Lautzenheiser wins CINE Golden Eagle award

'Just Like It Was,' a film directed by COM graduate (2007) and current Lecturer in Screenwriting William Lautzenheiser, has won a prestigious CINE Golden Eagle award. The film's original script, by COM graduate Suzi Ryder (2007), was a finalist in the 2005-2006 Fleder-Rosenberg short script contest. Lautzenheiser applied for and won a grant (the Joseph A. Lalli Filmmaker prize) to produce the script. The film was completed in the fall of 2007 and earned the Golden Eagle award in the spring of 2008.

The CINE Golden Eagle awards, distinguishing excellence in  professional, independent and student works, are recognized internationally as symbols of the highest production standards in filmmaking and videography. Among great talents whose first major awards included the CINE Golden Eagle are Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, and such great documentarians as Ken Burns, Charles Guggenheim, Stanley Nelson, Albert Maysles and Frederick Wiseman.

Founded in 1957 by a consortium representing business, education, and government to depict American life and thought realistically for a global audience, CINE continues to recognize and foster the highest quality of non-theatrical film and video production through its semi-annual competitions.

In the Spring 2008 Competition, over three hundred judges viewed and evaluated hundreds of distinguished entries. Experienced professionals in the field of film and video production, as well as subject matter experts, serve in a volunteer capacity. They judge the entries using standards of overall excellence, evaluating such criteria as storytelling, production value, artistry, the extent to which the film meets its stated goals and communicates with its intended audience, and overall excellence.