by Alex Nnabue ‘18

The third annual Sherwood Student Film Festival was held in the Ertzman on April 28. The festival, sponsored by English teacher Christiane Lock, took place in conjunction with the annual art show, with junior Leo Trieu serving as the emcee. Inspired by the final film project that is required in Lock’s film class, the festival has grown to give students across MCPS an opportunity to showcase their acting, directing, editing, and storytelling skills for a larger audience.

“The third annual Sherwood Student Film Festival was our biggest event yet with over 45 entries from eight different high schools in the county. We offered cash prizes to all three categories: $100 for each first prize winner, $75 for each second and $50 for third place winners,” said Lock.

While most of the submitted films were comedies, other categories included narratives, documentaries, and animations. A panel of students and teachers judged the movies and selected eight finalists in each category. The final eight were then sent to judges outside of Sherwood, which included a local actor and artist along with an American Film Institute (AFI) theater film professional, to rank as first, second, third and honorable mention.

The judges were given a rubric for each category and focused on the storytelling techniques as well as camerawork and cinematography. The majority of films are under ten minutes and some can be as short as two minutes. Many films, such as animations, require a depth of skills and take over a month to make.

At the festival, four to five films from each category were presented. All participants were notified if their film had been selected to be shown or possibly win prior to the event. The film club, whose president and vice president are senior Megan Proctor and junior Lydia Velazquez, respectively, raised money for the event by selling turkey grams, by placing advertisements in the program, and by receiving a grant from the Executive’s Ball Community Fund.

Winners were selected from across MCPS, from schools such as Poolesville, Paint Branch, Albert Einstein, Northwest, and B-CC. From Sherwood, sophomore Matt Post won in the documentary category after submitting three films and receiving first and third place, and honorable mention for the third film. In the animation section, Proctor won second and third place while seniors Jennifer Jung and Michelle Koo received honorable mentions for their narrative.

“We’d like to thank Mrs. Lock for her great work and ourselves for providing outstanding competition,” said Post.