NYU STUDENT FILM SERIES BEGINS TONIGHT AT DGA.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

Some student film showcases, like childhood piano recitals, should not have to be attended by anyone but the participants' parents.

But the graduates of the Tisch School of the Arts Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University are not your run-of-the-mill camera jockeys. Noted alumnae include Martin Scorsese, Joel Coen, Spike Lee, Ang Lee, Martha Coolidge and Oliver Stone.

So expect greatness - or possible future greatness - from the Haig P. Manoogian Screenings this week, when 17 films by award-winning NYU filmmakers are shown to Hollywood professionals and the public.

The screening series, named for a former NYU film professor, begins tonight with seven titles, including one of its most talked-about productions, director Peter Sollett's ``Five Feet High and Rising.'' The film, about a 12-year-old boy's sexual awakening in New York's Lower East Side, won the Jury Prize for short films at Sundance and was an official selection at Cannes.

On Wednesday, the slate of 10 shorts includes ``Friday,'' Jodi Gibson's film about a pivotal day in the life of a woman recently in remission from breast cancer. It garnered an honorable mention at Sundance.

The screenings begin at 7 p.m. at the Directors Guild of America Theater, 7920 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. Admission is free, and the screenings are followed by a reception. For more information, call [phone], Ext. 5.

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Photo: This scene is from ``Five Feet and Rising,'' one of the NYU student films being shown beginning tonight at the Directors Guild.