Ve Neill Scholarship: The Results Are In!

Makeup Legend Ve Neill and CMS Director of Admissions Lee Joyner review materials

After long deliberation and input from a panel of top makeup professionals and instructors, Cinema Makeup School—the premiere makeup training institution in the world—and Fangoria magazine have chosen Anna Cichon, a Polish national living in London, England, to receive their  $10,000 Legends of Makeup Scholarship.

This year’s prize was named for Ve Neill, a three-time Academy Award winner and eight-time nominee. Ve’s work appears in such films as Beetlejuice, Mrs. Doubtfire, Edward Scissorhands, The Pirates of the Caribbean series, and The Hunger Games, and she regularly appears as a judge on SyFy Network’s FaceOff. Ve herself selected Anna from a pool of finalists.

“I’m very excited and honored to be a part of the Legends of Makeup Scholarship,” said Ve. “And I would like to congratulate Anna and applaud her beautiful work.”

To make the finalist pool, Anna’s work was selected from submissions from all over the world by a panel of top makeup artists and CMS instructors.

“We had such a hard time choosing the winner of the Legends of Makeup Scholarship this year,” said Lee Joyner, Director of Admissions at CMS and a panelist. “There was a large amount of fantastic applications from around the world. It’s always hard finding the final winner, and Ve and the Scholarship Panel thought long and hard on this difficult choice.”

Still, Anna’s work managed to stand out.

“Dedication and passion for the art of makeup and all of its facets are two of the main attributes of a fine artist,” said Leonard Engelman, the Governor of the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch of AMPAS, who chaired the panel. “[Anna] obviously has both of these.”

Panelists hard at work (L-R): Kevin Brennan, Craig Reardon, Lee Joyner, Mike Spatola and Leonard Engelman

Anna (pronounced Ahn-YA) originally hails from Poland. That is where she began pursuing makeup work five years ago before moving to London in 2011 to try to break into the British film industry. In her young career, Anna has already had work featured in Makeup Artist Magazine and assisted on multiple feature films. Anna plans to use the scholarship to attend CMS’s Master Makeup Program and take advanced courses to expand her already impressive skill set.  

The other finalists will not be walking away empty-handed. Due to the quality of the work submitted, CMS has decided to extend three additional $1,000 scholarship offers to Angela Davis (Advance, NC), Margaret Caragan (Oakland, CA) and Lakey Yonglei (Shanghai, China).

Next time you see Anna, she’ll be at the School’s booth at Pasadena IMATS alongside her CMS classmates and instructors.

“Utilizing our state-of-the-art curriculum, [Anna] will be immersed in a world of advanced training and one-of-a-kind networking,” said Lee. “We’re excited to have her here at CMS.”

Speaking to Anna, Ve continued to offer the young artist praise. “You have a great start on being a top-notch makeup artist across the board. We all look forward to seeing your progress.”

While Anna celebrates her achievement, all eyes will turn to next year’s scholarship contest. Ve Neill will again lend her name and expertise to the 2013 award and competition is sure to be stiffer than ever.

For Anna, however, the journey is just beginning. “Cinema Makeup School will be life-changing to me...I need to learn more to keep up with the competition and pursue a career working with something my heart beats for.”

We’re excited for you, Anna! Check below for some images of Anna's winning work.