Filmmakers and film enthusiasts alike are coming together at Harkins Theater on Mill Avenue for a night of student-made films and big prizes at the upcoming Student Film Festival.
The 13th-annual event will be hosted by the ASU Film Association, which is striving to make the festival larger and better for students interested in the art of film.
The short films, up to 10 minutes in length, are judged by ASU film professors in the areas of story quality, production quality, cinematography, editing and production design. The winner of the festival takes home a $10,000 rental package from Reel Men Studios, while other winners can take home prizes such as a day to shoot at Sun Studios and rental packages from Tempe Camera.
Enrique Lopez, film and media production senior and vice president of the AFA, said the festival is always the club's largest event and is well known within the film school as the main event for film students at the end of the year.
“The Film Festival is the big finale. It’s what our club is essentially known for,” Lopez said. “The expectations are usually pretty high, just because of the quality of films and the talent that is in the film school.”
Lopez said the advanced level of films shown at the festival makes it a platform for underclassmen to network and connect with those who have more experience in the school, and try to learn and get opportunities from it.
“For underclassmen, it shows what the upperclassmen are capable of, and what the film school itself is capable of,” Lopez said. “Since the film school is more on the lecture-based side rather than the production side, getting on set as early as possible is very important.”
Latavia Young, a film and media production senior and president of the AFA, said the club is a place for student filmmakers to network and seek opportunities within the ASU film community, but also in the wider Phoenix and Los Angeles networks.
"It's a time where students can showcase their work. Once you graduate college there's not going to be a lot of opportunity to see your work on the big screen," she said.
Leilani Jimenez, a political science freshman and networking director for the AFA, said that though a majority of the club's members are film majors, the AFA welcomes all students.
She said the group hopes to serve as a platform for students to share different perspectives and partake in the practice of filmmaking, and the Film Festival serves as a way for the group to reach the larger ASU audience outside of the film school.
“We’re making efforts to reach out to the larger community,” Jimenez said. “It would be fantastic to have more people be a part of it and also share that creative vision as a participant and an audience member.”
The AFA Film Festival will take place April 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the event can be purchased here.
Editor's note: the AFA changed the time of the event and the article has been updated to reflect this change.
Reach the reporter at mmbarbe3@asu.edu and follow @meganbarbera_ on Twitter.
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