The six-day 2010 Ivy Film Festival began on Tuesday with advance screenings of feature films, a series of student film showings and industry guest panels.
The festival received over 350 submissions from undergraduate and graduate students both domestically and internationally.
"Those accepted are the best of the best student films of the world," said Program Director Zach Bornstein '12. Screenings of student films began on Friday night and continued through Saturday. The final showing included 35 films and 11 screenplays.
Student director Ben Leonberg from University of Massachusetts screened his 5-minute comedy "Two Men Drowning in Quicksand" on Friday. He chose to submit his film to this venue since it is the biggest student film festival, he said.
The first event Tuesday was a showing of the new Davis Guggenheim documentary as well as a question-and-answer session with the director at Avon Cinema. The Sundance Film Festival movie "Cyrus" was shown Friday night at the Avon while on Saturday evening, actor and writer Christopher Thornton presented his film "Sympathy for Delicious."
Several student awards were given out Saturday night. A series of awards were granted in the Film and Screenplay Competitions, and a Machinima Competition Prize was also given to the top film using 3-D video game animation.
While one of the festival's primary goals is to allow the best student films to be seen by others, according to Associate Director Sam Grey '10, a former Post- film editor, the festival also encourages interaction and dialogue among filmmakers and with the various industry guests.
On Saturday there were a selection of panels with individuals in the field: "From the Ground Up: Writing and Producing Independent Cinema" with Andrew Renzi and Christopher Thornton, and "From Idea to Image: Where Creativity and Commerce Merge" with Abby Ex, Adam Rosenberg, Bryan Unkeless and Milan Popelka.
"It is interesting to hear other perspectives of how other people are making films," Leonberg said.
"You get access to a lot of industry people most student filmmakers wouldn't get to chat with, meet with and pick their brain," said Industry Talent Coordinator Dan Parnes '10. "The festival helps increase exposure for students," agreed Carolyn Lee '10.
The Ivy Film Festival is also working to broaden its scope beyond the annual April event. A new initiative, Executive Director Whitaker Lader explained, is the Ivy Filmmaker Series, which shows films at the different Ivy League schools and brings the respective directors to campus.
Ultimately, "the most important part of the festival is giving student filmmakers the opportunity to display their work, meet other students interested in film, watch other movies and get advice from industry professionals," Grey wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
