UCLA Extension Celebrates One of its Own: Former Student Gavin Hood Wins an Oscar
Academy Award-winner Gavin Hood Launched His Success with UCLA Extension Entertainment Studies and Performing Arts’ Certificate Program in Film, Television, and Digital Media, and Courses in Screenwriting.
(PRWEB) March 6, 2006 -- UCLA Extension congratulates Gavin Hood, who won this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Tsotsi.
Hood first got serious about filmmaking at UCLA Extension, where he earned his certificate in Film, Television, and Digital Media from UCLA Extension’s Entertainment Studies and Performing Arts Department in 1992 and took screenwriting courses in UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program.
At UCLA Extension, Hood learned filmmaking from expert instructors and fellow students.
“It was a great environment where you learned not only from the lecturers – who in the Extension program were people who worked in film – but also from the people in your class because of the experience they had in other fields,” he said recently to a writer from the LA Weekly.
Hood took the filmmaking skills he acquired at UCLA Extension back to his native South Africa, where he wrote and directed educational dramas for the country’s Department of Health on topics including HIV/AIDS, teenage prostitution, and child abuse.
After winning an Artes Award (South Africa’s equivalent to an Emmy), Hood made his first feature film, A Reasonable Man, based on a screenplay he had written at UCLA Extension.
Last month, UCLA Extension screened Tsotsi as part of its popular Sneak Preview series, and Hood was on hand to speak with the audience.
“I feel proud and excited and thankful to UCLA Extension for welcoming me back,” Hood said. “It’s affirming, I think, for UCLA Extension and affirming for me to feel that I delivered on what they taught me.”
UCLA Extension’s Department of Entertainment Studies and Performing Arts provides dynamic and comprehensive certificate programs in Film, Television and Digital Entertainment Media; the Business and Management of Film, Television and Digital Entertainment Media; the Music Business; Songwriting; Recording Engineering; and Film Scoring.
Each year the department offers more than 500 courses taught by industry professionals and guest speakers including award-winning filmmakers; musicians; and top studio, record label, gaming, wireless, mobile and interactive media executives. UCLA Extension schedules daytime, evening, weekend and online courses – perfect for part-time and working students.
The Writers’ Program’s comprehensive writing curriculum is taught by over 250 professional screenwriters, fiction writers, playwrights, poets, nonfiction writers, and experts in allied fields. In over 500 courses annually, they bring practical experience, theoretical knowledge, and a wide variety of teaching styles and philosophies to their classrooms. The Writers' Program's open admissions policy and supportive atmosphere ensure that all students, whether they seek to write only for themselves or as professionals, are inspired and guided to create their best work.
Visit www.uclaextension.edu/spotlight or call (310) 825-9971 for more information about programs from UCLA Extension.
Contact:
John Ferrari
Jferrari @ uclaextension.edu
(310) 825-1901
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