Students’ Documentaries, Animation and More Garner Awards in BMCC Film Festival

The Fall 2022 Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) Film Festival, organized by the college’s Cinema Arts Club, was held Friday, December 2 in BMCC’s Theatre 1 and brought to light some of the college’s most talented filmmakers.

“This was the first in-person festival since December 2019,” said documentary filmmaker and Video Arts and Technology Professor Anastassios (Tassos) Rigopoulos. “Out of the 49 films  submitted, 36 were selected for screening. All films were produced by BMCC students, most of them majoring in either Video Arts and Technology, Animation, or Multimedia Programming and Design. The  judges were impressed with the aesthetic and technical quality, cultural diversity and range of the films. They had a hard time deciding on the winner in each category, which is why they bestowed several honorable mentions in addition to the main awards.”

Genres represented in the festival included documentary, fiction, experimental, found-footage, music video, 2-D and 3-D animation, commercial, PSA and multi-camera studio TV production.

The esteemed panel of judges included Michael Finnell, producer (Gremlins, The Burbs, The Howling); Dorottya Mathe, producer (Impossible Monsters, Good Egg) and BMCC Video Arts and Technology alumni Ley Comas; a sound mixer, filmmaker and educator whose MFA thesis film Ni Aqui/Ni Alla has screened in over 20 film festivals around the U.S. and internationally.

The BMCC student winners are as follows:

Best Fiction Film

WINNER: Persecuted Beliefs directed by Hakan Bayraktar

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Crooked directed by Jayden Mead and Trepidation directed by Jason Gueits

Best Documentary

WINNER: War-Life Balance directed by Hanna Lomakina

HONORABLE MENTIONS: David directed by Jennifer Giuffre and My Star Xing Cheng directed by Xueying Liu

Best Commercial or PSA

WINNER: Debby’s Daily Lessons in Household Crafting, Cooking and Cleaning directed by Jennifer Giuffre.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: PSA for notonukes.org directed by Jared Poncio and 1984 Commercial directed by Kevin (Snow-Hare) Smith

Best Experimental Film, Found-Footage Montage or Music Videos:

WINNER: Latinoamerica directed by Raul Flecha Villasboa

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Rêves by Chloe Antoinette and Sufriendo by Raul Flecha Villasboa

Best Animated Film

WINNERS: Sci-Fi Hallway by Nataliya Verkhoturtseva and Lock and Key by James Russ

HONORABLE MENTION: Fragments by Holly Goldsmith

Best Cinematography

WINNER: Ajoy K Sarkar for Unexpected

HONORABLE MENTION: Jennifer Giuffre for David

Best Sound Recording

WINNER: Valeriya Fadeyeva for Gotta Be Gotta Do

Best Sound Design

WINNER: Tatia Mazmanian for The Light Garden

HONORABLE MENTION: Holly Goldsmith for Fragments

Best Directing

WINNER: Jennifer Giuffre for David

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Hakan Bayraktar for Persecuted Beliefs and Raul Flecha Villasboa for Latinoamerica

Best Screenplay

WINNER: Hakan Bayraktar for Persecuted Beliefs

Best Acting:

WINNERS: Aashish Thakur for Crooked and Jennifer Giuffre for Debby’s Daily Lessons in Household Crafting, Cooking and Cleaning

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Alexander Zautashvili for The Creation, Bilal Yigit Geyik for Persecuted Beliefs and Yunus Ilbasan for Persecuted Beliefs

Best Editing

WINNER: Raul Flecha Villasboa for Sufriendo

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Tatia Mazmanian for The Light Garden and Raul Flecha Villasboa for Latinoamerica

 

 

The BMCC Media Arts and Technology department offers associate degree programs in Animation and Motion Graphics, Multimedia Programming and Design, and Video Arts and Technology. To learn more,  visit the Media Arts and Technology Department at 199 Chambers Street, Room S-622, New York, NY 10007 or call (212) 346-8525.