UCLA TFT to honor Carol Burnett, Michelle Satter, Greg Sarris, and Rick Carter for their industry and academic leadership with TFT Advocate Awards with Nicole Fleetwood introducing the Dean 

LOS ANGELES, August 19, 2026 – UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) will host its second Convocation ceremony Wednesday September 23, 2026, at Freud Playhouse on campus. The event brings together students, faculty, staff, alumni and industry leaders in celebration of the TFT community and its role as one of the leading arts institutions in the country. Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Dean of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and Distinguished Professor of Film, Television and Digital Media at UCLA, will preside over the ceremony and share her vision for the new academic year, outlining the school’s priorities and aspirations for the year ahead. 

Convocation will highlight key decanal initiatives for the academic year and honor luminaries from the world of filmed and theatrical entertainment, and higher education with commemorative TFT Advocate Awards. The awards recognize individuals who have made a profound impact through service, practice or research to film, theater and television. The program will include awards to and acceptance remarks from Carol Burnett, UCLA alumna and renowned film and theater actor, Michelle Satter, Senior Director of Sundance Institute’s Artist Program, Greg Sarris (“I Am Noise”), filmmaker and novelist, and Rick Carter (“Lincoln,” “Avatar”), Production Designer. MacArthur Genius Nicole Fleetwood, Paulette Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, will offer remarks celebrating Dean Shimizu and marking the occasion. 

Now in her second year as dean, Shimizu undertakes leadership of the storied institution with the love of an alumna, and as a practicing filmmaker and prolific film and theater scholar. In short order, she has advanced a series of strategic initiatives designed to strengthen TFT’s global leadership in innovation, inclusive excellence and impact. Under her direction, the school has forged major partnerships with organizations and artists including the Sundance Institute and Lauren “Keke” Palmer, while introducing new initiatives such as Picture Start, a multi-year initiative that explores a different area of industry innovation each year while offering extracurricular professionalization for all TFT students. Shimizu has also established Crew Call, a Dean’s Student Leadership Board that empowers students to navigate the university effectively while prioritizing mental health and wellness. 

“Convocation is where we actualize how artists, scholars and storytellers commit themselves to discovery together,” said Dean Shimizu. “In the classrooms, studios, stages and screens of TFT, we challenge what we know, risk what we have yet to understand, and create what has not existed before. As we begin this new academic year, we celebrate the extraordinary potential of our community to make films, theater and scholarship that move people, transform culture and expand our sense of what the world can be.” 

Carol Burnett, renowned actress and comedienne, is a UCLA alumna whose illustrious career spans stage, screen and film. She began her career on Broadway and later inspired generations during her long-running CBS variety show, “The Carol Burnett Show,” which ran for 11 seasons. Burnett has appeared in “Better Call Saul,” “Hacks” and “Palm Royale,” created by Abe Sylvia, a graduate of TFT. In 2025, Burnett provided TFT with an endowment to establish a scholarship, as well as a donation of the more than 140 industry awards and honors that Burnett has received over her seven-decade career. 

Michelle Satter is the Founding Senior Director of Sundance Institute’s Artist Programs and affectionately known as the “godmother of independent film.” She is a pioneering advocate for independent storytellers who, for more than four decades, has helped develop the work of filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, Ryan Coogler, Chloé Zhao, Paul Thomas Anderson and Taika Waititi. In 2024, she received the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in recognition of her enduring commitment to nurturing independent filmmakers and championing stories that have inspired audiences around the world. 

Greg Sarris is an acclaimed author, playwright, screenwriter and producer whose work spans literature, theater, film and television, including the HBO miniseries “Grand Avenue,” which he adapted from his award-winning short-story collection and co-executive produced with Robert Redford. Sarris is also Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a University of California Regent, and a Board member of the Sundance Institute. Satter and Sarris were both instrumental in the landmark multi-year collaboration between TFT and the Sundance Institute announced in July, which will create new pathways connecting students with the Sundance community, resources and independent filmmaking ecosystem. 

Rick Carter is a two-time Academy Award-winning production designer whose celebrated career includes “Lincoln,” “Avatar,” “Forrest Gump,” “War Horse” and “The Fabelmans.” A newly appointed TFT Executive Board member and longtime collaborator of directors Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, Carter has helped shape the visual worlds of iconic films, from “Jurassic Park” and “Back to the Future” to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” 

“Our honorees embody our aspirations at TFT: the courage to create, the generosity to open doors for others, and the conviction that storytelling can transform how we see ourselves and one another,” said Dean Shimizu. “Carol Burnett, Michelle Satter, Greg Sarris and Rick Carter have each expanded what is possible in their fields while building pathways for generations of artists, scholars and storytellers who follow. We honor them not only for what they have achieved, but for the worlds they have made possible for others, especially the next generation of film and theater makers and scholars.” 

About Celine Parreñas Shimizu 

Celine Parreñas Shimizu is Dean of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and Distinguished Professor of Film, Television and Digital Media at UCLA. She is well known for her work on race, sexuality, and representation. She wrote The Movies of Racial Childhoods (Duke, 2024), The Proximity of Other Skins (Oxford, 2020), Straitjacket Sexualities (Stanford, 2012), and The Hypersexuality of Race (Duke, 2007), which won Best Book in Cultural Studies from the Association for Asian American Studies. She co-edited The Feminist Porn Book (The Feminist Press, 2012) and The Unwatchability of Whiteness (ADVA Brill 2018). Her numerous peer-reviewed articles are published in the top journals in her field. Her films include So To Speak (2025), which is currently on the festival circuit, and two feature films: 80 Years Later (2022) and The Celine Archive (2020), both of which have won multiple festival awards and are distributed by Women Make Movies. 

About UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television 

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) is a premier global interdisciplinary professional school, dedicated to developing visionary creators, industry leaders and scholars whose diverse and innovative voices inspire change for a better world. Consistently ranked among the world’s top entertainment and performing arts institutions, TFT offers a dynamic curriculum advancing the study and creation of live performance, film, television, digital media, and emerging algorithmic technologies. Its distinguished bachelor’s and Master’s degrees span acting, directing, writing, producing, animation, cinematography, design (costume, lighting, set, and sound), and research-based professions in arts institutions and archives. TFT’s doctoral alumni in theater and performance studies, as well as cinema and media studies, teach at leading universities in the U.S. and around the world. 

August 25, 2026