25th Anniversary of FINE CUT Festival of Films Event Celebrates LA Student Winners in Advance of PBS SoCal’s Broadcast Of All Finalist Films in New Season Premiering Sept. 18
PBS SoCal celebrated the work of regional student filmmakers on Sept. 10 at the 25th annual FINE CUT Festival of Films held at Landmark Theatres Sunset in the heart of Hollywood. This year’s 25th anniversary awards celebration and screening welcomed community members for the public ceremony honoring four winning short films from local California film school students. Variety Senior Editor Michael Schneider and Senior Entertainment Writer Angelique Jackson took on hosting and presenting the awards in an intimate ceremony. The event was held in advance of the broadcast series premiere of the new season on Wed., Sept. 18 at 10 p.m. on PBS SoCal Plus. Films will also be available for streaming at pbssocal.org/finecut and the PBS app.
Winners were recognized by a few of the entertainment industry judges that selected the student finalists. Awards we’re given out by Actor/Organizer/Artist Support Manager Gabriella Ortega Ricketts (“Rebel Hearts,” “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” “Aum: The Cult at the End of the World”), Director Rachel Goldberg (“Agatha All Along,” “Gen V,” Fox’s Tideline Productions “The BM”) and Director/Producer Shaun Kadlec (“Possible Selves,” “Born This Way”) and Writer/Director/Show runner Elizabeth Ito (Netflix’s “City of Ghosts,” Cartoon Network’s “Welcome to My Life,” “Adventure Time”).
USC’s Kayla Sun was presented The Jack Larson Southern California Student Filmmaker Award which recognized exceptional storytelling for the short film “The Code of Family.” Other winners included USC’s Reed Martin for his documentary film “A Hand to Hold,” Cal Arts’ student Christina Wu for the animated film “CAPITALISM!” and UCLA student Giovanna Molina accepted the Narrative award for the short film “HICKEY!”
Each of the winning filmmakers received a variety of prize packages offering useful filmmaking resources like rental equipment, animation software subscriptions, design tools and more, valued to be worth more than $65,000 – the highest number ever in the history of FINE CUT. This year’s prize donors included First Entertainment Credit Union, Keslow Camera, Angel, A Very Good Space, International Documentary Association, Adobe Creative Cloud, Quixote, UKN Post, Blackmagic Design and more.
Funding for FINE CUT is generously provided by The Bridges/Larson Foundation and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture Creative Recovery LA Fund.
