Cinestudio hosts the sixth annual Trinity Film Festival Saturday, May 6, on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford. The competitive festival showcases short films (10 minutes or less) made by undergraduate college students from around the country and, this year, from Canada and England. All the filmmakers will be present at the event.
One competing filmmaker, TJ Noel-Sullivan, won the grand jury prize in the 2015 Reel Youth Hartford film festival for his film “Public Citizen” and the Social Justice Award in the 2016 Reel Youth Hartford film festival for his film “Lethal.” A graduate of Classical Magnet School in Hartford who now attends Yale University, he brings his film “Role Model” to the Trinity Film Festival.
Last year’s Trinity Film Festival winner, “The Wishgranter,” made by Echo Wu, Kal Athannassov and John McDonald of the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla., went on to win a silver medal in the Student Academy Awards.
The best picture winner will receive $1,500, second place $1,000 and third place $500. Comcast is the awards sponsor. The judging panel will include actor Mark Moses of “Mad Men” and “Desperate Housewives.”
The festival will begin at 4 p.m. with red-carpet arrivals. The screenings begin at 5 p.m. and a reception will be held at 8 p.m. The awards ceremony begins at 9 p.m. Admission is $15, $10 for seniors.
Here is a lineup of the filmmakers and their films.
“024M” by Daming Xing of Trinity College; “Big People Talking” by Sharisse Zeroonian of Boston University; “BPM” by Julia Rose Camus of the University of Chicago; “Checking Out” by Nick Bouchard of Trinity College; “Crosswalk” by Yasemin Orhan of Rhode Island School of Design; “ela” by Mackenzie Bates of Rochester Institute of Techology; “Extinguished” by Ashley Anderson and Jacob Mann of Ringling College of Art and Design; “Gone Gone Again” by Sarah Ferraro of University of Hartford; “Good St. Nick” by Isaiah Terry of Columbia College Chicago; “Greens vs Grills” by Andrew Pearce and Deshaun Johnson of DePaul University in Chicago; “In a Heartbeat” by Beth David and Esteban Bravo of Ringling College of Art and Design; “It’s Time” by Justine Prince of Cégep de Sainte-Foy in Quebec City, Canada; “Marie” by Jesse Zhou of Northwestern University; and “Moonlight Suburbia” by Arshum Rouhanian of American University in Washington, D.C.
Also: “NIGHT” by Joosje Duk and Rachel Hilson of New York University; “Pohovor” by Jonathan Shander of American University; “Role Model” by TJ Noel-Sullivan of Yale University; “Secret Admirer” by Sage Meadows of Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design; “Spirit Chaser” by Karl Pajak of Rochester Institute of Technology; “Submergence” by Yohahn Ko of San Francisco State University; “Tales from City Island” by Timothy Gersten of New York University; “The Man Who Had Cheese Sticks Powder On His Fingers” by Louis Lachance of Cégep de Sainte-Foy; “To the Water that Steams” by Tyler Gordon-Fordyce of University of Gloucestershire, U.K.; “When I Plant a Tree” by Jonah Moshammer of University of California, Berkeley; and “You Should Have Told Me” by Mica Unger of Brandeis University.
Cinestudio leads into the short-film festival on Friday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m., with a screening of the most recent lineup of Oscar-nominated live-action shorts. A reception for the visiting student filmmakers will be held before that screening. On Saturday, May 6, at 2:30 p.m., Cinestudio will show the most recent lineup of Oscar-nominated animated short films.
Details on the festival: trinityfilmfestival.org.
