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The Quinnipiac Film Society (QFS) recently hosted its fourth annual Quinnies Awards, a film festival showcasing the best of Quinnipiac student film projects.
The event was held Saturday afternoon in Buckman Theater. Due to it being the beginning of finals week, the turnout was a bit less than expected.
“Personally, I found the turnout a little disappointing,” QFS Vice President of Promotions John Kelley said. “We had somewhere between 50 to 60 students come to the Quinnies but, based on past years, I was expecting over a hundred attendees. That said, we got put in a corner in terms of our event date and, for the first time, had the event finals week. Thus, I understand that there were students who likely wanted to come but didn’t have the time or couldn't pull away from studying"
The Quinnies were broken down into four categories: comedy, drama/action, music video and other/experimental. Each category included four films chosen from numerous submissions, with the only stipulation being that the films had to be less than 10 minutes in length. All students were invited to submit their films to the festival, not just QFS members.
Quinnipiac professors Rebecca Abbott, Michael Calia and Raymond Foery served as the judges, ranking the videos on the criteria of cinematography, editing, music/sound, directing, story and overall quality of the film.
Quinnipiac junior and QFS treasurer Caitlin Goldberg, along with Kelley hosted the awards show.
Despite the lackluster turnout, Kelley, a senior, said the quality of student films has improved immensely since the first Quinnies four years ago.
“This year had the highest quality of films ever in the history of this film festival. We received over 40 submissions this year, our highest ever, and could only showcase 16 films, so the pre-judges had a very difficult job,” Kelley said.
Although the Quinnies have improved from past years, Kelley believes that there is always room for growth in the future.
“We improved on some aspects of the show this year in terms of improving the quality of films showcased and cutting down on how long the event runs to a reasonable slot,” Kelley said. “There's plenty of room for improvement next year. I'd like to see our attendance rise again after it took a dip this year and also return to its pre-finals date with a later time.”
The winners, who received a “Quinnie,” are as follows:
Comedy: Senior Justin Schussler for his film “Oddball,” about an offbeat news show.
Drama/Action: Junior Sean Doucette for his film “F.A.T.E.” a silent narrative about love, and well—fate.
Music Video: Junior Kyle Garrity for his stop motion animation video to the song “Happiness Runs” by Donovan.
Other/Experimental: Senior Kelly Hyland for her experimental film “Knightmare.”
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