This year’s Princeton Student Film & Video Festival features 25 original short films by high school- and college-age students curated from 102 submissions. Shown over two nights, Wednesday, July 18, and Thursday, July 19, the selections include works by local filmmakers, as well as some from throughout the United States and around the world.
Many of the local student filmmakers will attend the festival to introduce their films and engage in a Q&A with the audience. There are 11 filmmakers from New Jersey and five from New York. Six of the films by New Jersey filmmakers are by high school students who attend Princeton Day School, Montgomery High, Communications High School, Jackson Liberty High School and Millburn High School.
The college and universities attended by the filmmakers in our region include Bard College, Columbia University, Mercer County Community College, Montclair State University, New York University, Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs) and Temple University. Two of the films were produced by Vassar College students. From points farther west, we have films from students in universities in Waco, Texas; and Bozeman, Mont.
Our seven international selections are from Belgium, Ireland, Romania, Spain, the U.K. and two from Hong Kong.
The festival highlights the diversity of the films in technique and genre such as abstract, animation, documentary, dramatic and personal narrative, music video and our first-ever musical!
Comedy, a challenging genre, is well represented this year, and entries range from stories about clashing cultures over a fender-bender; a struggling team of documentary filmmakers and the team of ghost hunters they follow; a parody of TV public service announcements asking for support for “the helpless liberal arts college graduate”; a rock with magic potential; two guys trying to get the nerve to talk to a girl – before it’s too late; romance between fruit varieties; and the festival’s first-ever musical, a comedy-parody about the struggles of a community theater production.
The festival starts at 7 p.m. each night and is intended for a teen and adult audience. Admission is free.
The names of the films and filmmakers are online, and please stay tuned for more details on the films and the program guide.