Students filled the seats of Hooper Auditorium to gather for the MSMS’s inaugural film festival this past Wednesday. The theme was “Time,” and the participants had only a week to whip up an idea that would wow the audience and judges: English instructors Dr. Thomas Easterling and Mr. Thomas Richardson, Goen Assistant Hall Director Ms. Nisa Moody, and Film Club Co-presidents Linda Arnoldas and JoJo Kaler.

Juniors Gracie Rowland, Nina Vo, Fiona Dawe and Kaia Williams, the Film Festival Committee, came up with the idea together with hopes of giving students an opportunity to bring out their creative side while also having fun. 

“We want MSMS to have more humanities-based competitions. There’s lots of opportunities for science and math competitions but there’s not a lot of things like this,” the committee said. 

Although February is a busy month, many students attended the interest meeting and, surprising to the committee members, participated in making a film. 

“People were very passionate and tried really hard,” the committee said. “The fact that people actually did it was pretty nice.”

The directors and their films are as follows:

Emily Berry and Katy Chen: “No Time for Love”

James Harden: “For Jess”

Joshua Bates:” Change”

Xavier Lucas Cooper: “The State of America”

William Shy, Jackson Flowers, Neil Sanipara, Andrew Ignatius, James Simpson and David Gipson: “Time to Die”

For juniors James Harden and Emily Berry, the idea of the film festival sparked their interest and thought it would be a fun experience. Berry came up with the beginning of her film on her own, but the rest came by working with junior Katy Chen.

“I think after the first film, I will most definitely be participating in the next festival,” Berry said.

For others, film is something they’ve never considered before.

“I thought it would be a cool medium to try,” Harden said. “I’ve never really done this before and wanted to give it a shot”

After each film was presented, awards for Best Acting, Best Director, Most Creative and Best Picture were handed out.

Best Picture (Overall Winners): 

1st Place: “For Jess”

2nd Place: “No Time for Love”

Best Acting 

1st Place: “ No Time for Love” 

2nd Place: “For Jess”

Best Director

1st Place: “Change”

2nd Place: “No Time for Love”

Most Creative

1st Place “Time to Die”

2nd Place “For Jess”

The committee plans to make the festival bigger, hosting one each semester and hopefully with more funding to hand out bigger prizes.