“It feels great to receive such a high honor in my last year of graduate school. It tops off three challenging years of honing my craft, and celebrates the mentoring I received from my classmates and professors,” said Williams, a Los Angeles resident, “…to receive this recognition makes me proud because I know that I am telling a story that needs to be told. This award is for all those involved in making the film possible.” 

Other CSULA student artists honored for their work at the festival were:

Animation:

·         Kaitlin Vracin-Harrell (Art major): fourth place for “Fedora”

·         Thomas Salonga (Art major): fifth place for “Chiarosquirre”

Feature Screenplay:

·         Jose Guerrero (Master of Fine Arts): third place for “Retribution”

·         Charles Degelman (Master of Fine Arts): fourth place for “No Deposit, No Return”

Music Video:

·         Ari Linn (Television, Film & Media Studies major): third place for “Sweet Anniversary”

The Media Arts Festival gives talented film, video and interactive media students from the 23-campus California State University system an opportunity to present their work for critical review and recognition.

“The students tap into the most cutting-edge and exciting elements of media arts,” said Joanne Sharp, Media Arts Festival Director.  “The competition sharpens student skills and gives them a chance to prove themselves in front of industry professionals and their peers.”

Cash prizes during the award ceremony included $1,000 and a Rosebud Award to the winner of Best in Show, $500 and a Rosebud Award to the winner in each category, and $250 to the campus department of each winning category. The top 12 winners split $9,000 in prize money. Place awards were also given in each category.

To choose the finalists, a panel of distinguished CSU faculty and industry professionals reviewed 162 entries before selecting 39 outstanding pieces from the 10 CSU campuses that participated. The categories the students are competing in are: animation; documentary; experimental; interactive; music video; narrative; television; feature screenplay; and short screenplay. 

“The Media Arts Festival is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the talent that is cultivated at Cal State Los Angeles,” said Williams. “We [the University] are located in the heart of the entertainment capital, so raising visibility for the Television, Film and Media Studies Department is critical to the success of CSULA students and alumni.”

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Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 220,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to the Honors College for high-achieving students, opening in fall 2011. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu

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