Ruff Cuts, a 16-year tradition of the New School’s Media Studies department, has partnered with the Lighthouse International Film Festival (LIFF) to bring student films to the festival circuit. This was announced on Friday night, Feb. 7, at Ruff Cuts’ first event of the semester, held in the Starr Foundation Hall on the lower level of the University Center. The event played five in-progress, student-created short films for an audience of around 100 people — a record headcount, according to lead producer Amnon Carmi. 

The program was under two hours, shorter than their usual monthly screenings. Friday was the inaugural implementation of a new format the Ruff Cuts team is trying out; QR codes were scattered around the room and displayed on the big screen at the end of the night to ask the Ruff Cuts community for feedback on the change. 

Throughout the program, the diverse ambitions of the Media Studies program took many forms. The evening began with a time-loop drama featuring a bowl of Froot Loops directed by Janay Joseph, followed by a scene from an in-progress feature film directed by Mick Loftus. After a panel presentation from the LIFF team, the films continued with a horror-comedy about a trans-girl vampire directed by Willa Houlihan and a documentary portrait of a Palestinian chef directed by Maryam Alkhaja. The evening finished with a multimedia collage exploring the origins of a name, directed by Shenghan Gao.

The shorter version of the program didn’t impact the Q&A time. Each director had their moment in the spotlight — receiving criticism, feedback, and compliments from audience members, fellow filmmakers, festival programmers, and faculty. 

The centerpiece of the evening was the panel discussion with four members of the LIFF team. Alongside Ruff Cuts faculty producer Tal Shamir, the team announced that beginning with their 2025 festival they will dedicate a block of screenings — around 90 minutes long — to short films created by students at The New School. The student filmmakers will receive full passes to LIFF, and a promotional laurel for their film. 

The festival is held annually on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Creative Director Amir Bogen remarked that LIFF is a place where industry professionals and distributors get to see films that they wouldn’t see anywhere else — a fantastic opportunity for connection and recognition. 

The Ruff Cuts team is still determining how the films that are sent to LIFF will be selected, but the process will likely be similar to, or integrated alongside, the selection process for Fine Cuts, the end-of-year film festival produced by the Media Studies department. 

“I think festivals in general are a great place for students to screen their films because of the connections they can make,” explained Jesse R. Tendler, Director of Episodic Programming at LIFF. “And for Lighthouse, in particular, it’s a destination festival. And I think destination festivals are especially useful for making connections, and meeting other filmmakers, and developing those long-term relationships.” A destination festival is a festival in a scenic location that requires travel, as opposed to festivals like the New York Film Festival, taking place in an urban setting. 

The LIFF team members noted that, frankly, the film industry runs on relationships and connections. And Ruff Cuts is a great start. “I’ve shown at Ruff Cuts many, many times, and a lot of my collaborators that I work with right now as a professional filmmaker, I met them here at Ruff Cuts and within the Media Studies program,” former Ruff Cuts producer and a 2024 graduate of the Media Studies program, Sam O’Sullivan said. 

The new-and-improved program and the partnership with LIFF are indicative of Ruff Cuts’ bright future, according to lead producers Esther Jobi and Amnon Carmi. “Media Studies is everywhere,” Carmi remarked, hinting at potential collaborations with the College of Performing Arts and other university organizations. Jobi and Carmi also expressed hope for further partnerships with distributors and industry professionals. 

In the meantime, faculty advisor Tal Shamir encourages students to submit to Fine Cuts by the deadline on April 1 — that’s the key to getting your film into LIFF. Ruff Cuts’ recent developments are just the beginning, Carmi assures. “We don’t intend to stop there. We’re all about bridging these connections between students, film, and the industry itself, in every way,” he said.