Pueblo’s seventh annual 24 Hour Film Festival was held Friday, and about 200 people came together at the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center to view the 18 submitted films. The evening was filled with excitement and a range of emotions from laughter to tears.
The 24 Hour Film Festival has had an increased number of filmmakers entering every year.
“I think the first year, everyone received an award because we only had three films submitted,” said Sally Lincoln, a film festival judge.
There are always a few particular requirements that every film must fulfill. This year the specific location was “in a dream,” and props were a hot pepper, a ticket and a large hairy creature. There was also a required George Eliot quote: “nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.”
At the end of the film festival screening, awards were given in six categories: Best of Festival, Audience Choice, Best Performance, Best Mobile Movie, Best Cinematography and Most Creative.
Winners were given handcrafted ceramic statues by Kate Fox of Foxy-Wolff Jewelry. Fox has been the creator of the film festival awards for all seven years.
After all films were viewed, there was a brief intermission for judges Dustin Hodge, Sally Lincoln, and Kellie Cason O’Connor to decide which films would be the winners.
“Brighter Side” by LyonMan Productions won Best of Festival, Audience Choice and Best Performance.
“Mystery Den” by DreamTellerVideo won Best Mobile Movie; “The Fall” by Arcsky won Best Cinematography, and “Pecus Magna” by Unicorns of Justice won Most Creative.
Credit was given to all involved in creating these quality films, which require the groups to finish shooting, editing and submitting their works by the 24 hour deadline.
“The Pueblo 24 Hour Film Festival is quite a challenge for me as I always find myself still editing at the 22nd hour. That is when my computer usually crashes,” said filmmaker Adam Gazzola.
The Pueblo City-County Library District and the Sangre De Cristo Arts and Conference Center presented the 24 Hour Film Festival and there are lots of people involved in making the festival successful. This year’s festival director was Susan Wolf, who had help from Associate Director Niki Hart, Technical Director David Hartkop, Screening Manager John Mark Wiley, customer experience specialists Jenn Pastoor and Sara Schwartz, and Master of Ceremonies Lisa Conway.
