Vermont College of Fine Arts appoints award-winning screenwriter Brandon Cole to faculty

Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA), a national center for graduate education in the arts, announced today the appointment of award-winning screenwriter Brandon Cole to the faculty of its new film school. This innovative film school will welcome its inaugural class in October 2013 on VCFA’s historic Montpelier, Vermont campus.
“We’re pleased to have a screenwriter of Cole’s caliber joining our film faculty,” said Thomas Christopher Greene, VCFA’s founding president. “This film school is already attracting top talent from around the world. It is our hope that independent filmmakers will find an exciting new trajectory for their work by refining their craft, exploring new approaches, and building a lifelong network of professional relationships while here in Montpelier.”
Brandon Cole is a screenwriter and playwright whose work has appeared throughout the world for more than three decades. He has written a variety of productions that have been performed at numerous prestigious international theater venues. His play, Nothing Works, was performed at the Teatro da Trindade, in Lisbon, and was subsequently produced for Portuguese and Brazilian television.
Cole and actor John Turturro have collaborated on many projects, most notably, their critically-acclaimed film Mac, for which Turturro won the Camera d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1995, they adapted John Fante’s My Dog Stupid for Peter Falk, and collaborated on the award-winning Illuminata, based on Cole’s play, Imperfect Love. He is a recipient of a playwriting fellowship from the New York State Foundation for the Arts.
Cole also collaborated with the independent film director, Alexandre Rockwell, whose film, In the Soup, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Their latest collaboration, Pete Smalls Is Dead (2011), stars Peter Dinklage, Steve Buscemi, Michael Lerner, Tim Roth, Rosie Perez and Mark Boone Jr. Cole wrote and directed the New York Independent Feature, OK Garage starring Lili Taylor, Will Patton and John Turturro. OK Garage won best screenplay at the Avignon Film Festival.
The MFA in Film at VCFA is designed for independent filmmakers and screenwriters. Unlike traditional residential models, VCFA’s low-residency format allows students to return home after intense, on-campus residencies in Montpelier, Vermont. Throughout the two years and four semesters of study, students take an active role in shaping their own curriculum while participating in a sustained dialogue with experienced filmmakers of national reputation. Each residency features workshops in writing and production, screening/discussions, collaborative exercises, and a chance to share work and ideas.
Students may focus on live action narrative or documentary projects, animation, screenwriting, or a combination of these forms. The diverse and highly accomplished faculty of working artists offer guidance toward the development of students' individual artistic visions, craftsmanship, creative practices, and audiences.
The MFA in Film at Vermont College of Fine Arts joins a distinguished portfolio of fine arts graduate degree programs. Degrees are offered in Music Composition, Graphic Design, Visual Art, Writing, and Writing for Children & Young Adults. With its highly regarded faculty and focused, engaged students, VCFA seeks to balance its historic strengths while establishing new standards for graduate education in the twenty-first century.
Vermont College of Fine Arts is a national center for education in the arts, fostering the excellence of emerging and established artists, while advancing the arts to create a more humane world. Founded in 2008, VCFA is fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. (NEASC), through its Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. VCFA offers the Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing, Writing for Children & Young Adults, Visual Art, Music Composition and Graphic Design.