In Grade 10, Sanjay Dhawan and his friend Sabastien Packer started the Glebe Film Festival. Three years later, the students are expanding the festival to all high schools in Ottawa.
OttawaSTUFF – the inaugural Ottawa Student Film Festival – will take place on May 7 at the Glebe Collegiate Institute.
“All the students were very happy with the last two events, so we thought why not expand it?” says Packer.
The two 17-year-olds say they want to promote film within high schools by providing a unique and creative outlet.
“There are many ways for people to express themselves – on YouTube, Vimeo etc. – but we wanted to give them a chance to share their creativity on a more personal level,” says Packer.
The festival will showcase films submitted by students from schools across the capital. A panel of judges will then select the top three films to award prizes to.
The judging criteria focuses on production value, story, creativity, entertainment value and quality of acting.
Although prizes will be awarded to the top three scoring films, judges will choose specific category winners, as well.
The Ottawa International Film Festival will screen the top film.
So far, seven schools around the Ottawa area are registered in the festival. One of the schools participating is Lisgar Collegiate Institute.
Lisgar’s student council co-president Nina Acharya says the festival is a great opportunity for schools to come together.
“In the past, a lot of school events were focused on competition rather than co-operation. I think both schools have different things to offer and students will benefit tremendously from an event that gives students more variety in their extracurriculars,” says Acharya.
Ottawa-based filmmaker Dylan Hunt-Weeks will be a guest judge at the festival. He says he thinks the festival will showcase young talent in the city.
“The Ottawa film scene definitely gets less credit when compared to its Toronto and Vancouver counterparts but shouldn’t be underestimated,” says Hunt-Weeks. “There are lots of willing and enthusiastic film makers and actors willing to participate in Ottawa.”
Hunt-Weeks says he believes film festivals are a good way of showing the public how much work goes into the film-making process.
“I think that a lot of people don’t fully appreciate the amount of work and skill that goes into a film. In the same way just because you know how to write, it doesn’t make you a writer. Just because you own a camera, it doesn’t make you a filmmaker.”
Aside from the film screening, popular music artist Karl Wolf will be performing at the event.
“The whole point of booking Karl Wolf was to attract people who may not be that interested in film and getting them to see what it’s all about and the art of film,” says co-founder Dhawan.
For Dhawan, it is important to give back to the community. The Grade 12 student also volunteers at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. All the proceeds of the festival will go towards hospital.
Students have until April 15 to submit their films.