Film Club is preparing for the second annual CinéStudent Film Festival after a school year of movie-related activities.

Throughout the year on alternating Wednesdays and Thursdays, Film Club has sponsored a variety of activities to cater to the students’ diverse interests in the field of cinema. Some participants watch movies. Some make their own, and some simply hang out.

Members of the club are looking forward to the CinéStudent Film Festival as it rapidly approaches. It will be held in the EGHS theater on Saturday, May 21. Before the festival opens to the public, there will be a red carpet event where the student filmmakers will socialize and answer interview questions.

The only qualifications for film submissions are that they be shorter than 10 minutes, not use any copyrighted material and are reasonably appropriate. Otherwise, any genre of film may be submitted.

Director and club sponsor Bruce Janu said that he was “curious to see how many films we’d have in the end.”

At the submission deadline of May 1, the club had received 11 films. The deadline was then extended through today to allow time for an animated submission to be completed.

Although most of the films come from the Chicagoland area, the competition was open to anyone in the country, contrasting last year’s festival which was only open to District 214 students. Submissions were received from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio.

Leading up to the festival, a panel of five experienced judges critiqued the films in several categories. Students can win awards like: Best Male/Female Performance, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film and Audience Choice Awards.

$1,000 in cash and prizes are offered from Tribeca Flashpoint College in Chicago, along with a special grand prize. The college is giving the grand prize winner a free summer workshop, ordinarily worth $900, where the student will learn about filmmaking and use professional equipment.