Three Cornellians score Oscar nominations

Three Cornellians were among those celebrating Jan. 23 when nominations were announced for this year’s Academy Awards.

Reed Van Dyk and Trevor White, both ’07, received nominations, Van Dyk for his writing/directing on the documentary “DeKalb Elementary,” and White for production of “The Post.” David Greenbaum ’98 is co-head of production for Fox Searchlight Pictures, which had two nominated films, “Shape of Water” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.”

Van Dyk’s film tells the story of Antoinette Tuff, a bookkeeper at an Atlanta, Ga. school, who talked down a gunman who entered the school in 2013. The film is among five nominated in the “Live Action Short Film” category. It was chosen for multiple film festivals, including South By Southwest (SXSW), the UK Film Festival and the Melbourne International Film Festival and won a number of awards, including honors at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

White is founder and managing partner with his brother, Tim White, of Star Thrower Entertainment, produced “The Post,” which was nominated for Best Picture and tells the story of the days of the Pentagon Papers through the eyes of the Washington Post’s Katharine Graham (played by Meryl Streep) and editor Ben Bradlee (played by Tom Hanks). Star Thrower Entertainment also recently produced “Wind River,” “Ingrid Goes West” and “LBJ.”

Before joining Fox Searchlight, Greenbaum was vice president of production and development at Miramax Films in New York and London. Prior to Miramax, he worked in Israel for former Prime Minister and Nobel laureate Shimon Peres at The Peres Center for Peace. Along with a bachelor’s degree from Cornell, he holds a master’s from Oxford University.

This story also appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.