As the lights dimmed, young animators, filmmakers, and their supporters gathered to see their works on the big screen. After six years of planning by Video Production teacher Leticia Saliani and Animation teacher Kristen Marien, the first Animation & Film Festival took place after school in the Library Great Room on Thursday, April 2.

“We actually started [planning] it in 2019,” Ms. Saliani said. “But then COVID hit, so we were never able to finish it. This year, we said ‘This is the year. Let’s launch it again and get it out there so students can highlight the stuff that they’ve been working on — even those who weren’t in our video or animation classes.’”

The festival inspired numerous students to create and submit their works. To celebrate the winners in the animation and live-action short categories, Ms. Saliani and Ms. Marien reached out to sponsors who were willing to donate prizes, including the Career and Technology Education course (CTE) specialists. The CTE judges also judged the festival, providing an unbiased, outside perspective when deciding the winners. Prior to the festival, Ms. Saliani and Ms. Marien thoroughly looked through over 35 submissions to ensure that they were of high quality and followed the guidelines.

“We definitely wanted the students in our classes to feel represented, but we also wanted to open it up for the entire school, so everyone would feel like they have a creative space to share their work alongside and just to promote our artistic film and animation community,” Ms. Marien said. “I’m most excited about just everyone coming together to celebrate a great year and lots of creative work.”

The projects varied from animated reels to narrative short films, with one winner per category. In the animation category, Abrielle Smith ‘26 won with her project SMITH’s GIANT Animation Reel. Her submission was a collection of all of her animated work across four years edited together.

“I did multiple submissions, but this one was my pride and joy,” Smith said. “It’s everything I’ve made, and it was crazy to go back in time like that. I’m especially very excited that this event has started as a thing because I’ve heard about film festivals in colleges, and the fact that it’s brought to our school is amazing.”

For the live-action short category, the winner was Sofiia Lypova ‘28 with her short film Stuck in a Loop, featuring sophomores Emily Ramos ‘28 and Tabatha Maldonado ‘28 as lead actress and assistant director, respectively. Lypova’s film depicted how a person feels ‘stuck in a loop’, concluding with the main character eventually finding their way out.

“[Being lead actress] was really fun,” Ramos said. “I got to spend a lot of time with my friends and drive them crazy. It was honestly pretty cool.”

Ms. Saliani and Ms. Marien look forward to organizing the festival next year. They hope to host the festival in a movie theater to expand the scale and number of spectators. This Animation & Film festival was a great opportunity for all students to showcase their projects and creativity.

“We hope that it keeps growing and getting bigger to where more students become aware of it,” Ms. Saliani said. “It might even inspire them because I know there are students who are creating who aren’t in our classes. [The festival] will give them a place to feature their work.”