Mormon film director leaves KBYU for hot UCF film program (UCF welcomes new director of film school)
Orlando FL Sentinel 17Aug99 L5
By Jim Abbott: Sentinel Staff

Well-known independent film director Sterling Van Wagenen has left BYU's public TV station KBYU, where he served as managing director, to become the director of the film school at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. UCF is currently hot because a group of 5 of its recent alumni directed and produced the current stand-out film "The Blair Witch Project."

Van Wagenen is well-regarded in his own right. He is best-known for producing the film "The Trip to Bountiful" for which actress Geraldine Page won an Academy Award in 1986. He is also known for co-founding the Sundance Film Festival, now the nation's premier exhibition for independent films, in 1978 with actor Robert Redford. "The Blair Witch Project," like many successful independent films, premiered at Sundance.

With the success of "The Blair Witch Project" Van Wagenen, 52, plans to capitalize on the films success, growing the size of the film school's faculty by six members. The five recent graduates who created the film were at a ceremony on Monday to introduce Van Wagenen, and basically upstaged him, given the notoriety of their film. "We weren't expecting this," said one of the five, Gregg Hale. "We came here to pay homage to the program that helped us become filmmakers."