News
Kevin Willmott's new film shines light on KC civil rights figure
How an FMS director and an FMS actress explore the horror genre with short films
Equipped with imagination and a desire to create, a supportive group of fellow film students alongside director Olivia Herman and actor Maya Perez have worked together to produce various films during their time as University of Kansas students. ...
How an FMS director and an FMS actress explore the horror genre with short films
Equipped with imagination and a desire to create, a supportive group of fellow film students alongside director Olivia Herman and actor Maya Perez have worked together to produce various films during their time as University of Kansas students. ...
Jordan Nevels, FMS Minor, Looks Toward a Future on the Big Screen
Jordan Nevels has been a Jayhawk for life, growing up in Overland Park, KS, less than an hour from campus. Choosing Theatre Performance and Film/Media studies at KU, she has been exposed to a vast array of experiences that have opened her eyes to what could be to come in...
Oldfather Production Club: A creative and educational space for filmmakers
When junior film and business majors Jillian Markway and Allison Ruschill first became film students, they found it challenging to meet like-minded peers in the film school. The two decided to take matters into their own hands. ...
FMS Prof. Willmott salutes Army’s reckoning of injustice faced by WWI-era Black soldiers
TOPEKA — Academy Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker Kevin Willmott welcomed the U.S. Army’s decision to set aside courts-martial convictions of 110 Black soldiers, including 19 executed for involvement in World War I-era race rioting in Houston. ...
Army's reversal of rioters’ convictions supports premise of Kevin Willmott film 'The 24th'
LAWRENCE – Kevin Willmott is unsure whether his 2020 film, “The 24th,” helped lead to this week’s decision by the U.S. Army to overturn the convictions of 110 Black soldiers who participated in the Houston race riot of 1917, 19 of whom were executed for their violent actions. ...
KU Celebrates Prof. Miner and Others at the University Teaching Awards
The University of Kansas hosted the inaugural University Teaching Awards on Nov. 7, 2023, to celebrate KU's most outstanding educators. ...
Jon Niccum talks new collaborative book about superheroes and the multiverse
As superheroes grow more prevalent in our society day by day, it can be easy to forget their motivations and ideologies. While action figures, movies, video games, and children’s backpacks help the already booming industry, the superheroes that adorn them have stayed mostly the same. ...
Prof. Niccum's book asks "Should Superheroes be Role Models?", raises doubts
You used to be able to simply say "comic books" to imply the topic was about superheroes. But the reality is that these iconic characters have leapt so far beyond the pages of publishers such as Marvel and DC that more people now know Wonder Woman or Nick Fury through...
Prof. Kirk hopeful after tentative writers agreement announced
After more than 140 days, the Writers Guild of America reached a tentative agreement with media companies. ...
Film and Media Studies Department hosts its annual film rally
The film and media studies department kicked off the start of the year with its annual FMS Film Rally on Thursday evening. The event offered new and returning students an opportunity to meet faculty and staff, learn about upcoming department opportunities and hear from guest speaker Deidre Backs. ...
FMS Minor, Emily Baldwin, Interns as Audio Visual Intern with Southwest Airlines
This summer, I had the privilege of interning with Southwest Airlines as an audio and visual intern. I worked at Southwest’s headquarters in Dallas, Texas, and was part of the A/V Team at Southwest Airlines University. ...
Missouri Stories Spotlight with Prof. Laura Kirk
Laura Kirk is an associate teaching professor at the University of Kansas and is an award-winning filmmaker with credits as a producer and actor in many films including Andrea Arnold’s Cannes film American Honey (2017), and Slamdance film The Sublime and Beautiful : (2014). She was selected as a Missouri...
KU theatre and film graduate earns award from department, plans to continue career in Chicago
Diego Rivera-Rodriguez thinks back to 2019 when he began his journey at the University of Kansas and for the first time witnessed the theatre and dance department’s iconic season opener tradition. ...
Oscar-winning KU professor to host filmmaking master class
LAWRENCE — This July, aspiring filmmakers can learn firsthand the methods and tools used by a successful writer-director to craft award-winning films. Taught by Kevin Willmott — a KU professor of film & media studies who won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for 2019’s “BlacKkKansman” — these master...
How FMS alum and trans filmmaker was forever changed by Kevin Smith's film 'Chasing Amy'
Filmmaker Sav Rodgers grew up in Johnson County, Kansas, a more conservative area that's not known to be very open to LGBTQ individuals. ...
Oscar-winning FMS Prof. Willmott offers insight on writers' strike
LAWRENCE, KS — Early Tuesday morning, the Writers Guild of America announced that its members are now on strike, bringing much of the American film and television industry to a halt. ...
First-Year Seminar “Ukraine Through the Lens of Film” students at KU Undergraduate Research Symposium
First-Year Seminar “Ukraine Through the Lens of Film” students at the Undergraduate Research Symposium held at KU from 17 to 21 April 2023. ...
FMS Professor at Ohio State University for CSEEES Conference
Dr Olga Kyrylova, the Visiting Assistant Professor at the Film and Media Studies, took part in the Annual Midwest Slavic Conference held at the Ohio State University, Columbus, March 24-26 2023. She had delivered a talk “Political and Cinematic Narratives of Volodymyr Vynnychenko in Terms of Displacement” at the Conference...
FMS Alum uses his Hollywood ties to create videos that resonate while building up his community
Ever hear the saying “attitude of gratitude”? This understanding about the way we view things can drastically affect the way we see and live our lives. ...
Prof. Willmott talks about the Power of Film
Growing up in Junction City, Kansas, a town of around 20,000 people in the 1960s and ’70s, Academy Award-winning American film director and screenwriter, and professor of film at the University of Kansas (KU) Kevin Willmott quickly fell in love with movies. He has worked on film projects that focus...
DJNOTADJ’s Deep Roots reissues groundbreaking LP using FMS Recording Studio
Twenty years ago, Lawrence’s jam-tronic band DJNOTADJ released their heretofore only album, Deep Roots in Shallow Ground. Crafted with delayed guitars, rhodes, flutes, synths, pads, drum n’ bass, house, and trip-hop beats, the 12 mostly instrumental tracks flow into one another as a nearly-seamless mix of grooves interspersed with brilliant...
Muhammad Ali Event Series From FMS Prof. Kevin Willmott, Regé-Jean Page & Morgan Freeman In Works At Peacock
EXCLUSIVE: As we mark the 52nd anniversary of the first Ali-Frazier fight today, Deadline can reveal that Peacock is developing Excellence: 8 Fights, a scripted eight-part event series about boxing great Muhammad Ali, based on the definitive biography Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig. ...
FMS 177 Seminar Ukraine Through the Lens of Film - Online Guests
29-30 March 2023, two online meetings with the American film scholars on the subject of Ukrainian cinema were arranged by Dr Olga Kyrylova, the FMS Visiting Assistant Professor, as a part of her classes FMS/SLAV 322 Soviet and Post-Soviet Cinema and FMS 177 Ukraine Through the Lens of Film. ...
Hawks to Watch: Chloe Burns, filmmaker, 2018 FMS Alum
After graduating with a Film & Media Studies degree in 2018, Chloe lived the film student dream of moving to Los Angeles and working in the industry. That is, until the pandemic brought the world to a halt. No industry was hit harder than film, leaving less-established workers in the...
SNL’s Heidi Gardner speaks to FMS students
“Saturday Night Live” cast member Heidi Gardner joined lecturer Jon Niccum’s Intermediate Screenwriting class for a virtual Q&A session on Feb. 7, where students held up homemade cue cards and even impersonated Lorne Michaels while asking questions about her career and writing process. ...
Prof. Willmott and Hallmark Channel encourage Kansas film tax credit
On paper, Kevin Willmott and Hallmark movies are about as different as can be. ...