Backlight Student Film Festival to celebrate UGA student films

Opening night of the inaugural Backlight Student Film Festival at the Tate Student Center at the University of Georgia Friday, April 22, 2022. (Courtesy/Kyser Lough, [email protected])

The University of Georgia Entertainment and Media Industry Club, more commonly known as The Industry, is hosting its second annual Backlight Student Film Festival on April 13 and 14 to celebrate student filmmakers and their creations.

The festival will include a showing of selected submissions from students, a red carpet, mixer and panel.

Students submitted their films in either the short form category, a production under seven minutes long, or mid-length, which is seven to 25 minutes long. The acceptance rate for content in this year’s festival was 11%.

“We’re also going to celebrate and showcase more films this year,” said Cate de Castro, a senior entertainment and media studies and finance major and president of The Industry. “We increased the number of films we let in also because… we wanted to [give] as many opportunities as we could. We’re all just increasing the scale.”

Opening night of the inaugural Backlight Student Film Festival at the Tate Student Center at the University of Georgia Friday, April 22, 2022. (CourtesyKyser Lough, [email protected])

Cate de Castro co-founded the festival in 2022 and helped plan and prepare the festival with her twin sister, senior entertainment and media studies major Aleesa de Castro.

Atlanta film studios will be present at many of the events, as part of the festival’s goal to connect students with professionals.

“That's a great chance for students to also network at the event and for these established Atlanta professionals to see what local artists are doing,” Aleesa de Castro said.

Senior entertainment and media studies and English double major Alexander Hoefer submitted three films to Backlight, two of which were accepted. His short form film “Our Only Way Home” and mid-length film “Contrarian” will be showcased at the event. Hoefer feels his work is being recognized on a larger scale by being accepted into the film festival.

“So much of filmmaking is, I wouldn’t say solitary, but it's uncelebrated. Although a lot of it is actually writing and editing. A lot of it's just in a dark room by yourself. There’s no applause,” Hoefer said. “ I think in the end, yes, we do it to get accepted, but what makes it worth doing … is that recognition.”

Aleesa de Castro believes the event will be an opportunity for students to picture themselves attending other film festivals throughout their careers.

“I think it's something so inspiring … We're doing this for real and this is what we all want to do for a career. So then to manifest that it's gonna happen in [the form of] the actual event, it's so special,” Aleesa de Castro said.

All are welcome to attend any of the four events of the film festival. Food will be provided. For more information, visit The Industry’s website.

On Saturday, April 1, the University of Georgia’s Department of International Student Life hosted its 24th annual International Street Festival. For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, the event returned to downtown Athens.

The festival, a local tradition since 1999, promotes cultural awareness and showcases international groups within the Athens community for thousands of visitors each year.

On Saturday morning, members of the University of Georgia and Athens community gathered at the Tate Student Center for the Out of the Darkness Campus Walk. The event raised funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention with the theme “Hope Walks Here.”

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