The 2017 Virginia Student Film Festival took place in Newcomb Theater on March 18th. This year, the two-hour film festival showcased around 15 short films made and produced by local Virginia college students. The productions fall into four categories: documentaries, experimental films, narrative films and musicals, and it was the audience’s job to vote for their favorite production in each category.
Back in 1997, the Filmmaker’s Society (FMS), a CIO at UVA started this annual event as a means to showcase the production of its members. During the last ten years, the festival has become a larger platform, allowing participation from all college students in Virginia. However, FMS still plays a crucial rule in the overall planning and coordination of the event.
As the Virginia Student Film Festival director in FMS, Paige Taul has been planning this event since last year. She started applying for grants in October of 2016 and successfully gained sponsorship from UPC and the UVA Parents fund.
“The goal of the festival is to boost student filmmakers’ confidence, because when students make films, they show them to their friends and professors but it kind of stops there. So the festival serves as a starting point and step stone to higher aspirations for student filmmakers.”, said Taul.
The immense effort by the Filmmaker’s Society and sponsors to make the festival happen, more and more college students could have the chance to showcase their productions to a large audience next year. This year, the audience award went to the narrative film, Monday. Past films can be found here on the festival’s official website, http://vasfilm.wixsite.com/home.
