Lights, camera, action! City High’s Film Festival is an annual tradition that offers students from all background experiences and interests the opportunity to create a film production independently. Everything ranging from directing, acting, to editing, students have a full range of free creativity in their work. 

“There are a lot of student filmmakers at City High, aspiring filmmakers. We want to give them an opportunity and a venue to be able to show their work. And then even people that just do it for fun. It’s just entertaining to have; an audience to show your work,” says Michael Close, art teacher and coordinator of Film Fest. This year’s Film Festival submissions were due by Friday, April 29, and the showing will take place at Opstad Auditorium on Friday, May 6. Potential films include a wide variety of genres and themes. 

Film Fest is an evening that offers fun for all. Whether you’ve participated in a film or not, it’s an evening worthy of attending just to relax and watch the student made movies. The event is back up in person with a more traditional take this year after an online show in 2020 due to COVID-19 and a less than interactive show in 2021 . 

“Normally we have hosts that introduce fantastic films. After all the films are shown we have a reception with snacks, and then people vote for a People’s Choice Award. Everybody that comes gets to vote on their favorite film they saw that we would do an awards ceremony. We didn’t do that last year. Last year it was just show all the movies, film festivals, no interactive, no snacks, no anything like that. In 2020 It was all online. We did it through Zoom, people just had a Zoom link they could follow.”