The student film "Token Hunchback" won first prize at the Jay Sanders Film Festival at the Auburn Hotel in the Theatre Auditorium Thursday.
"My favorite film was the hunchback one because the clay animation took a lot of time and talent," said Kelsey Paz, a senior in radio, television and film. "But the laser section of 'Blur' was my single favorite moment of the festival."
Over 30 films were screened from students around the country and 11 films were selected to be judged in the festival. The judges look for technical difficulty of the films and entertainment value.
In the college division of the contest, Ikuo Saito's "Fistful of Love" came in second and Rayvon Pettis's "La Mer" came in third. In the high school competition, Kyle Haas's "No School for Young Men" came in first, Brock Hanson's "Blur" came in second and Manuel Crosby's "The Watermelon Tales" came in third.
"It is a difficult process," said Deron Overpeck, assistant professor and festival co-director. "I arranged for all the judges to travel here to prescreen the films. We had to watch the films several times to make the decision about what would make it into the festival."
Judges included Michael Young, who has starred in and produced many shows including "Love Boat," "Remington Steele" and "The Fall Guy." Others on the panel were Rick Pukis, a filmmaker and professor from Augusta State University, and Mark Alice Durant, who teaches in visual arts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Pettis's film "La Mer" won a third place prize of $275. It focused on different perspectives of a male and female when a traumatic secret is revealed.
"I worked on the film 'La Mer' and it was based on a story written by Dan Walters," said Becky Sheehan, a junior theatre major. "It took three weekends to film and then we did a good deal of editing. I was proud of the final product and I am glad the judges awarded our hard work."
Another student, Hunter Nichols, entered his film "The Alabama Water Agenda" into the contest. His film focused on how the polluted rivers of the state affects Alabamians and how new policies need to be adopted.
"Many river waters are too polluted to swim in or fish," Nichols said. "But we live in a democracy and we have to opportunity to speak out on this issue. Everyone can get involved and keep our state rivers clean, flowing and beautiful."
"Watermelon Tales" was comedy involving a girl and her fascination and worship of the fruit.
"'Watermelon Tales' was my favorite because I thought it was entertaining," said Brooke Spivey, a sophomore in theatre. "But 'Blur' was technically the most impressive."
Other award winners included "Fistful of Love" with a second place win and "Alley of Hidden Dangers" received honorable mention.
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