The ذكذكتسئµ University Department of Communication and Media recently announced the recipients of its inaugural high school film contest. The theme of the film contest was horror, and students could choose any sub-genre to go along with the horror theme. Winners of the contest include:
1st place: "Awaken," by Hannah Le, Homeschool; 2nd place: "Threat" by Payden Furlow and Brennan Lawrence, Lumberton High School; 3rd place: "Subject 1" by Jazmine Sanchez, Bob Hope Academy.
To kick off the contest, Hannah Hudgins, Department of Communication and Media recent May 2020 graduate, and O’Brien Stanley, professor of Film Studies, visited local high schools to get students involved with the competition and talk more about the award-winning film program within the Department of Communication and Media.
“We did this before COVID and had no idea how this would impact the students and their work. However, despite all of the odds stacked against them, we had 10 teams submit films,” said Hudgins. “We had young filmmakers from all over the state of Texas submit work.”
The positive communication continued after schools shut down and the virtual nature of the film festival allowed everyone a chance to practice their video skills and show off their story-telling abilities.
“This high school film festival was a great success,” said Stanley. “We enjoyed working together with the teachers and students. We couldn’t have pulled this off without the help of Hannah and one of our other film students, Valerie Flores, and the generous support from our department chair, Natalie Tindall, and Julia Rodriguez, director of the Boomtown Film Festival.”
The department hopes to host this film project, along with others, in the future.
For information about the LU Department of Communication and Media or to learn more about the degree programs offered, please visit
lamar.edu/communication.