5th annual festival brings alumni and students together
While there was no red carpet crowded with couture-clad celebrities, the Fifth Annual Carolina Film Festival was nonetheless a major cinematic event—especially for the students whose work it featured and the College alumni who helped make it happen.
The Chapel Hill festival on May 1 featured awards for student films in five categories, with cash prizes donated by Carolina alumni in the film and television industry.
“We want to stimulate activity in the making of film/video shorts—stories with beginnings, middles and ends that say something, that contribute to our understanding of one another and the world around us,” said Jeff Hayden ’46, whose work as a television director and producer has included dozens of movies and series, including “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Magnum, P.I.”
The Saint-Hayden Humanitas Media Award, honoring Hayden and his wife, actress Eva Marie Saint, was the festival’s best-in-show award, given to the film that “best reflects humanistic values, instincts and spirit through story, direction and technical instinct.”
Hayden said, “We hope students will have an exciting time making these films and that they’ll be encouraged to go on to more stories and more films or videos.”
With the help of Hayden and other generous donors, the Carolina Film Festival has grown from a small departmental awards ceremony to a campus-wide event whose mission is to promote and recognize excellence in student media production and screenwriting.
“This was the first year that alumni donors and student works were directly tied together, and it made a terrific difference, raising the level of competition and the profile of the festival,” said festival organizer Mark Robinson, director of the department of communication studies’ multimedia lab.
In addition to providing prize money of $500-$1,000 per award, alumni served as festival jurors who, alongside a jury of faculty and staff, determined award winners. Robinson said, “The prize money and alumni jury put it into the ranks of a true festival. That is, the jurying was not just local and departmental, but involved professionals in the field.”
Besides Hayden, the festival alumni jury included three Class of 1985 UNC graduates: John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and John Wilson. All three participated in STV, Carolina’s student television station co-founded by Wilson in 1983, and have gone on to highly successful careers in film and television.
Wilson’s widely acclaimed documentaries have included “Dr. Frank: The Life and Times of Frank Porter Graham” and “Senator No: Jesse Helms,” while Krinsky and Altschuler have served as producers and executive producers for Fox’s “King of the Hill” and “The Goode Family,” which recently premiered on ABC.
Wilson supported an award for best documentary at the festival. Altschuler and Krinsky funded an award for narrative and another for animation.
“We never had a dime as students, and 500 bucks in prize money would have gone a long way in helping us get an extra prop or a few more feet of film,” said Altschuler.
“We hope that more people will enter the festival and make the competition even more intense,” added Krinsky. “The only way anything good is going to happen is when people lose and decide they need to try harder.”
Other awards included the Piller Award for Screenplay, in honor of the late Michael Piller ’70, known for his work as screenwriter for the “Star Trek” movies and television series, and the Ryder-Rennolds Award for Craft and Technique, named for producer Randy Rennolds ’73 and his wife Dianne Ryder-Rennolds.
A complete list of the Fifth Annual Carolina Film Festival awards and winners is below:
- Altschuler and Krinsky Award for Best Narrative – Patrick, Griffin Kenemer and Ed Perkins
- Altschuler and Krinsky Award for Best Animation – Gorges de Rubis, Amanda Franklin and Eric Notarnicola
- Best Audio – Next Level, Phil Hoover
- Best Experimental – Fragmentree, Trevor Ollar
- Piller Award for Best Screenplay – Philosophy, Sarah Archer
- Ryder-Rennolds Award for Best Technique and Craft – Eric Notarnicola
- Wilson Award for Best Documentary – The Day We’re Not Here, Kat Keene Hogue
- Saint-Hayden Humanitas Media Award (Best in Show) – The War on Faith – Ed Perkins and Shaun Blanchard
