(Winston-Salem) UNCSA alumnus David Gordon Green can add another honor to his growing list of accolades.  Green, a 1998 graduate of UNCSA’s School of Filmmaking, has won Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear Award for Best Director for his 2012 film PRINCE AVALANCHE.

Filmed secretly in Austin, Texas, PRINCE AVALANCHE stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch in a remake of the Icelandic film EITHER WAY. Green also adapted the script, and produced the film along with Craig Zobel, a 1999 UNCSA Film graduate, and Lisa Muscat, a former faculty member. It will be screened locally at the RiverRun International Film Festival in April.

The Berlin Film Festival, also known as Berlinale, is one of the most important film events in Europe, and is the biggest public audience film festival in the world. It showcases more than 400 movies from all over the world, with more than 300,000 tickets sold annually to the public.

“The Silver Bear is an important achievement,” said Susan Ruskin, interim dean of the School of Filmmaking. “David has an impressive portfolio of films that critics appreciate and that people want to see. He manages to move comfortably back and forth between directing smaller independent films and the bigger-budgeted Hollywood comedies.”

Green began garnering awards as a student at UNCSA, when his short film PHYSICAL PINBALL won a CINE Eagle Award. In 2000 his first feature film, GEORGE WASHINGTON, won The Discovery Award at the Toronto Film Festival, was named Best First Film by New York Film Critic’s Circle, and won Best Dramatic Film, Best Director, and Best Actor for entire cast at the Third Newport International Film Festival. Green wrote, edited and directed the film, which was named one of the top films of 2000 by Roger Ebert, The New York Times, Time Magazine and many others.

In 2003, he directed ALL THE REAL GIRLS, which won two jury prizes at the Sundance Film Festival. UNDERTOW, which Green directed in 2004, was an official selection of the New York and Toronto film festivals. In 2008, he directed Golden Globe-nominated PINEAPPLE EXPRESS.

Additional film directing credits include SNOW ANGELS in 2007, YOUR HIGHNESS in 2011 and THE SITTER in 2011. For television, he has produced and directed “Eastbound and Down” for HBO in 2009-10, and BLACK JACK, a 2011 movie for Comedy Central.

 

As America’s first state-supported arts school, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts is a unique stand-alone public university of arts conservatories. With a high school component, UNCSA is a degree-granting institution that trains young people of talent in music, dance, drama, filmmaking, and design and production. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, the School of the Arts opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

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