Semester Awards
The following awards are offered per semester to any qualifying and enrolled UTampa student. Awards are selected by a panel of professional jurors. To qualify, students must have made a film, animation or new media work within the academic school year that they submit to BlackBox Film Festival for consideration.
- Best Narrative
- Best Documentary
- Best Experimental
- Best Animation
- Best of the Fest
Annual Awards
The following awards are offered yearly to BFA and B.A. students in the Film, Animation and New Media program.
These awards are voted on and chosen by full-time faculty in the FMX department and are presented in the spring at the College of Arts and Letters Academic Awards Ceremony.
Agnès Varda Filmmaker Award in Film and Media Arts
Agnès Varda was a pioneering French filmmaker and key figure in the French New Wave, known for blending documentary realism with experimental storytelling and a deeply personal touch. Her influential works, such as Cléo from 5 to 7 and The Gleaners and I, redefined the possibilities of cinematic form and feminist filmmaking.
Jonathan Demme Directing Award in Film
Jonathan Demme was an American director celebrated for his versatility, humanistic storytelling and distinctive visual style, most famously showcased in The Silence of the Lambs, which won him an Academy Award. His career ranged from narrative features to music documentaries, all marked by a deep empathy for his characters.
Vilmos Zsigmond Cinematography Award in Film and Media Arts
Vilmos Zsigmond was a Hungarian-American cinematographer renowned for his evocative use of natural light and atmospheric textures, shaping the look of 1970s American cinema. His work on films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Deer Hunter earned him critical acclaim and an Academy Award.
D.A. Pennebaker Documentary Award in Film and Media Arts
D.A. Pennebaker was a groundbreaking American documentary filmmaker who helped pioneer the direct cinema movement with films like Don’t Look Back and The War Room. His unobtrusive, observational style captured pivotal cultural and political moments with raw intimacy.
Richard Protovin Award in Animation
Richard Protovin was an American animator and educator known for his poetic, surreal short films and his contributions to the development of independent animation. As a faculty member at the University of Tampa, he mentored a generation of animators while continuing to explore deeply personal and experimental animation work.
Nam June Paik Award in New Media
Nam June Paik was a Korean-American artist widely recognized as the father of video art, whose playful, radical experiments with television and electronic media redefined the boundaries of contemporary art. His work bridged technology, performance, and global cultural critique, influencing generations of media artists.
Maya Deren Award in Film and Media Arts
Maya Deren was a Ukrainian-American filmmaker and avant-garde artist whose influential short films like Meshes of the Afternoon explored dream logic, ritual, and the subconscious. She was also a theorist and advocate for experimental cinema, shaping the foundations of American avant-garde film.
