Photo By Edward Scott/EAC: Eastern Arizona College hosted a high school film festival in conjunction with its STEM festival and presented several awards. Pictured are, front, from left, Omar Quintana, Glen Cashetta (Assoc. Professor of Media Communication), Sabrina Escobedo, Kaitlyn Begay, Mrisa Bejarano; back, from left, Jacob Encinas, George Tapia, Nicole Lease, Aiden Murray, Colin Pregler. Kodi Anderson, and Deborah Hallford Hadassah, Samantha Quintero.
By Callie Walters/EAC
THATCHER — Eastern Arizona College’s Fine Arts Division hosted a high school film festival last week in conjunction with the EAC STEM Festival.
Students currently enrolled in Arizona high schools submitted short films to be
reviewed and chosen by EAC judges. The selected films were screened on Feb. 25, in the Lee Little Theater. The best overall film received a trophy and a scholarship to Eastern Arizona College.
EAC created The Arizona High School Film Festival to reach out to young filmmakers across the state.
“This is an event for high school students to showcase their work outside their own schools and to have their films shown on the big screen,” said Glen Cashetta, EAC’s media communications instructor and coordinator of the film festival. “It was a huge success and I can only see this event becoming bigger and better every year.”
Winners at the festival were:
Best Picture
“The Wasted”
Jacob Hunter Encinas, George Tecumseh Tapia – Willcox High School
Best Director
“Eternal Slumber”
Nicole Lease, Colin Pregler – Buena High School
Best Editor
“Without It”
Deborah Hallford Hadassah – Safford High School
Best Cinematographer
“Eternal Slumber”
Nicole Lease, Colin Pregler – Buena High School
Best Screenwriting
“The Wasted”
Jacob Hunter Encinas, George Tecumseh Tapia – Willcox High School
Best Actor
“The Wasted”
Jacob Hunter Encinas – Willcox High School
Best Actress
“Without You”