The student-organized Catamount Film Festival aims to create something that will continue for years to come.
This festival was organized by two senior film and television studies majors, Catherine Morrissey and Brendan Hollis. The students helped create the festival with the help of Milton Guillén, assistant professor of film and television studies in the English department.
This idea was born when Morrissey and Hollis took a class together.
“[Brandon] and I were in the same class last year, it was a production class. It’s called Cinematography with our professor Milton, who is our main advisor,” said Morrissey.
Morrissey noted that film and production classes usually have end-of-year screenings for films, however they are generally small and only feature production class films.
“I’ve always felt like [the screening is] too low-key — it shouldn’t be low-key — and film festivals and film gatherings can be so cool, and well put-together,” said Morrissey.
She thought that it would be beneficial to open this screening up to films that other students have made.
“There’s a lot of other amazing work out there,” she said.
According to Morrissey, Hollis overheard this conversation and noted that he had been thinking about the need for a new student film festival as well.
“After going to Camden International Film Fest, it was such an eye-opening experience into the world and how film is distributed,” said Hollis.
Hollis noted that this was part of the reason that this idea was born.
“We kind of thought this would be a cool way for students who aren’t necessarily in the film program or English department to show their own work that they created,” Hollis said.
Morrissey and Hollis are hoping that this event can include both the UVM community and the greater Burlington area.
“As a student here at UVM, [I] have always felt like the school and Burlington can be like these really two separate entities. I feel like we should be combining forces more often,” said Morrissey.
This was the rationale behind hosting the festival at Main Street Landing.
“Since much of the UVM film program stays at UVM, we want to show the community the work that’s being done, but also have the community be involved in the program and all these local films that are made,” Hollis said. “And some of the ways we’re doing that is through our jurors.”
The film festival will have three impartial, professional jurors. The films will be judged based on several categories: originality and creativity, editing, cinematography, sound design and music, adherence to submission guidelines and overall execution. Films may fall under five different categories: animation, documentary, sports, experimental and drama.
There will also be a $500 prize supplied by the film department for the winner of the “Catamount Award,” which is the award for the best film overall, as decided by the jurors.
Morrissey and Hollis are also hoping that this becomes an annual festival even after they both graduate in the spring. Morrissey noted that Guillén was discussing selecting two new students to run the festival next spring.
“Because we are hoping that [the festival will] be in conjunction with Burlington, we want it to be something that both students at UVM but also members of the community come to anticipate every single year,” said Morrissey.
Films must be submitted by Friday, April 18. The submission guidelines can be found on the film submission form and more information can be found on their Instagram page.
The festival is open to the public and UVM community free of charge, and will be hosted at Main Street Landing on Friday, May 9.
“We just really want people to submit, doesn’t matter if you’re in the program or not, and if you’re a first time filmmaker, [or] you’ve made quite a few. We just want everybody to try their best and submit what they have, because it’s just really cool seeing what the community has to offer,” said Hollis.
