Annette Insdorf is an internationally renowned educator, and author of books including?Francois Truffaut, Indelible Shadows: Film and Holocaust,?Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski, Philip Kaufman, Intimations: The Cinema of Wojciech Has, and Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes. She was honored at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2018 with the “Mel Novikoff Award.” She also received the “High Note Award” that year from the Transatlantyk Festival in Poland. And in 2021, the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado presented her with the Special Medallion. This honor was followed in November when she received the “Creativity” Award from MOMENT MAGAZINE.
She is a Professor in the Graduate Film Program of Columbia’s School of the Arts, and served as Director of Undergraduate Film Studies for 27 years. She is the recipient of the 2008 Award for Excellence in Teaching from Columbia’s School of General Studies. From 1990-1995, she was Chair of the Graduate Film Division. She taught film history and criticism at Yale University from 1975 till 1988.
She is the author of?Francois Truffaut, a study of the French director's work: the updated edition was re-issued in 1995 by Cambridge University Press. After the first publication of the book in 1978, she also served as his translator. Considered an authority on the French New Wave, she provided voice-over commentary for the DVDs of?Shoot the Piano Player,?Jules and Jim, and?The Last Metro, and was one of the people interviewed in the French documentary,?Francois Truffaut: Stolen Portraits?(1993).
Dr. Insdorf’s second book,?Indelible Shadows: Film and Holocaust, is considered a landmark study in the subject. The revised edition, with a preface by Elie Wiesel, was published in 1990. For the updated third edition, she received the National Board of Review's William K. Everson Award in Film History in January 2003.
Her acclaimed book,?Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski, was re-issued in 2013 by Northwestern University Press. She also did the audio commentary for Kieslowski's?Three Colors?DVD package, as well as?The Double Life of Veronique.
Her study of Philip Kaufman's cinema was published by the University of Illinois Press's "Contemporary Film Directors" series in 2012, and is the first book about the director of?The Unbearable Lightness of Being?and?The Right Stuff.?
Two of her books were published in 2017:?Intimations: The Cinema of Wojciech Has, about the work of the Polish filmmaker (Northwestern University Press), and?Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes (Columbia University Press). The latter served as the basis for one of her two series on FilmStruck.
Her DVD commentaries include Andrzej Wajda's?Ashes and Diamonds, Philip Kaufman’s The Wanderers, and Milcho Manchevski’s?Before the Rain. She has been a frequent contributor to?The New York Times?as well as?The Huffington Post, and her articles have appeared in?The San Francisco Chronicle,?The Los Angeles Times,?Film Comment,?The Washington Post, and?Newsweek.
Dr. Insdorf was born in Paris, and moved to New York, where she received her BA?from Queens College, and later her PhD?from Yale University as a Danforth Fellow. In 1986, she was named Chevalier dans l'ordre des arts et des lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. A second honor followed in 1993, when she was "knighted" for her educational efforts, and a third in 1999 when she was promoted to "Officer" in the arts.
She was honored by the 92nd Street Y with the “Extraordinary Women Award” in November 2021; by the Jewish Women's Foundation of New York in 2008; by the National Arts Club in 2005 (Gold Medal for Contribution to French Culture in the U.S., jointly with her mother, Dr. Cecile Insdorf); and by Anthology Film Archives in 2004. She was invited to deliver the prestigious University Lecture of the Fall 2004 semester at Columbia, and the Schoff Lectures in 2014.
Professor Insdorf was a jury member at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival, and served in this capacity at the festivals of Locarno, Jerusalem, and Galway, Ireland. A popular panel moderator, she is responsible for the panels at the annual Telluride Film Festival (where she is also the main translator). Since 1983, Professor Insdorf has hosted "Reel Pieces," the popular and prestigious film series at Manhattan's 92nd Street Y; her guests have included Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Daniel Day-Lewis, Pedro Almodovar, Angelina Jolie, and Al Pacino. Ten of her interviews became a series that was broadcast on WNYC-TV in 2016.
On television, Professor Insdorf co-hosted (with Roger Ebert) Cannes Film Festival coverage for BRAVO/IFC; has served as host for TeleFrance Cine-Club (a national cable-TV program), and?Years of Darkness?(an 8-week series of films about the World War II experience shown by WNET/PBS). She has appeared on?20/20,?Charlie Rose,?The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,?Good Morning, America, and CNN.
She is the Executive Producer of?Shoeshine, nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Live-Action Short of 1987; the 10-minute movie starring Jerry Stiller and Ben Stiller also won the Grand Prize at the Montreal Film Festival. In addition, she served as Executive Producer of?Short-Term Bonds—a 9-minute film that won a CINE Golden Eagle—and Performance Pieces, starring F. Murray Abraham, which was named Best Fiction Short at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.
Among the thousands of students she has taught are actors Jodie Foster, Edward Norton, Famke Janssen, and Angela Bassett; writers Beau Willimon, Mark Harris, and Paul Rudnick; producers Douglas Wick, Bruce Cohen, Jeff Kleeman, Alan Poul, Lisa Cortes and Jeffrey Sharp; directors Ramin Bahrani, Anna Boden, Shawn Levy, Henry Alex Rubin, Katharina Otto-Bernstein, Steven Shainberg, and Sophia Takal; CNN host Fareed Zakaria, and architect Maya Lin.
Notes on Film Noir with Paul Schrader & Annette Insdorf (2018)
Film and Media Studies
Professor Annette Insdorf Awarded Moment Magazine’s Creativity Award
Professor?Annette Insdorf?was honored at?Moment Magazine’s Night of Musical Moments Gala in celebration of her being awarded the magazine’s 2021 Creativity Award.
Film and Media Studies
Professor Annette Insdorf Honored with the Special Medallion at Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival has honored Professor Annette Insdorf with its Special Medallion, which the festival awards annually to celebrate a “hero of cinema—an organization or individual—that preserves, honors and presents great movies.”?
Film and Media Studies
Professor Annette Insdorf Receives 92nd Street Y's 2020 Extraordinary Women Award
Professor Annette Insdorf is among the recipients of 92nd Street Y’s 2020 Extraordinary Women Awards, which honor “game-changing and trailblazing women who bring equity, leadership and contributions to their communities and who work to rebuild a world in which we all belong.”?
Film and Media Studies
Professor Annette Insdorf Opened the Harlem Film Festival
On the opening night of the Harlem International Film Festival, Film Professor Annette Insdorf welcomed the audience to one of the most diverse and prestigious festivals in New York City.
Film
Professor Annette Insdorf Receives Mel Novikoff Award
The San Francisco Film Festival has named Film Professor Annette Insdorf winner of The Mel Novikoff Award for 2018.
Film and Media Studies
Professor Annette Insdorf Publishes 'Cinematic Overtures'
Film professor, Annette Insdorf published a new book Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes.
Film and Media Studies
Annette Insdorf Curates Two Series for FilmStruck
Film Professor Annette Insdorf curated two recent series for the prestige streaming service FilmStruck, both of which premiered over the last several weeks.
Film and Media Studies
Professor Annette Insdorf Publishes New Book
Film Faculty?Annette Insdorf?published?Intimations: The Cinema of Wojciech Has?through Northwestern University Press this month. The book is being celebrated with related screenings at the Museum of Modern Art.
Film and Media Studies
Film Professor Annette Insdorf Featured in New York Post
Film Faculty?Annette Insdorf?was featured in the?New York Post?in a profile last month. The legendary film critic and scholar is currently the host of 92nd Street Y’s “Reel Pieces” series. The piece highlights her career, which began at Yale as a film professor.
Film and Media Studies
Professor Annette Insdorf to Premiere New TV Series on WNYC Life
Film Professor Annette Insdorf will premiere her series Reel Pieces with Annette Insdorf on WNYC LIFE Channel 25 on October 28th at 8:30PM.
? Robert Brink
Professor, Film and Media Studies
Reduced Teaching Load