| BENNINGTON, Vt., Feb. 27, 2007—The Academy Awards celebrated not one but two Bennington College alumni with Oscar awards this year - Alan Arkin ’55and Alethea Root ’02.
Root, a production designer for the short film West Bank Story scored big as part of the team, which won the Academy Award for best live-action short film. Accepting the award was the director, Ari Sandel. He described the film as a "comedy musical about Israelis and Palestinians that takes place between two falafel stands."
Root, who designed and built the aforementioned stands from the ground up, described to the Berkshire Eagle the intensity with which she and her small crew labored over the set to deliver a promise to the “very specific” director, Ari Sandel. Working 24-hours, six days a week for a month, Root and her team succeeded in bringing the West Bank to life.
For Root, whose dream it is to direct her own film, the Oscar will provide a considerable boost within the industry. “It gives me clout and it looks good on the résumé, but I'm still holding out for my own Oscar…Now I can turn down work, which is a nice position to be in," she reflected.
Root was not the only Bennington alumni celebrating a win last night; former visiting faculty member and alumnus Alan Arkin ’55 won his first Academy Award for his supporting roll as “Grandpa” in the critically acclaimed, smash hit film Little Miss Sunshine, which was recognized by the Academy with an Oscar for best original screenplay. Arkin accepted the award and read a prepared speech, saying: "More than anything, I'm deeply moved by the open-hearted appreciation our small film has received, which in these fragmented times speaks so openly of the possibility of innocence.” He continued, thanking, among other people, his “teachers both inside and outside of the industry.”
Arkin beat out actors Jackie Earle Haley, Djimon Hounsou, Eddie Murphy, and Mark Wahlberg to claim his first Academy Award, after accumulating three nominations throughout his long and prestigious acting career.
Arkin’s performance as “Grandpa” has earned him an Independent Spirit Award, a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award, for best supporting actor, as well as a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards for his role in the best acting ensemble. He was also honored last month by the Film Society of Lincoln Center for a career of presenting “the idiosyncrasies and oddities of his characters, for bringing them to life with all their anxieties and quirks.”
For more information please visit www.bennington.eduor call 802-440-4743.
Bennington College, a nationally recognized liberal arts college with enrollment of 720 students (570 undergraduate, 150 graduate) is located on 470 acres in the Green Mountains of southwestern Vermont. The College offers a full range of study, with programs in the humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences, and visual and performing arts, as well as a five-year Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in Teaching. Additional graduate programs include a Master of Fine Arts in Writing, a Master of Fine Arts in Performing Arts, and a Master of Arts in Teaching a Second Language. |
