The Roost to Host April Film Festival

As Spring quickly approaches, many opportunities for the UTC community present themselves during the season of new beginnings and transformations. Most recently, The Roost has opened up an opportunity for filmmakers across campus to create and submit their short films to an upcoming film festival happening on April 21. 

This first-year event is set to showcase a variety of short films, as submissions are open to short fiction, short nonfiction and documentary, broadcast, animation, and more. Organizers, including Vice President Leonardo Vega, said they expect to see various subject matter, such as comedies, dramas, thrillers, and “everything in between.”

Submissions are open to UTC students, faculty, and alumni in an effort to capture storytelling across generations and ensure that all those with a passion for film can share their stories with a broader audience. 

The regular deadline for submissions is Feb. 28 while the late deadline is March 20. Submissions require no fee, but there are other criteria such as a max film length of 20 minutes, no gratuitous content, and more which are listed on The Roost’s submission page. 

Senior Ian Matthews has been a part of The Roost for almost a year. He spoke about his excitement for the festival, as well as the potential opportunities this event could bring.

“Hopefully, the exposure will get people's names out there and boost their careers in the world of film,” Matthews said. “Beyond the festival, we want to encourage people to start making more stuff on campus and maybe to the point where we could even pave the way for a film program at UTC.”

Vega also chimed in with his hope that UTC will one day house a film program.

“The goal is to showcase the interest in filmmaking here at UTC and to show what we’ve got. Even though we don’t have a film program, there are still plenty of students who are interested and passionate about making movies, so much so that they still are able to make these fun projects even with limited equipment and resources,” Vega said. “We hope that this festival will get others motivated to follow their passions in the filmmaking world as well as possibly get the ball rolling for UTC to start a film program.”

As anticipation for the festival grows among The Roost members, they hope the same excitement builds around campus for filmmakers and film lovers alike. These high hopes not only account for this year’s festival but also extend to the possibility of more like it in the future.

“Overall, I'm really psyched that this event is even happening in the first place. A lot of film classes are spread over multiple majors from Theater to Communications and even Modern Languages,” Matthews said. “The fact that we can coordinate a film festival is sort of a miracle in the first place, and I hope it means that this'll be a tradition we can continue in the future after a lot of the senior Roost members graduate.”

For more information about the festival or to submit your short film before the deadline, go to www.filmfreeway.com/TheRoostFilmFestival.