The Jay Sanders Film Festival will be taking place this evening at 7 p.m. at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center.
"The Jay Sanders Film Festival is a festival that brings together student films from across the country to compete in the Movie Gallery Student Film Competition," said Deron Overpeck, assistant professor of radio, television and film.
There are categories for both high school and college students. Five films will be shown from each category, which will take about 70 minutes.
Film genres include mystery, horror, animated and documentaries, among others.
"Close to Home" is one of the documentaries that will be shown this year.
"It's about the story of a father and a daughter, and the father is immersed in the search for the murderer of his son," said Theo Rigby, creator of the film and graduate student at Stanford University.
Rigby was inspired to create this documentary after hearing of other similar tragedies in his area.
"Recently in San Francisco there have been a lot of people getting killed," Rigby said.
Rigby will not be able to attend the festival this year.
Finalists will be competing for first, second and third place. This year, the $2,500 prize money will be distributed among the six winners--three for each category, Overpeck said.
The festival was started by Emit Wynn, a former professor in the department of communication and journalism.
"He started the film festival to encourage film culture here at Auburn University," Overpeck said. "And he named it the Jay Sanders Film Festival in honor of Professor Emeritus Jay Sanders, who back when Auburn University was the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, was the first one to bring film and media studies classes to campus."
The nature of the film festival has evolved throughout the years.
"My understanding is that they originally just showed foreign films and realized that it might be better for the community to encourage young filmmakers here and throughout the country," Overpeck said.
The competition aspect of the festival is sponsored by Movie Gallery.
The Jay Sanders Film Festival simply showcases the films.
For students interested in competing in the future, the Web site www.auburn.edu/filmfestival explains how to get involved.
"The only real requirement is that the films be 15 minutes or shorter," Overpeck said.
He said the judges look for creativity the most. They also look for inventive storylines and cinematography that matches the film's style.
Some films shown at the festival contain profanity and crude dialogue.
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