Ever wanted to make a movie in a week? Maybe the pot would be sweeter if $10,000 were up for grabs.

Campus Movie Fest, the world’s largest student film festival, is currently touring the country and is coming back to one of the organizers’ favorite schools, the UA, according to Diane Payes, promotions manager for the festival.

Payes said this year the organizers are looking for more submissions of anything under the movie sun, from dramas, comedies, even music videos.

She encourages all students, not just those particularly interested in film, to participate in the contest.

“You really get a chance to flex your creative muscle,” she said.
The festival furnishes moviemakers with an Apple laptop with iLife and Final Cut Pro, a Panasonic HD camera, and 24-hour tech support to make a five-minute movie in seven days.

The movies can only be produced by UA students, faculty and staff members. The only non-UA affiliates allowed are any actors a team wants to hire for their film.

The official launch of the festival is Sept. 20 in the Student Union Games Room from noon to 5 p.m., but this Thursday there will be a mixer on campus from 5 to 7 p.m. where old participants and new prospective filmmakers can dish about the festival and what it takes to win.

“It’s a challenge,” Payes said. “But anywhere in life you are going to meet some tough deadlines.”

From Sept. 20 to 26, teams will create movies, and then the top 16 films will screen at a red carpet premiere in Gallagher Theater on Sept. 30 where Best Picture, Best Comedy and Best Drama winners will be announced and awarded.

Those three films will then receive an invitation to screen at the Campus Movie Fest International Grand Finale next June in Hollywood.

There’s also a chance for interested students to make movies for a cause and win $10,000 in cash grants. The Elfenworks Social Justice category is open for those in the contest to gear their creations toward issues of homelessness, poverty or other social inequalities and injustices in their communities.

These issues, like a film last year that won, analyzed why people turn a blind eye to those issues in their community, should look at how fear or hope might add and multiply those problems.

“If you are a film student, it’s a way to take what you are doing in class and apply it,” she said. “And if you aren’t, it’s a way to try something new — and that’s what college is all about.”