Dunwoody High School wins audience choice award at student film festival

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

ATLANTA, Ga. — Dunwoody High School took home two audience choice awards for their student-made short films at the fifth annual DeKalb County Student Film Festival at the Plaza Theatre in Atlanta March 21. Students, parents and teachers walked the red carpet at the theater before sitting down for the night’s program.

The film festival was put on by the DeKalb County School District, the DeKalb Entertainment Commission and re:imagine, an organization that assists young people with their filmmaking goals.

A total of 19 student films premiered. Each film required students to include a picture frame as a prop, a character named “Azari Binx” and the line “We’re running out of time.” The films spanned genres from comedy to horror.

A slate of four judges from the Atlanta film industry voted on novice and advanced films for categories including best editing, best cinematography, best acting, best overall and audience choice. Dunwoody High School students took home trophies in the audience choice category for both their novice and advanced films.

The novice film, “Eye of the Beholder,” was also named runner-up for best set design. Students Aidan Kramer,

Joshua Estes and Ella Kellner worked on the film.

Yeats Bell and Carter Dyche, 11th graders at Dunwoody High School have been in the “film academy” program for the past two years. They starred in and worked on the school’s advanced film submission, “A Brush With the Past.”

Along with Bell and Dyche, students Jaeden Brown, Blake Jones, Julia Ellet and Gillian Lenertz worked on the short film.

The film tells the story of a man who becomes obsessed with a cursed paintbrush that drives its owner mad. Bell and Dyche said making it to the film festival has been an “incredibly exciting experience” that they will remember fondly for years.

“If we’re able to reach this high and go to the film festival, I can only imagine what that will do for the program,” Bell said. “I’m very excited to see the future of the program.”

The pair said they are glad the school has a film program because it allows them to create their own art.

“I feel like film is where my creative expression shines the most,” Dyche said.

The said they are also grateful the DeKalb County School District has invested in film programs for high school students.