Faculty Spotlight: SOU’s Andrew Gay receives UFVA teaching excellence award

Aug. 22, 2022

Andrew Gay – an associate professor of Digital Cinema and chair of Communication, Media and Cinema at SOU – recently received the Teaching Excellence Award from the University Film and Video (UFVA) Association. Gay was nominated by Jennifer Proctor, a professor at University of Michigan, Dearborn, who also founded Edit Media – a media educator organization with which he is involved.

The University Film and Video Association holds conferences each year, at which educators in the field of filmmaking and media meet to share ideas on teaching the craft, screen projects and recognize influential figures in the field during an award ceremony. Gay attended the 2022 UFVA conference in July, giving featured presentations on his “ungrading” grading style in which students decide their final grades, and on the Digital Cinema program’s Crew Experience, in which students get on-set experience through an immersive, 12-credit course as they collaborate with faculty and industry mentors on a significant film project.

Gay has devoted more than 12 years of his career to teaching film and communication to burgeoning creative minds – nine of them at SOU. He is originally from the “Space Coast” of Florida, and attended the University of Central Florida, where he graduated with a master of fine arts degree in film production. He worked several positions within the Orlando Film Commission, and other jobs as a production coordinator and assistant director. He has worked on a variety of feature films, documentaries and commercials.

Through teaching film part-time at UCF, Gay developed a true passion for helping students find their voice and bring ideas to life. While being an educator is his main gig, Gay still engages in various other creative projects – including writing various scholarly film texts and working with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

We sat down with Gay for the second installment of our Faculty Spotlight podcast series. Please enjoy as we discuss his career in film, Digital Cinema at SOU and his new award.

Faculty Spotlight – Episode #2