Kyle Millsap (B.F.A., illustration, 2006) is in tune with the SCAD aesthetic. A muralist, maker and designer of environments, he has created numerous distinctive design elements adorning SCAD buildings.

Whip-stitched banquette covers add rustic notes to The Hive Coffee Bar. A wraparound lobby mural in Adler Hall is an outdoorsy delight. Banana leaf wallpaper brings lushness to Ruskin Hall's walls, while the mural upstairs bestows erudition upon the new SCAD Admission Welcome Center. Millsap's work is quite like the man himself: meticulous, expressive, and a lot of fun.

KYLE MILLSAP: I grew up in Warrensburg, Missouri. One of my formative childhood memories is going to the Missouri State Capitol and seeing Thomas Hart Benton's murals on the walls. It stuck with me: Public art is fantastic! It activates your imagination and transforms a space.

My senior year in high school, I knew I needed something a state university couldn't offer me. SCAD was different: it's creative and polished. I was inspired by the fact that you can be an artist and be a professional.

I worked at shopSCAD from 2004 to 2010, and that was an education unto itself. It taught me about the market, people's desires and how they connect to artwork, and also how to sell artwork, including my own.

In 2016, I started my own business as Kipper Millsap, using my childhood nickname. Right away, SCAD asked me to paint a 360-degree mural in Adler Hall. I'd never painted a mural in my life. I said sure! My SCAD education prepared me for being thrown into a hot pot and figuring it out. Any suggestion is potentially actionable when you're working on a creative project with SCAD. The mural became a nature scene in the woods, with fishing, an Airstream trailer and a bear.

After completing the Adler mural, I was asked to create the mural for Facebook headquarters in Atlanta. Now, with selfie culture, businesses understand the importance of having unique, site-specific pieces. The commission was facilitated by SCAD Art Sales. It was a feather in my cap.

With my work and influences, I try not to overexpose myself to trends.  I've always been a thrifter and a picker. I love old weird things. I buy books on ornamentation from the early 20th century. I get stacks of old gardening magazines from the 1950s. I build a mental rolodex of things I've seen that are interesting, and that feeds my work.

The SCAD projects I've worked have been really fulfilling. Upstairs in Ruskin Hall is the new Admission Welcome Center, where I designed the mural around three walls. The concept is a genteel study, like a classical library of someone who has traveled the world and brought back treasures: a taxidermied peacock, a marching helmet, an antique drum. You'll notice "The Bee and The Acorn" is one of the books. I selected a burgundy and green color palette, rich but sophisticated, desaturated hues that still have a lot of contrast. It's a great space for people to come learn about SCAD.

Being a muralist is a lot of work. I draw everything by hand, then superimpose it onto the walls for a solid rendering of what it's going to look like. Where walls meet and transitions occur and windows and doorways appear is all taken into consideration in the creation of the mural. It's hand-painted, then I put a clear coat of polyurethane on it to preserve the piece. I don't name my pieces or sign them. I let them be what they are.

My art is accessible, there's no velvet rope. You can touch it, lean on it, take a picture with it. I've always gotten joy from other people enjoying the work.  It's for everyone.

See more of Kyle's work at www.kippermillsap.com.

In 2015, Professional Women's Bowling Association member Katie Thornton became the first coach of the new SCAD Savannah men's and women's bowling program. Thornton, the 2013 NAIA Collegiate Player of the Year, and holder of an M.B.A. in international business, was named NAIA men's bowling Coach of Year in 2018. Along with SCAD Savannah assistant bowling coach and PWBA tour player Verity Crawley, Thornton forms a special force in the coaching world.

Katie Thornton: I was 24 when I was hired to be SCAD bowling head coach. I work to create intentional relationships with the players in terms of comfort and ability to trust my decisions, and a positive familial culture. I tell my bowlers that SCAD is your home away from home, that you have support and people you can go to in every situation. It starts with myself and Verity, and the team sees our focus on respect and excellence and genuine care for their success.

I didn't expect to win NAIA men's bowling Coach of the Year. All the coaches in the NAIA vote, from approximately 50 programs total. It's nice to receive the affirmation that we're building a nationally recognized program the right way.

SCAD bowling is one program but we have a men's team and women's team and we compete separately. The men's game is very different from the women's game. Men's side, there's more striking. Women, it's how to hit the pocket more consistently.

SCAD bowling begins practice the first week in the fall. Our last regular season tournament is at the end of February, and USBC nationals take place the second week of April. On competition days, we get up at 6 a.m., at the center by 7 a.m. and bowling until 5 p.m. My artist-athletes have to be good at time management.

In terms of recruiting, introducing the bowling world to what is possible with a SCAD degree is important. I have players on the team majoring in film and television, in fashion, in motion media design, in UX design, in furniture design, in social strategy and management, just to name a few. It's a diverse group in every sense.

Fundamentals are important.  We drill the fundamentals every practice, unless we're mimicking tournament play. My job is making my bowlers versatile and fine-tuning their specific skill sets. One thing that makes bowling fun is that everyone does it differently. Bowling is an art form.

Being in bowling shape is essential. We have practices where a bowler teams up with a partner, and one of them is bowling while the other is doing an exercise, like a plank, until the other pockets a strike, then they switch. We work with SCAD strength and conditioning coaches on circuit training, weightlifting and running.

Collegiate bowling is on an upward curve. It's great to see. All USBC teams compete for the intercollegiate team championship. Everyone is a viable candidate to win the ITC. We want to raise the Helmer Cup at the end of the season. As an NAIA institution, we also compete in the NAIA invitational in late March.

Bowling has always been a male-dominated industry. But "we've always done it this way" is not a reason for keeping things the way they are. Women are just as knowledgeable about the technical aspects of bowling today. It's constructive to have a fresh perspective.

President Wallace is a person I look up to. We are an art and design university with a female founder and president and we're succeeding in extraordinary ways. You can't use the stipulation of man versus woman to limit that potential experience, whether that's leadership from an academic or an athletic standpoint. I didn't set out to be a pioneer, but I've learned to be a leader. I'm proud to be here at SCAD.

SCAD bowler Veronica Cepeda (photo: Lindsey Morgan).

This weekend SCAD bowling competes at the Southeast Baker Challenge in Brunswick, GA. Follow the SCAD men's and women's bowling program at the SCAD Athletics site.

All photos courtesy Lindsey Morgan.

SCAD is proud to present SCAD AT MIAMI, a celebration of contemporary art and creative education at Design Miami/ during Miami Art Week, Dec. 5-9, 2018. SCAD is the official university partner for Design Miami/ and will host and participate in events throughout the week to celebrate the university's 40th anniversary.

This year SCAD AT MIAMI will host the SCAD Alumni Showcase at Design Miami/, allowing guests to discover six artists shaping innovative environments. The alumni artists include Christian Dunbar (M.F.A., furniture design, 2016; B.F.A., furniture design 2013); Katie Glusica (M.F.A., fibers, 2011); Kristina Larson (M.A., arts administration, 2012); Kyle Millsap (B.F.A., illustration, 2006); Eny Lee Parker (M.F.A., furniture design, 2018; M.A., furniture design, 2016: B.F.A., interior design, 2011); and Katy Skelton (M.F.A., furniture design, 2011).

From furniture design and sculpture to textiles and ceramics, the work of these alumni-artists explores expressive elements of texture and shape in relationship to habitable environments. As a point of reunion, this space promises a unique opportunity to learn more about the innovative work of SCAD alumni and the university's numerous award-winning degree programs.

"This year's Design Miami celebration of contemporary design coincides with SCAD's 40th anniversary,” said SCAD's president and founder Paula Wallace. "I applaud our university's more than 40,000 alumni around the world who shape today's global art and design culture. Be sure to check out SCAD AT MIAMI inside Design Miami for fresh takes on all that's new in design — from a classic cabinet elevated by lustrous brass knobs and geometric moulding to a teardrop lamp formed from delicate strips of river recovered cypress."

In celebration of SCAD's 40th anniversary, president Wallace will also lead two dynamic discussions as part of Design Miami's Design Talks program. The first will be a panel discussion titled "Lighting Fires: Design Education for a Changing World” exploring the evolving nature of design education and how institutions are reimagining programs to allow sustainable futures for their students.  President Wallace will be moderating the panel with design leaders including Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian director of education Ruki Neuhold-Ravikumar, designer Sabine Marcelis, and CGJ consulting principal Carolina Garcia Jayaram.

The second design talk, "Next Gen Insight: Students Innovating Design from the Inside Out” will be an insider discussion between President Wallace and Google design manager III Michael Buzzard on the importance of building connectivity between design professionals and academia. Directly following the design talks, university alumni and guests will be invited to the SCAD 40th anniversary celebration at Design Miami/ at 5:30 pm.

In addition to being the university partner at Design Miami/, SCAD will co-present the 2018 Design Visionary Award to this year's recipients Pedro Reyes and Carla Fernandez. The annual award is given to creative talents across all fields engaging with design who have made significant contributions that offer a tangible and lasting impact.

Contemporary artist Reyes and fashion design Fernandez, who are married, will present a collaborative exhibition at Design Miami/ 2018 that will travel to the SCAD Museum of Art for the university's annual deFINE Art festival in February 2019. SCAD deFINE ART is the university's annual program of exhibitions, lectures, performances and public events that highlights emerging and established artists and visionaries. This year marks the 10th anniversary for SCAD deFINE ART and will take place Feb. 26-28, 2019 at the university's Atlanta, Hong Kong, and Savannah locations.

This is the fifth year SCAD has exhibited during Miami Art Week. Last year, the university presented Chroma, an exhibition of immersive installations by renowned artist and SCAD deFINE ART 2017 honoree Carlos Cruz-Diez.

Additional SCAD AT MIAMI events scheduled throughout the week include a VIP and press preview, artist conversations, workshops, and admission information sessions for prospective students and families.

Design Miami/ takes place at Meridian Avenue & 19th Street, Miami Beach, Florida.

For more information about SCAD AT MIAMI, visit SCADATMIAMI.COM.

Reposing on the SCAD Museum of Art floor, eighteen SCAD school of building arts students apply graphite pencils to oversize sketchpads, t-squares and tape measures at the ready. It's the mid-point of professor Ryan Madson's ten-week class DRAW 115 Graphics for the Building Arts. An afternoon field trip to SCAD MOA is underway, as student create section sketches—renderings of complete cross-sections of the museum's distinctive architecture.

Constructed atop the ruins of the 1853 Central of Georgia Railway Up Freight Warehouse, SCAD MOA incorporates the original brick walls as an aesthetic design element in the functional new classrooms and gallery spaces. The DRAW 115 students converse, compare, and look at the structure with newly aware eyes.

"When you're making your sketch, think about how the original brick wall works with the new architecture to create new spaces," Madson instructs.

Professor Madson conducts graduate-level architecture classes almost exclusively; he can make granular analysis of the work of Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati seem like casual banter. But here, in DRAW 115, Madson is teaching undergraduates at a key point of fundamental skill acquisition and design awareness. 

"These students learn to see the tangible link between visual thinking, design, drawing and architecture," he explains, "as well as how choosing materials affects space and human experience."

Required of all building arts majors, DRAW 115 supplies students with fundamental tools to carry forward into their respective majors and studios. Crucial to this class: students draw by hand.

"With the rise of computer assisted drafting, some aspects of traditional drafting fell by the wayside. Software, especially for a young student, can overly determine your process. When you can draw the structure, your possibilities are unlimited," asserts Madson. "It's something we do really well at SCAD: know how to make things by hand, and then recombine that with digital software."

In the weeks that follow, DRAW 115 field trips include an afternoon around Madison Square, where students draw a building of their own choosing, a sojourn to the intersection of Habersham and Jones Streets and its mix of 19th century houses and modern townhomes, and a day inside Poetter Hall, SCAD's flagship building, originally the 1892 Savannah Guard Armory, currently home to the SCAD welcome center, department of admission and shopSCAD.

"SCAD buildings are almost all adapted for use from existing historic buildings," Madson explains. "To achieve that, there are always thought processes and design decisions in play for interior architectural designers, this museum included. Our museum of art is not exactly adaptive reuse, it's more creatively incorporating the ruin of the brick wall into a totally new facility."

In week ten, the last day of class finds the students in an Clark Hall critique room, final projects pinned to the wall. Each student displays "parti" diagrams (showing the organizing concept of the SCAD MOA architecture), isolated hand renderings of critical details of the museum, and complex axonometric diagrams of the its eighty-six-foot-high steel and glass "lantern" tower. These are accomplished technical drawings, with watercolor, colored pencils and pens adding depth, texture and distinctive personal aesthetic choices to their work.

"You're not as plan-literate if you haven't hand-drawn it," says student Brian Lasack of the benefits of the class. "Doing the work is a hugely satisfying rite of passage."

Effie Rustand shows her work.

"Professor Madson gives enough restrictions so an assignment is clear, but allows for personal freedom of choice," says Effie Rustand, a sophomore. "He has a lot of knowledge and he's passionate about sharing it. What I did in this class wasn't hypothetical—it's clear I'm going to use these skills in my major."

The final minutes of the quarter tick down. The last of the pastries on the conference table have disappeared.

"One more thing I want to mention as you go," Madson says to his class. "The future is you."

SCAD professor Ryan Madson

Thanks to the SCAD students of fall quarter DRAW 115:

Ellie Andrade (B.F.A., interior design)
Johnny Chang (B.F.A., architecture)
Emily Cook (B.F.A., interior design)
Alexa Diamond (B.F.A., interior design)
Rachel Eakin (B.F.A., interior design)
Alyssa Farmer (B.F.A., interior design)
Dara Holmberg (B.F.A., interior design)
Brian Lasack (B.F.A., interior design)
Yu (Liz) Liu (B.F.A., interior design)
Hanzhong Luo (B.F.A., interior design)
Alex Morse (B.F.A., interior design)
Ju Yuen Park (B.F.A., interior design)
Kaitlyn Pernas (B.F.A., interior design)
Effie Rustand (B.F.A., interior design)
Allison Thierry (B.F.A., interior design)
Mikiko Tsuchiya (B.F.A., interior design)
Caryn Turner (B.F.A., architectural history)
Ryan Tynan (B.F.A., architecture)

Dalal Bagabas (M.F.A., furniture design) created her master's thesis furniture collection SUKOON as a modern iteration of the makhlawan. Literally "the place of being alone," the makhlawan was a ground floor room and traditional part of Saudi Arabian homes before villa and apartment living became popular.

"It was a space for reflection in the home that has somehow been lost," explained Bagabas. "I want to bring that back—that's why I made this collection—to help the person find solitude and peace in the world."

She contacted management at Savannah furniture store West Elm and asked to show her collection in their Drayton Street location: "They said sure!"

It was an inspired choice. Experiencing the collection in the context of a block-long furniture store shows it is qualitatively comparable with the best of the retail offerings that surround it. Yet SUKOON is quite unlike anything else there.

At the opening reception, friends and fellow furniture design students stood conversing and nibbling on flaky pistachio baclava from a silver tray.

"Go ahead, sit in the chair," encouraged a tall, striking young man (who turned out to be Dalal's brother).

The armchair is deep-set but firm, its arms set wide to encourage a broad, meditative posture. It's super comfortable, the sense of peace it creates close to profound. There's no hurry getting up.

"If you want to use the foot rest you can, and if you don't that's okay," Bagabas suggested. "It's a personal choice I made when designing the two pieces, wanting the person to have their personal choice."

Careful examination of the chair adds to a sense of awe. There is beauty in diacritic marks, but never quite like this. The tashkil—the marks that affect pronunciation of the written Arabic language—wind around the sides and back of the teal armchair in flowing, florid embroidery. "This symbol is the sukoon," Bagabas explained, pointing at a sort of circumflex. "When you have it on a letter it makes the letter silent. That's the connection, through quietness and solitude."

Bagabas created her design in Adobe Illustrator and brought the file to the SCAD fashion department's digitized embroidery machine. "I separated the fabric into squares, then hand-stitched them onto the frame of the chair. The embroidery took one month."

A circular mirror hung above a sliding door glass cabinet, both part of the collection and similarly adorned with stylized diacritics. "In our Gulfstream DigiLab, SCAD has a flatbed printer that it can print on any flat material. I used this to print on the glass doors and the mirror."

SUKOON's aquamarine color palette is both soothing and invigorating. It makes sense when Bagabas explained the concept of her throw pillow: "The two sides of pillow are dark and light. This represents the duality in our nature."

Born and raised in Jeddah, Bagabas will return to Saudi Arabia as her SCAD studies conclude. She credits SCAD furniture design professors George Perez, Jr., Sheila Edwards and John Pierson for guiding her work. "I have been here in the States for almost five years—a long journey that's almost done. When I am home I will start my own business."

See more great work by Dalal Bagabas at her official site.

On a cinematically misty Wednesday evening, a group of SCAD interior design and fibers students gathered in a corner classroom of Pepe Hall for an awards presentation. Representatives from Kravet, the industry leader in to-the-trade fabric and home furnishings, were joined by SCAD chair of fibers Cayewah Easley, chair of interior design Ryan Hansen, school of building arts dean Geoffrey Taylor and honorary dean Margaret Russell, as well as a number of SCAD fibers and interior design professors.

Thirty-four student teams, each comprised of one SCAD fibers student and one SCAD interior design student, displayed mock-ups of collections based on historic and current Savannah. It was the culmination of the Kravet Design of Distinction Competition, part of the company's Design Grad initiative facilitating students becoming working professionals. It was a full house.

At the front of the room stood Beth Greene, Kravet executive VP of marketing and strategic branding. "You know the guy at the end of 'Fiddler on the Roof' holding the sewing machine? That's our founder, Samuel Kravet," Greene said. A film commemorating the 100th anniversary of the family-owned business was screened, depicting its founder sourcing fabric on the Lower East Side and scenes inside the company's current spacious design studio in Manhattan. Then it was award time.

"We judged based on your inspiration," Greene told students, "the way you told your story, the way you presented it visually, and the way you interpreted the prompt to create fabrics."

Four runners-up received lavish coffee table books and certificates, before Greene announced "the winning team…Shelby and Sheridan!" An extended ovation followed as Shelby Pogue (B.F.A., fibers) and Sheridan Markham (M.F.A., interior design) threaded their way to the front of the room. "As a special treat for winning the competition," Greene told them, "we're going to bring you to New York to visit our archive and design studio." (Sheridan: "Trying not to cry right now." Shelby: "Thank you so much. Can I hug you?")

Room concept, part of Markham and Pogue's winning design.

After the winning duo enjoyed bonus kudos from their fellow students, everyone crowded around a table where Kravet sales representatives Tim McAlpin and Savannah Emerson unfurled sumptuous patterned fabrics from the company's Modern Tailor collection with names like London Calling, Pocket Square, Proxmire, and Catwalk.

"Wool is one of our favorite fabrics because it has breathability," McAlpin said. "Mohair velvet will last forever."

"Paisley and plaids are coming back," added Emerson. "The generational skip and granny chic are real."

The Kravet fabrics were wonderful to look at and feel. (Touching was encouraged). Afterwards, the winning team spoke about their work.

Sheridan Markham: "We're actually friends. We're both from Clearwater, Florida."

Shelby Pogue: "I went to the fibers club interest meeting for this Kravet competition, and thought, maybe Sheridan will want to do it with me. Then she reached out to me and said, why don't we work together?"

Sheridan: "We started by identifying three key elements of Savannah: native plants, building materials like Savannah brick, and distinctive architectural motifs."

Shelby: "I love to draw flowers, so we went to a botanical garden and found flowers native to Georgia. Our color palette came from that, as well as the print that wound up on the curtains and planters."

Sheridan: "It was amazing to watch Shelby work because she drew all the flowers herself, scanned them in after she watercolored them, then pieced them all together. And as we were walking around town, we started seeing the quatrefoil everywhere. It's a detail from the historic homes of Savannah, and we used that motif in our fabric design."

Shelby: "That inspired the print on the pillows. I took a potato and carved that shape into the potato and put in ink and stamped it and made an embroidery stitch."

Sheridan: "She used a real potato!"

At the event's conclusion Kravet's Beth Greene came forward with a final enticement to all participating SCAD students.

"We've made a commitment as a company to support the future of this business, and that starts with you," Greene said. "When you're in the New York vicinity, you have an open invitation to visit us."

Sheridan Markham and Shelby Pogue are already on their way.

Kravet Design of Distinction Competition winners Shelby Pogue (left) and Sheridan Markham.

"Do you know how sophisticated it is to marry navy blue and black?" exclaims legendary fashion journalist André Leon Talley amidst the riotous whirl of a runway show in director Kate Novack's new documentary "The Gospel According to André." In a film bursting with lush color, the statement feels shaded with metaphor. Talley, a Diana Vreeland acolyte, Anna Wintour ally, former correspondent for Women's Wear Daily in Paris and longtime Vogue editor-at-large, was raised by his fastidious grandmother in the Jim Crow South. His journey was, and is, astonishing. As he says in Novack's film: "I made it look effortless sitting on the front row all those years. But...."

"The Gospel According to André" screened at this year's SCAD Savannah Film Festival in the Lucas Theater, one of Savannah's finest historical and cultural landmarks. The gorgeous setting was only proper: Talley, who holds an honorary doctorate of humanities from SCAD, has mentored students at the university for over a decade, and his name adorns the eponymous André Leon Talley Gallery at the SCAD Museum of Art. In September of this year, he visited SCAD Atlanta for a screening of "The Gospel According to André" at SCADshow, including a discussion of the film and its production.

The return of Talley to SCAD Savannah during film festival was heralded by SCAD a cappella group HoneyBees performing Aretha Franklin classics "Respect" and "Think," arranged by American Idol winner and current SCAD student Candice Glover (B.F.A., dramatic writing). "President Wallace has treated me like a prodigal son," remarked the esteemed guest.

After the screening, Talley appeared to a standing ovation. Resplendent in a silk caftan atop an opulent ottoman, he was joined on-stage by author Julia Reed. Together the pair regaled attendees with outrageous stories from their days working together at Vogue. "I don't live for fashion, I live for beauty and style," Talley said, con brio. SCAD has not seen the last of this legendary figure.

One dividend from screening multiple movies in close sequence is the revelatory flash when they reflect each other unexpectedly. This experience was in brilliant supply during the opening days of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, including its essential "Docs to Watch" programming.

So, what could the upbringings of superstar athletes Wayne Gretzky, Jerry Rice, and Serena Williams—all analyzed by director Gabe Polsky in his sports documentary "In Search of Greatness"—possibly have in common with an aloha shirt-loving, academically underperforming high school student named Robbie in Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster’s "Science Fair"?

The answers seem both obvious and counterintuitive: an emphasis on unstructured creative play, a parenting style that makes room for discovering passions on one’s own terms, and the encouragement to pursue interests beyond the core curriculum. Gretzky, Rice and Williams are all-time great champions. Robbie is an impish kid salvaging computer parts from garbage dumps and experimenting with artificial intelligence. Yet they have these factors in common.

Robbie’s programming project leads him to travel to Los Angeles to compete along with some 1700 high school students in the 2017 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). In Costantini and Foster’s feature, we meet other teens on their way to the fair, including an outspoken prodigy from Kentucky named Anjali; Kashfia, a Muslim introvert at a football-obsessed high school in South Dakota; Myllena and Gabriel, two students from a poor village in Brazil decimated by the Zika virus; and Ivo, a German aeronautics devotee revisiting a concept that industry dismissed decades ago.

"Science Fair" radiates inspiration. During the Q&A following the packed screening in Trustees Theater, co-director Costantini said: "People tell us, ‘Your cast is so diverse!’ The fact is, that’s what the world of Science Fair looks like. If we didn’t have girls, if we didn’t have immigrants and the children of immigrants, it wouldn’t be reflective of what this world looks like. There are tons of kids, not just in science, but in many fields, who need to be encouraged to follow their curiosity. They should be our focus."

Costantini’s comment reconnects to "In Search of Greatness," where Gretzky, the least physically naturally gifted of Polsky’s subjects, delivers a quote handed down from his father: "Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." In a sense, and with the planet’s future at stake, the kids of "Science Fair" are heeding that call.

The SCAD Savannah Film Festival continues through Nov. 3, 2018. View a full schedule of screenings and events at the official festival website.

The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and Entertainment Weekly (EW) have announced a partnership to spotlight two of the university’s annual signature events celebrating the film and television industries. EW will serve as an offical media partner for both the 2018 SCAD Savannah Film Festival and the 2019 SCAD aTVfest in Atlanta.

For the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, EW will help program and moderate select talent panels. EW will also host a photo and video studio where talent will create exclusive content to run across EW’s print, digital and social platforms.

"SCAD Savannah Film Festival is a key event for the film community so Entertainment Weekly embraced the opportunity to participate in a larger way this year," says Henry Goldblatt, Editor in Chief of Entertainment Weekly. "We are thrilled to be able to help bring together our incredible EW writers and editors with some of today’s most compelling talent to showcase their experiences and projects."

As part of the partnership, Entertainment Weekly will host the EW Breakout Award Panel during the SCAD Savannah Film Festival on Saturday, October 27. The panel will highlight compelling talent who have contributed significantly in a performance role this year. A moderated discussion will showcase their personalities as they reflect on their roads to success and current projects. Participating in the panel are SCAD alumna Kayli Carter ("Private Life"), Raúl Castillo ("We the Animals"), Winston Duke ("Black Panther"), Elsie Fisher ("Eighth Grade"), Thomasin McKenzie ("Leave No Trace"), Hari Nef ("Assassination Nation") and Millicent Simmonds ("A Quiet Place").
 
In addition, SCAD Savannah Film Festival and Entertainment Weekly are proud to announce two more honorees: Chloë Grace Moretz will receive the Lumiere Award and John David Washington will receive the Distinguished Performance Award. They join fellow honorees Hugh Jackman, Emily Blunt, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Stephan James, John Krasinski, KiKi Layne and Amandla Stenberg.

Moretz is currently starring in the title role of "The Miseducation of Cameron Post," which will screen on Friday, November 2 with a Q&A. Known for her roles in "Kick-Ass," "Let Me In"  and "Clouds of Sils Maria," she lent her voice to "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya," which received a 2015 Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.
 
Washington will participate in a Q&A following a screening of "BlacKkKlansman," directed by Spike Lee on Wednesday, October 31. The film premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to a standing ovation and won the Grand Prix.

Celebrating its 21st year, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival provides SCAD students with opportunities as unique as the selected films. This year, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival received a record-breaking 2,300 submissions for the competition film series. During the festival, students from every academic discipline connect with leaders from the entertainment industry through master classes, coffee talks, lectures, workshops and panel discussions. Savannah, a premier film hub in the Southeast, promotes quality movies produced by independent and studio filmmakers.

Tickets and passes are available for purchase online at savannahboxoffice.com, by telephone at 912.525.5050, or in person at the Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St., Savannah. Visit filmfest.scad.edu for a complete list of films and screening locations.

It's not a spoiler to call "Cinematographer" timely. The new, 11-minute documentary by Demi Waldron (B.F.A., film and television, 2018), an Official Selection of the 2018 SCAD Savannah Film Festival, features six women—Reed Morano, Autumn Eakin, Kate Arizmendi, Maria Rusche, Allison Anderson and Emoni Aikens—discussing their lives as cinematographers in an industry undergoing overdue changes.

This year, director of photography (DP) Rachel Morrison was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for feature film "Mudbound"—the first female nominee in that category in the 90-year history of the Oscars. This prompted Waldron to insert two key archival clips from Academy ceremonies past at the beginning of "Cinematographer." Slight reveal: One clip features a young Elizabeth Taylor, the other a not-so-young John Wayne.

Waldron and collaborator Claudia Burgi (B.F.A., film and television, 2018) will be at both screenings of "Cinematographer" at this year's SCAD Savannah Film Festival. Come see the film, and meet the young women behind it.

Demi Waldron:

We wanted to make our film's perspective as accurate as possible, and highlight different age groups and experience levels. Each woman in "Cinematographer" came to the film industry in a different way and they represent a variety of styles. I cut the film to create a sense of them having a conversation, like they were talking back and forth to each other, which worked really well. Professor Alex Newton guided me throughout the editing process and gave great advice.

One wonderful thing about SCAD is I was able to shoot, shoot, shoot. As a student, every weekend I'd get on a project and shoot it and learn. Being a DP is challenging. There are a lot of different aspects of being a DP beyond shooting, like managing the set. Claudia and I had been talking for a long time about making a film about women in film. We decided to focus it on DPs, since that's what we are and have the most experience with.

With Reed Morano, I've followed her work longer than any other DP. I saw Reed speak at the Savannah Film Festival in 2015. Then I went to one of her screenings in New York and got to hear her talk about her new film "I Think We're Alone Now." She had recently won her Emmy for directing "The Handmaid's Tale." She's one of my biggest inspirations and role models.

The Emmys and Academy Awards are trying to become more inclusive. The thought occurred to me that it hasn't always been this way, so I went back and watched every single Academy Award Best Cinematography presentation I could find. I think I watched fifty or sixty of them on YouTube. I found two where I thought, if I open my film with these clips, without saying anything else, that sets the mood: It starts then and ends now. Having that historical context is important.

I'm excited to come back to Savannah with "Cinematographer." Showing the film at the festival is like showing it at home.

A graduate of Woodruff High School in Woodruff, South Carolina, Demi Waldron currently resides in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she works as a freelance cinematographer. She recently shot the music video "Rude Boy" for electro-pop band Salt Cathedral, directed by fellow alumna Susan O'Brien (B.F.A., film and television, 2014). See Demi's work at www.demiwaldron.com.

Above: Waldron (right) and “Cinematographer” executive producer and director of photography Claudia Burgi.

"Cinematographer" screens at SCAD Savannah Film Festival during "Student Shorts Block B – Heavy Hitters" at Lucas Theatre for the Arts: Tues. Oct. 30, noon; Sat. Nov. 3, 10:30 a.m.

For ticket information visit the festival website.