Release date: 16-Mar-05

Emory Professor Receives Film Studies Award

Matthew Bernstein, associate professor of film studies at Emory University, has been selected to receive the Katherine S. Kovacs Essay Award by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, one of the most prestigious awards for scholarship in film studies.

The prize and award citation for his essay "Oscar Micheaux and Leo Frank: Cinematic Justice Across the Color Line" (Film Quarterly 57, No. 4, Summer 2004) will be presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the society March 31 in London.

The selection committee chair had this to say about Bernstein's essay: "We found the essay to be careful and thorough in recounting of the history and historiography surrounding the Frank/Micheaux connection, that made for very engaging reading and that beautifully captured the complexities of race, class, gender, anti-Semitism and North/South divides in the first half of the 20th century. In looking at how Micheaux transposed and radically altered the elements of the Frank case in his films, Bernstein makes an important contribution to the existing scholarship on Micheaux."

The most recent Katherine S. Kovacs Book and Essay Awards recognize books and articles published in English between Sept. 1, 2003 and Aug. 31, 2004. They should be original works that significantly advance scholarship and thinking in the field either by opening up new lines of inquiry or by consolidating existing ones at a high level of accomplishment.

On the Emory faculty since 1989, Bernstein also is the director of graduate studies in the Department of Film Studies. His book credits include co-editor (with Gaylyn Studlar), "John Ford Made Westerns: Filming the Legend in the Sound Era" (Indiana University Press, forthcoming); author, "Walter Wanger, Hollywood Independent" (University of Minnesota Press, 2000; University of California Press, 1994); editor, "Controlling Hollywood: Censorship and Regulation in the Studio Era" (Rutgers University Press, 2000); and co-editor (with Gaylyn Studlar), "Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film" (Rutgers University Press, 1997).

Some of his recent publications include co-editor (with Emory colleague Dana F. White), "Movie-going Metropolis," special issue of Atlanta History 43, no. 2 (Summer 1999); author, "Perfecting the New Gangster: Writing 'Bonnie and Clyde,'" Film Quarterly 53, no. 4 (2000); "Model Criminals: Visual Style in 'Bonnie and Clyde,'" in Lester D. Friedman (ed.), Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, (Cambridge University Press, 1999); "Selznick's March: 'Gone With the Wind' Comes to White Atlanta," Atlanta History 43, no. 2 (Summer 1999), winner of the Franklin M. Garrett Prize for Best Essay on Atlanta and Georgia History.

Bernstein is a resident of Decatur (30030).

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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