The 6th annual 2012 Student Film Festival took place on Wednesday, April 18 in Wallace Theater.
This years Film Festival was sponsored by Associated Students of California Baptist University, CBUCollege of Arts and Sciences, and College of Architecture, Visual Arts and Design.
The theme selected by the festival committee was “Celebrating Beauty.”
The contestants were asked to submit short films that explored the concept of beauty in ways that depict Christ’s compassion to the world, and uplift humanity as God’s creation.
“We picked the theme of ‘Celebrating Beauty’ because there is so much ugliness in film these days,” Mark Roberson, dean of the school of architecture and design and festival committee member, said. “We wanted the contestants to explore what true beauty looks like. There is true beauty everywhere because everything that God created he made beautiful.”
There were a total of eights films that entered the competition. Upon entering the competition students were required to follow specific guidelines, which included that no film could exceed five minutes.
Each film competed for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Winners received cash prizes.
The special short film that won the most awards of the night, including 1st place and the $300 cash prize, was entitled “Unconditional.”
This film was submitted by CBU’s Film Club calling themselves “Vertigo Productions” and was directed by junior Trevor Merrill.
Along with Best Film, “Unconditional” won four other awards including: Best Cinematography, Best Screenwriting, Best Music/Soundtrack and Best Lead Actress junior, Katie Waisanen.
“Our film illustrates how beauty can be found in the worst situations in life,” Grace Choung, Film Club member, said. “It was important for us to illustrate Christ’s love for us in way that didn’t present itself to ‘over-Christianize,’ or sound ‘too preachy,’ It was very difficult to translate God’s immeasurable love on film. We had to do a lot of revisions, but in the end it was definitely worth it.”
Among the other awards: 2nd place went to “One Shot,” 3rd place went to “Eva,” Best Actor went to senior Richard Wickham, Best Cinematography in a Non-Narrative went to “The Girl at the Beach” with cinematography by senior Joshua Tant and Best Supporting Actress went to Eva Smith.*
Next year’s Film Festival will be held off-campus in downtown Riverside for the first time. Along with the festival, there will also be an art gallery showcasing students work.
“Our goal is for students to learn how to make good films, and to continue to express their thoughts,” Roberson said. “Film is the communication medium of today, and the more access students have with it earlier on, the better they’ll be with it in the future.”
*this name has been changed.
