The Bobcat Film Festival, an annual GCSU event that screens and awards high school and college films from across Georgia, was held from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday, March 6, in the Arts & Sciences Auditorium and was free and open to the public.
Throughout the day, student films were showcased, awards were presented and guests were invited to participate in film workshops.
The purpose of the event is to celebrate the hard work and creative process that emerging filmmakers get to do. It is an opportunity for the campus community to discover a diverse range of student-produced films.
Halle Bergstrom, a senior management and rhetoric double major and president of Bobcat Media Productions, helped organize and present at the festival.
“My favorite part of this festival is showing the films because usually people just see like one or two films at a time,” Bergstrom said. “But having the opportunity to see so many films back to back is something people don’t really do often.”
After the films were shown and awarded, guests heard from two professionals in the industry who gave advice to future filmmakers on classes and making short films.
The first workshop was led by Terrence Williams, a Georgia Film Academy professor and Emmy Award winner, who spoke about film classes and his experience working on film sets.
“I think having Terrence Williams was a really good opportunity because the GFA [Gerogia Film Academy] program is something that not a lot of students know about,” Bergstrom said.
The second workshop was led by Austin Koch, a GCSU mass communication professor and filmmaker, who spoke about the process of making one of his own short films on a low budget.
“I always love hearing from Austin because he is such a wonderful filmmaker and just a really fun person to hear from,” Bergstrom said.
Additionally, Bergstrom remarked on what a meaningful event this is for both students and the GCSU community.
“It allows students that aren’t a part of film programs to see what it is like to be a film student and just bring light to the film program that we have at GCSU,” Bergstrom said.
Isabella Guidera, a senior mass communication major and vice president of Bobcat Media Productions, was also a part of the organization of this event.
“The high school students in attendance are able to come and see how much we care about film as well as how much work GCSU puts in,” Guidera said. “I think that it encourages students to come here.”
Bearing in mind that only a few high school and college films are chosen for awards, each film is evaluated through a fair process.
“For high school films, Bobcat Media Productions votes for which films should receive awards,” Guidera said. “We go onto Film Freeway, which is a festival submission website, and discuss our favorites.”
On the other hand, Bobcat Media Productions does not have a say in awarding college films, considering that the club consists of college students.
Along with students in attendance to receive awards, aspiring filmmakers at GCSU showed up for the festival to gain insight on other student films.
“My favorite part about the festival is definitely the awards,” said Hanna Lovern, a sophomore mass communication major. “I love getting to see students acknowledged for their hard work.”
Throughout the day, various genres were presented, such as horror, true crime and comedy.
“My favorite short film that I saw was ‘The Casanova Killer’ for sure,” Lovern said. “I’m an avid consumer of true crime and their ability to make the film interesting yet respectful was really nice to see.”
In the future, Lovern hopes to be a part of making a short film so that one day she can be recognized at film festivals.
“The more experience I can get my hands on the better,” Lovern said.
For students interested in learning how to get involved with film on campus, Bobcat Media Productions meets at 5 p.m. every Tuesday in Terrell Hall.
