Last night at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, Stoli presented Darren Aronofsky with the first ever Stoli Film Pioneer Award, honoring creative and original voice in his films. The award was $25,000, which the filmmaker donated to The School of Field Studies's Fountain Scholarship. Aronofksy, born and raised in Brooklyn, had attended The School of Field Studies as a teenager, and was sent to Africa to learn about the environment and work closely with animals. Aronofsky elaborated on said closeness in his acceptance speech: "I was in the fecal moisture group. We would stick our hands inside a dead animal and pull out fecal matter. I won't tell you how I did it because it's a little gory and would probably turn everybody off, but it involved a latex glove up to my shoulder." Whether or not that affected the number of congratulatory handshakes Aronofsky received is unknown.

We ran into Zach Braff, a friend and fan of Aronofsky's ("He's a true art filmmaker," said the former) who is also working with animals these days. "I am now a Kosher butcher in Newark," he joked about his post-Scrubs life. Braff said he's seen a lot of inspiring films at the Tribeca Film Festival as he works on his new film  "I'm a juror here at the festival and I'm forced to see way more movies than I would have." Would he write, direct and star in his latest film? "I don't know if I'll necessarily play the lead, but I will definitely act in it and write and direct it."