleges and universities are home to thousands of passionate, skilled students who are on their way to becoming great filmmakers and videographers. We are delighted to recognize these young communicators for their outstanding visual storytelling abilities."

"It is only fitting that tomorrow's filmmakers should be recognized for creating videos that will inspire tomorrow's heroes of medical research," said LabTV Executive Producer David Hoffman.

Mr. Hoffman added: "Hundreds of student filmmakers on scores of campuses around the U.S. are already getting involved in the LabTV program. The uniformly high level of quality of video submissions we are receiving is ample proof that student filmmakers can meet the professional standards of LabTV and create work that is worthy of the medical scientists and labs they profile."

GOLD AWARD WINNERS ($1,500 each)

Aaron Solomon,University of Maryland was honored for a video profile of Di Wu at UM's Ken Cao Lab.

Hanna Bottger, University of Pennsylvania was honored for a video profile of Charlie Mo and UP's Kohli Lab.

Yoonji Kim, University of Chicago was honored for a video profile of Jason Torres at the UC Lab of Dr. Nancy Cox.

Kai Keefe, University of Maryland was honored for a video profile of Rachel Lee at UM's Biodynamics Lab/Losert Lab.

SPECIAL AWARD WINNERS ($1,000 each)

Outstanding Role Model Award
Xinyue Chen, University of Miami was honored for a video profile of Leslie Knecht at UM's Lab of Dr. Sylvia Daunert.

Outstanding Lab Profile Award
Sara Jenis, George Washington University was honored for a video profile of Sally Moody and several of her lab's scientists at GW's Lab of Dr. Sally Moody.

FINALISTS ($750 each)

April Bailey, University of Georgia was honored for a video profile of Hillary Danz at UG's Donald Harn Lab.

Emilie Johnson, University of Colorado was honored for a video profile of Emi Tokuda at UC's Anseth Research Group.

Ernest Owens & Miller Sykes Radford, University of Pennsylvania were honored for a video profile of Stephanie Feldman Mujkat at UP's Disher Lab.

Sesheta Mwanza, Tufts University were honored for a video profile of Bree Aldridge at Tufts' Aldridge Lab.

SEMI-FINALISTS ($500 each)

Casey Williams, University of Georgia was honored for a video profile of Mohammed Abdelsaid at UG's Lab of Dr. Adviye Ergul.

Charles Chalkin, University of Delaware was honored for a video profile of Danielle Kirkman at UD's Vascular Physiology Lab.

Dove Barbanel, University of Chicago was honored for a video profile of Vanessa Leone at UC's Lab of Dr. Eugene Chang.

Jason Hewett, University of Delaware was honored for a video profile of Prathanesh Kharkar at UD's Kirk Research Group.

Jeffrey Kraus, University of Cincinnati was honored for a video profile of Erin Haynes at UC's Lab of Erin Haynes.

Johann Porschung, University of Wisconsin was honored for a video profile of Rob Lera at UW's Burkhard Lab.

Sally Davis, University of Michigan was honored for a video profile of Vishal Kothari at UM's Feng Lab.

Virginia Warner, Indiana University was honored for a video profile of Christina Moe at IU's Walzak Lab.

Xin Wang, University of Wisconsin was honored for a video profile of Maria Gracia Mendoza at UW's Lab for Optical and Computational Instrumentation.

Yasmim R. Silva Pessoa, University of Florida was honored for a video profile of John Hardy at UF's The Schmidt Lab.

These winning videos can be viewed on LabTV's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/WatchLabTV.

Announcing A New LabTV Video Profile Contest

LabTV is also starting a second video profile contest, with over $10,000 in prizes. Winners will be chosen on September 4th, 2014. To learn more, visit http://lab-tv.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2-Press-Release-2.pdf.

For more information on LabTV, visit LabTV at www.labtv.com and on Twitter at @LabTVCuriosity.

Contacts:

David Hoffman - [email protected] (831) 425-2527
Donnetta Campbell - [email protected] (646) 532-1512

# # #