This Friday, 14 different short films from Fairfield University’s film students will be shown in the annual Cinefest award and ceremony.
Cinefest celebrates the hard work and creative talents of Fairfield’s filmmakers by screening original short films and videos produced by undergraduate students in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts’ Film, Television, Media Arts program.
Junior Shea Burns, the producer of Cinefest, and who worked on five of the 14 short films, has been a part of Cinefest for the past two years as a student.
“These filmmakers’ ability to explore and communicate themes of acceptance, family, tradition, meaning, justification and the landscape of our changing world through the language of film is an incredible opportunity we’ve been given by this school,” said Burns. “We hope audiences leave Cinefest inspired, excited and enthusiastic to discuss the concepts they experience during these films.”
The hosts for this year’s award ceremony are junior Sam Enriquez and sophomore Maidi Severino. Both are film, television and media majors at Fairfield.
“I’m most excited to be hosting with Sam, a little nervous, but mainly excited,” said Severino. “I really hope that what the audience takes away from this experience is all the hard work these students put into this event. Many students work tired nights turning their ‘what ifs’ into reality and there’s a whole committee working behind the scenes making sure that gets represented.”
“I think that events like Cinefest are immensely important to film students as a majority of us spend the year creating films with the hope in the back of our mind that our projects can be featured up on the big screen,” said Enriquez.
All of the students have been working on these projects for the past year and a half along with the guidance of Meryl O’Connor the Director of the Film, Television and Media Arts program here at Fairfield.
“Cinefest is integral to showing those across campus and the community that this university grows some truly talented artists, especially in film and television related majors,” Enriquez said.
The 14 different short films are all from different student directors and cover a range of different genres such as Horror, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi, Action, and more.
Short films like “Evil Murder Pants” directed by sophomore Leonardo Tarascio, and “Temp Check Live With Ricky Blaze” directed by senior Michael Boudrot share fun and entertaining storylines to the audiences.
According to Burns, one of the biggest challenges was shooting in natural environments.
“We had an extremely long winter which made reshooting scenes shot in the fall of challenge and snow had built up over time,” Burns said.
Another challenge faced was when working on the short film “I’ll Try,” that will also be shown at Cinefest award ceremony was their filming at the beach. Director, senior Alexa Sewell and crew kept experiencing loud events happening nearby, such as parties, music festivals and loud boats when trying to record.
Attendees can also expect to expereince documentaries such as “Street” directed by freshman Simon Perez, and “A Dying Tradition” directed by junior Grace Danielewicz.
“People should support events like Cinefest because it gives people the chance to come together to enjoy and appreciate the art of cinema and the hard work that was put into these short films,” Burns said.
The screening and awards ceremony is held in the Quick Center for the Arts and open to the public. Admission for all screenings is free and seats are first come, first-served.
