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FSU Film Graduates’ Photo Play XX Earns ASC and Camerimage Nominations

Published Updated 2 min read

This article was originally reported in October 2025.

In October 2025, Florida State University highlighted two recent graduates of its College of Motion Picture Arts (FSUFilm), cinematographer Max Losson and writer-director Zolomon Zelko, whose capstone film Photo Play XX was drawing attention at cinematography competitions in the U.S. and Europe (FSU News, October 17, 2025).

The film and how it was made

Photo Play XX is the second film the pair made together. Zelko wrote and directed it and composed the score; Losson was the cinematographer and led a crew made up of fellow students. They shot over six days in December on Florida’s Forgotten Coast, in unusually cold weather for a beach film.

FSU attributes this kind of work to its collaborative production model, in which students across class years crew each other’s films. Cinematography faculty member George Reasner said FSU had produced three finalists and one winner of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Student Heritage Awards in the previous eight years, and that Losson was its fourth finalist.

Award results

  • ASC Student Heritage Awards 2025. On September 9, 2025, the ASC named Losson one of six nominees for the George Spiro Dibie ASC Award in the undergraduate category, alongside students from Miami Dade College, Loyola Marymount University, Syracuse University and Chapman University (ASC, September 9, 2025). At the ceremony on October 12, 2025, the undergraduate award went to Simon Blaustein of Loyola Marymount for Pit (ASC, October 13, 2025).
  • EnergaCamerimage 2025. Photo Play XX was selected for the Film and Art School Etudes Competition at EnergaCamerimage in Toruń, Poland, one of the world’s leading cinematography festivals, the duo’s second consecutive year at the festival. At the November 15–22, 2025 festival, the student prizes (the Golden, Silver and Bronze Tadpoles) went to films from schools in Germany and Italy (EnergaCamerimage 2025 awards).

FSUFilm at a glance

  • Ranking: FSUFilm is No. 13 in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2026 list of the best U.S. film schools and the No. 4 public film school. Our article FSU Film School Rises in The Hollywood Reporter’s Ranking, Adds Torchlight Studios covers the ranking and the college’s new production facility.
  • Admissions: for fall 2027 entry, FSUFilm’s deadlines are November 1 for first-year BFA applicants, January 15 for transfers and December 1 for the MFA, which does not require the GRE (FSUFilm Admissions).
  • The university: Florida State is No. 59 in the 2027 U.S. News National Universities ranking.

For admissions, cost and international student data, see our Florida State University school page.

References

#Florida State University#Film Education

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