Award-winning director and actor Zach Braff graduated in 1997, but he can’t get enough of Northwestern – and film students are glad to hear it.

According to the Department of Radio, Television and Film, Braff, Communication ’97, is giving five $5,000 grants to NU film students to write and produce their own five-minute narratives.

“Competition is fierce,” Communication junior Alex Schwarm said. “My friends can’t stop talking about it – people are very excited.”

Schwarm is the co-chairman of NU’s Studio 22 film production organization and the lead liaison between students and faculty in the RTVF department.

Schwarm said about 40 students applied for the grant. For the first round, applicants only had to submit a synopsis of their proposed film. In the coming weeks, faculty will read the proposals and narrow the applicant pool down to 25 students, who will then be asked to script their ideas and submit a full screenplay in February.

One week later, 10-15 semi-finalists will be chosen. Braff will read their scripts and confer with faculty to select the five winners by Feb. 25. The winners are expected to complete their film by the end of Spring Quarter.

Schwarm said students appreciate the chance to obtain grants because financing movies is difficult.

“Making movies is expensive,” Schwarm said. “The only other way to get a substantial grant to finance a student film is through Studio 22.”

When Braff was a senior at NU, he won Studio 22’s $7,500 Bindley Grant, the biggest film grant offered on campus. He made a 20-minute film, “Lionel on His Sun Day,” and enlisted his RTVF professor of three years, David Downs, to play a part in the movie.

“I thought he was energetic, vibrant,” Downs said. “He loved my class.”

When Braff came to speak at NU last year, he spent time with Downs and School of Communication Dean Barbara O’Keefe. Downs said Braff was excited to see the technological advances that the department had made.

“He decided spur of the moment to donate money to student film,” Downs said.

According to Schwarm, Braff took his experience at NU into consideration when he developed the grant program. He said Braff wished he had made a shorter film that he could have shown to studios after he graduated.

“Studio executives don’t have time to sit and watch a long movie,” Schwarm said.

The goal of the grants is to give students enough money to make a short film that they can use as a “calling card” when they enter the workforce, Schwarm said.

Grant recipients will choose their cinematographers and producers. Each team will be enrolled in the Spring Quarter production grant workshop taught by Prof. Laura Kipnis.

Communication senior Nichole Roberts said film students are excited by the prospect of getting credit for working on a film under the grant.

“(The recipients of the grant) will get money and credit, which the school has been denying us for years,” Roberts said.

Roberts said Braff stipulated that applicants do not already have a substantial grant from another source, so that funds would be distributed fairly throughout the film community.

“(Braff) made a point to make sure people who already have grants don’t double dip,” Roberts said.

The first year of the grant program will act as a “test run” to see if the “selection process and format is right,” Schwarm said. He added he is not surprised that Braff has stayed involved with NU.

“The entire School of Communication is very connected,” Schwarm said. “The ‘Purple Mafia’ really sticks together.”

Reach Rachel Kopilow at [email protected].