Article by: Cait O’Callaghan

Aspiring Steven Spielbergs and Woody Allens who attend Suffolk got their opportunity to prove what they’re made of and how much they know about film making with the help of the Campus MovieFest.

Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest student film festival, loans their equipment to inspiring students from participating schools to make a five-minute (or less) movie for a chance to win prizes, experiment with the film-making process and to expose their film to a community-wide, and sometimes even international, attention.

Campus MovieFest came to Suffolk to allow students, whether they were film gurus or knew nothing about films, to be participates of their national event.  Students were loaned an Apple laptop, a digital camcorder and the latest AT&T phone in order to make their film in just one week.

Movies were turned in this week for a panel of Suffolk students and staff to review and judge. Suffolk will present their winners at a huge Campus MovieFest celebration here on April 29, and those winners’ films will move on to the regional, and possibly international, rounds. The winners will first compete against other Northeast schools, such as Northeastern, Emerson, Salem State College and Eastern Connecticut State University, before competing against schools from all over the country.

Each film is nominated for Best Picture, Best Comedy or Best Drama, depending on whichever genre the filmmakers decided to choose for their films. On the school level, if a film wins Best Picture, the filmmakers will win an iPod nano and entry into the Campus MovieFest Regional Grand Finale. Best Comedy and Best Drama winners will receive iPod shuffles, and an entry to the Regional Grand Finale as well.

As the films compete against others and the filmmakers continue to win awesome prizes, the winners of the Regional Grand Finale will have their film viewed at the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, and on an in-flight showing on Virgin America Airlines, along with other cool prizes.

The ultimate prize though, belongs to whoever wins the International Grand Finale. The ultimate winner of each category receives a meet-and-greet during the International Grand Finale with top directors, writers, producers and talent.

AT&T, a proud sponsor of the Campus MovieFest, also gives out prizes at each level on how well incorporated filmmakers use the latest AT&T phone they are given in their movie.

Theatre majors senior Laura Liberge and junior Brittany Daley decided to enter this year’s Campus MovieFest for the first time.

“We stumbled upon past entries filmed by fellow Suffolk students,” Liberge says about wanting to enter this year’s festival. “We decided that it would be a fun and exciting experience.”

Liberge and Daley, who favor Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino respectively, say they “both have a little bit of experience working with film” and they are “not at all” nervous about cutting their movie to only be exactly five minutes or less.

That’s exactly what this film festival is about: laughs, fun and new experiences. The Campus MovieFest gives students an opportunity to experience something they probably wouldn’t end up doing (unless they were in film school, of course).

As this year’s participants do their final touches on each of their masterpieces and hand them in, they have to wait patiently until the results come in on who won each category, but more importantly, who will move on to the Regional Grand Finale.