On Wednesday, Nov. 8th, BrockTV hosted the Render This Film Festival for the first time after a three-year hiatus. The festival screened student-made films at the Film House in the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre.
Five films were screened at the festival, following the theme of “How did we end up here?”: Come Over, The Counterfeit, Siren, HOW DID WE END UP HERE and Spaghetti Goons.
These student-directed films were also judged at the event by industry professionals such as Adrian Theissen, a founding member of BrockTV.
Other judges included Conner Wilkes from Brock’s Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film; Erica Benedikty, a producer and director; and Anthony Kinik, a film professor at Brock.
The student crews responsible for the films had the opportunity to win a $500 prize for winning first place and a $300 prize for second place. Additionally, there was a $100 prize for the Audience Choice winner, which was voted on by audience members.
Submissions for the festival opened on Sept. 29th, giving students until Oct. 12th to register for the festival with teams of three to five people. The day after the registration period closed, BrockTV provided registered participants with the criteria for submissions. The films had to feature a montage, follow the theme of “How did we end up here?”, and include a wooden spoon in some capacity throughout the short film. Students then had two weeks to record and submit their films.
Taylor Westbury from BrockTV hosted the event throughout the evening, offering light-hearted commentary to introduce each film, and later on, announcing the winners of the festival.
Westbury first announced the film Spaghetti Goons as the winner for second place in the festival. Spaghetti Goons features a comedic bromance that circumvents the highs and lows of life through pasta-making. The Spaghetti Goons crew was composed of four Brock students: Lucas Candelino, Kyle Manson, Jonathan Krekorian and Prabnik Sidhu. Later on, after all the audience’s ballots were counted, it was announced that Spaghetti Goons won the Audience Choice award.
As soon as Westbury announced The Counterfeit as the first-place winner for this year’s Render This Film Festival, the corresponding crew screamed out in joy. The Counterfeit is a short horror film that tells the story of an urban legend creature said to hunt narcissists, create a replica of the person and ultimately kill them. The short horror film was directed and protagonized by Samuel-Charles Archer and Ava Lauricella. Likewise, the directors also used the help of two other cast members, Jaren Pellazar and Lucas Chestworth.
For the directors, the moment when the awards were announced was stressful, yet ultimately rewarding.
“We were just really excited and really nervous,” said Lauricella, as to how the awards ceremony unfolded.
“The fact that we got first place was crazy… knowing that [the judges] thought such good things about our film made us so happy,” said Archer regarding the emotional aspect of seeing The Counterfeit win first place.
BrockTV’s 2023 Render This Film Festival screened five student-directed films of various genres, and rewarded student crews showing their passion and talent for filmmaking.
To watch the student films featured in BrockTV’s Render This Film Festival, visit YouTube. To keep up with BrockTV, follow them on Instagram.