The fourth annual Sequim Education Foundation Film Festival that starts at 7 p.m., Friday will feature eight student films from grades six-12 in all Sequim-area schools.
All are student-produced with two from middle schoolers and six from high schoolers.
Topics include footage from a student lending a helping hand in Mexico, a daring journey of an actor crossing the Dungeness River carrying a pizza box and, for a first, a silent film.
Each film will be about seven minutes or less.
First-place winners will receive $1,000 for each student up to three; second-place winners, $750 each or $2,250 total; third place, $500 each or $1,500.
Twenty-two students participated.
The Elkie Award trophy winner for the audience’s favorite film will be chosen at the show using crowd applause as the determining factor. The trophy then goes to the school of the winner.
Event coordinator Elna Kawal said that what the audience has chosen in the past isn’t always the same as the judges’ first-place choice.
This year also will feature new categories for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Visual and Best Sound. Each winner will receive a trophy.
Admission is free, although a $5 donation is suggested donation of $5 at the door.
The community foundation also will auction off a signed, framed copy of the festival poster that sophomore Sage Brown made. Film fest T-shirts will be available for $10, Funds raised will go toward student scholarships.
Kawal said that the film fest always has been successful and that "it has done exactly what we wanted it to do."
Judges for 2009 are Shelley Taylor, Bruce Hatendroff, Elaine Caldwell, Lara Starcevich, Karen Hanan and Jake Seniuk.
A spaghetti dinner will open the festival’s evening from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Sequim High School cafeteria, 601 N. Sequim Ave., followed by the film festival at the Performing Arts Building, 533 N. Sequim Ave.
Dinner tickets cost $10 for adults, $9 for people 65 or older, $5 for children 12 or younger, and $25 for a family pass of up to five immediate family members.
Advance tickets are available at Pacific Mist Bookstore, 121 W. Washington St., and Bedazzled (next to The Buzz, 128 N. Sequim Ave.). Proceeds will go toward Sequim Education Foundation scholarships for Sequim students.
For more information about the dinner, call 582-0096 or 681-0699. For more details about the film festival, see www.sequimeducationfoundation.org or contact Elna Kawal at elna@sequimeducationfoundation.org.
