We have a lot of really exciting updates since our last one, but I’ll start with the Student Academy Awards.

The Semi-Finalists have been announced and 4 of our students have advanced to that stage of the competition. There were 1,615 films submitted for consideration and only 81 made it to the Semi-Final stage making it the Top 5% of submissions. The films that made it to this round are TWO PAPER NIGHTINGALES by Kaylin George (BFA/FP ’19) which was a senior thesis, THAT WAS RAY by Brenten Brandenburg (BFA/FP ’19), Jordan Gorman (BFA/FP ’19), To “Derek” Wan (MFA/DOC ’19), and Kaustubh Singh (BFA/NWD ’19) which was a community voices project, RELENTLESS by Shelby Thompson (BFA/NWD ’19) which was an senior documentary thesis, and XINYAN: ONE CHILD LEFT BEHIND by Yang Sea Liu (MFA/DOCU ’19) which was a graduate documentary thesis. The Finalists will be announced in mid August.

We also have 6 Semi-Finalists for the KCET Fine Cut competition. The 6 films are: STUMPED by Christina Farman (BFA/DA ’18), DIVIDED by Brynne McKee (BFA/NWD ’20), Ben Allen (BA/PSY ’19), Jack Mullinkosson (BFA/NWD ’20), Jackie Palacios (BA/PCST ’19), THE MOON AND THE NIGHT by Erin Lau (MFA/FP ’18), ASSEMBLY REQUIRED by Christian Whittemore (BFA/FP ’20), THE SANDMAN by Natalia Hermida (BFA/FP ’18) and SLAB CITY by Danylo Hauk (MFA/FP ’19) and Prateek Damodaren (MFA/FP ’19) which was a community voices project.

Here are the rest of this months updates:

Kunlin Wang (MFA/FP ’18) – OBSCURE

  • Feature Competition at FIRST International Film Festival. Her film was competing with other feature films for 7 awards.
    • FIRST is one of the three most important film festivals in China and the only festival for art house cinema and young filmmakers.

Kunlin at the Taipei Film Festival earlier this month.

Nikhail Asnani (MFA/S ’19) – SOMETHING ROUND

  • Seattle Transmedia and Independent Film Festival
  • Honorable Mention at the LA Underground Film Forum
  • Honorable Mention at the Experimental Forum

Nikhail Asnani (MFA/S ’19) – PLAYBACK

  • Honorable Mention at the LA Underground Film Forum

Nikhail Asnani (MFA/S ’19) – HELLO

  • Honorable Mention at the Experimental Forum

Nikhail Asnani (MFA/S ’19) – FOAL

  • Vampcon

Luke Snedecor (BFA/DA ’19) & Sarah Heinz (BFA/DA ’19) – PREHEATED

  • Nominated for Best Animation at the New Vision International Awards (Amsterdam)
  • Open World Animation Fest 2019
  • HollyShorts Film Festival
  • The ShortList Film Festival – Presented by TheWrap

Floyd Zhan (MFA/DOCU ’19) – BORN IN AMERICA

Brian Robau (MFA/FP ’17) – ESTA ES TU CUBA

  • Breckinridge Film Festival
  • CineOdyssey
  • LA Shorts International – Best Short Film Award
  • New York Latino Film Festival
  • Finalist in the Stage 32 Short Film Contest
  • Unanimous selection as winner of the 1st annual Imagen Awards Student Short Film Competition presented by the Imagen Foundation
  • HollyShorts Film Festival

Shelby Baldock (MFA/FP ’16) Tanner Matthews (MFA/FP ’16) – BOMBIE

  • Raindance Film Festival

Rachel Bickert (MFA/FP ’19), Emily Tapanes (BFA/FP ’19)– LADYLIKE

  • Burbank International Film Festival
  • Nashville Film Festival

Karoline Ribak (MBA/FL ’19) – COLD COLD MAN

Erin Lau (MFA/FP ’18) – THE MOON AND THE NIGHT

  • Finalist in the Stage 32 Short Film Contest

Avery Rouda (BFA/SW ‘15) – DREAM CATCHER

Brynne McKee (BFA/NWD ’20), Ben Allen (BA/PSY ’19), Jack Mullinkosson (BFA/NWD ’20), Jackie Palacios (BA/PCST ’19) – DIVIDED

  • Nashville Film Festival

Noah Marger (BFA/FP ’19) – BUTTONS THE GREAT

  • Indie Short Fest

Jacinta Filiaci (MFA/DOCU ’19), Spencer Santini (BFA/NWD ’19), Peng Wang (MFA/FP ’19), Jordan Prieto-Valdes (BA/SW ’19), Dany Zavala (BA/POSC ’20) – AMERICAN MADE: UNION BUILT

  • DocuWest Documentary Film Festival

Dan Lesser (BFA/FP ’20) – COME ON EILEEN

  • Catalina Film Festival

Jack Campise (BFA/FP ’20) – HORSE GIRL

  • Cindependent Film Festival

Brenten Brandenburg (BFA/FP ’19), Jordan Gorman (BFA/FP ’19), Kaustubh Singh (BFA/NWD ’19) – THAT WAS RAY

  • DocuWest Documentary Film Festival

Christian Hurley (BFA/FP ’19) – THE TRANSLATOR

  • LIIFE – The Long Island International Film Expo

Jordyn Romero (BFA/NWD ’19) – OF THE SEA

  • Save The Waves Film Festival
  • Sunshine Coast Surf Film Festival
  • Catalina Film Festival
  • Surfalorus Film Festival

Shelby Thompson (BFA/NWD ’19) – RELENTLESS

  • DOCUTAH International Documentary Film Festival

Hank Moss (BFA/DA ’19) – HIBERNATION

  • Traverse City Film Festival

Jonathan Goetzman (BFA/FP ’19) – THE LIGHTNING MAN

Corentin Leroux (BFA/FP ’19) – VOODOO: THE HEARTBEAT OF JAZZ

  • Chagrin Documentary Film Festival

Paloma (Lingwei) Chen (MFA/FP ’19) – EL PERFUMISTA

  • Mill Valley Film Festival

Loucas Tsilas (BFA/FP ’21) and Andres O’Beirne (BFA/FP ’21) – LIVE FAST & POWER TO THE R DEGREE

  • Nominated for Best Student Film at the International Motor Film Awards

Mia Andrea (BFA/DA ’19) – A PRICKLY PAIR

  • San Diego International Kids Film Festival

If you would like to see your name and project featured in the next Film Festival Corner post make sure to keep us in the loop! Email any and all exciting updates about your project to festivalsubmissions@chapman.edu!