Courtesy of Yale Student Film Festival

This spring, the Yale Student Film Festival team will be hosting its ninth annual film festival featuring award-winning filmmakers and the best of student filmmaking. 

The Yale Student Film Festival screens student films from around the world. Submissions are sorted into five categories: narrative, experimental, documentary, animation and high school. Films are then reviewed by a panel of judges, including industry professionals and Yale faculty members. The festival will include screenings of submissions and a featured screening of a film from David Hemingson ’86.

This festival is “an opportunity to see some of the best shorts that are being made around the world in one auditorium,” said co-director of the festival Gabrielle Burrus Bustamante ’26.

The submission team received over 600 films from 20 countries. Out of that pool, only 50 were selected for awards and screenings. The festival itself will include screening blocks for those films that were chosen, award ceremonies and parties.

This film festival is unique in the sense that it is curated specially for college filmmakers, giving them the opportunity to gain production and critical skills in filmmaking.

In addition to student screenings, the festival will host renowned film industry professionals to lead Q&A-style talks and workshops.

Big Apple Film Festival’s Women Filmmakers Short Film 2019 winner, Patrice Bowman ’15, will lead a color grading workshop. Producer of “Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind,” Anthony Bregman ’88, and producer of “Past Lives,” Pamela Koffler ’87, will lead a session on independent producing. Writer and co-executive producer of “The Boys,” Michael Saltzman ’86, will lead a talk on TV writing and producing.

A full list of the festival’s workshops and networking events can be found on their website.

With the appearance of talented Yale alumni, in addition to films by Yale students, the festival team hopes to bring light to the artistic talent of the Yale community.

“I’m interested in making a community for young filmmakers,” said director of programming Marissa Blum ’24, “and to give a name to Yale as a place for student filmmaking.”

The festival will host three feature screenings. The Connecticut premiere of the documentary “Roleplay,” a film following a group of Tulane students as they confront sexual violence on their campus, will include a post-screening conversation moderated by Yale Communication and Consent Educators. The film’s producer Jenny Mercein ’95 and director Katie Matthews will be present for the screening.

The sci-fi mystery “Karmalink” will be screened and joined by producer Valerie Steinberg — producer of the 2022 Cannes festival Caméra D’Or award-winner, “War Pony.”

The festival’s “spotlight screening” of “The Holdovers” will be joined by writer and producer of the Oscar-nominated film, David Hemmingson.

The festival is a “center for student filmmaking in the northeast” and aims to “celebrate the next generation of filmmakers,” said festival co-director Eli Berliner ’26.

Because the festival boasts submissions from across the world, some events will have the option of virtual attendance.

The festival’s goal is to bring together filmmakers and film lovers alike. It is open to all students, regardless of major. 

“​​One of our main missions is making the Yale Student Film Festival as accessible as possible,” wrote director of publicity Miette Maoulidi ’25 in an email to the News. “This means our tickets are free and available to anyone, no matter their academic institution or major. We are screening so many great films that the public deserves to see!”

The festival will be hosted April 11-14 in various locations across Yale’s campus.