Rehearsing a Dream is a short documentary directed and produced by four time Academy Award nominees Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon. Cinematography by Buddy Squires and Steve McCarthy, edited by Nancy Baker and a Production of Simon & Goodman Picture Company. The film premiered on HBO in August 2007 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short

Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject

This is a list of films by year that have received an Oscar together with the other nominations for best documentary short subject. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announced and presented early in the following year.-1940s:*1941...

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The film follows a group of gifted 17-year-old performing and visual artists at the YoungArts program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts

National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts

The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts honors the most talented high school seniors, or, more specifically, American students in the 17-18 year-old age bracket, in the performing, visual and literary arts through the YoungArts program...

 in Miami. The young artists as spend a week learning from mentors like Mikhail Baryshnikov

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...

, Vanessa L. Williams

Vanessa L. Williams

Vanessa Lynn Williams is an American pop-R&B recording artist, producer, dancer, model, actress and showgirl. In 1983, she became the first woman of African-American descent to be crowned Miss America, but a scandal generated by her having posed for nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine...

, Jacques d'Amboise and Michael Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:...

. The NFAA has for the past 27 years been helping the country's best high-school senior art students with their annual YoungArts Week in Miami and by scholarships. Over 7500 students apply for about 150 spots in all arts disciplines.