On Saturday evening, Feb. 4, the long-awaited Campus Movie Festival (CMF) red carpet event began. CMF, the world’s largest student film festival, takes a unique angle in encouraging budding filmmakers. For one week, university students receive free equipment and softwares to write, cast, direct, film and edit a five minute movie. Students across the nation—and the world—embrace this unfettered creative experience as they submit their completed clips and compete for the CMF prize: an invitation to attend the Cannes Film Festival in France, where their short film will be screened in front of thousands.

Stetson opened its doors for this red carpet event at 6:30 p.m. The chilly evening weather did not stop people from dressing in their best outfits and pausing to take pictures with cardboard cutouts of George Clooney. After passing the red carpet entryway, the room opened up to a large seating area, capable of housing 500 students, with a large screen to view the top 16 submitted films.

Ciera Lamoureux, a Stetson senior, acted in the time-bending short film Threshold. When asked about her original interest in attending this CMF event, Lamoureaux laughed, saying, “I just came because I’ve never gone before.”

Another attendee of the red carpet event, McKenzie Beery, shared her experience of CMF with us. For the past four years, Beery has participated in the CMF annual competitions with her friends. Excited for the night’s results, Beery disclosed that her motivation for participating year after year was “being able to spend time with people I love and being able to watch something we all made together.”

Veronica Faison, also a Hatter Network staff member, opened the event by singing Billie Holiday songs to set the evening’s artsy mood. After the thunderous applause for her ended, Stetson student Peter Nyong’o and a representative from CMF co-hosted, engaging the audience with amusing Twitter-based challenges, where people submitted their funniest responses to various prompts.

With a packed room of students filling each and every chair, clips from the top films began to roll. Thirty Stetson student teams made films this year, but only the top 16 films were picked by a judging panel of students and professors to air at this red carpet event. Following their screenings, the hosts announced the much-anticipated awards.

Smoking Kills, a comedy short spoofing overly dramatic tobacco-free commercials, left with a nearly clean sweep in every category, winning Best Picture, Audience Award (people’s choice) and the Jury Award for top Stetson CMF film. Simone Seales, the main actress in Smoking Kills, also won the Jury Award for best actor.

Deputy Brown, a hilarious cop thriller spin-off in which a deputy soils himself out of fear during a dramatic police show’s filming, took the prize for best directing. The remaining Jury Awards went to the next top three films after Smoking Kills: Threshold, Deputy Brown, and Home.

After celebrations ended and congratulations were given, Stetson students filed back out into the crisp Florida air, still discussing their favorite films as they played over and over in their minds. 2017’s CMF event concluded as another roaring success, and an enjoyable time for both the competitors and the viewing audience.

The entire collection of Stetson student films are available online at Campus Movie Fest’s website.