There’s Tribeca, Cannes, Sundance and now, Syracuse University.

This weekend, Watson Theatre transformed from a lecture hall to a movie theater for the first Syracuse University Film Festival. After receiving submissions in March, 68 student films, ranging from 56 seconds to 24 minutes long, from four different categories, were screened over three days.

University Union had meticulously planned the event since the end of the 2013 spring semester. The project was part of a transformation for UU’s cinema department, which has been primarily known for screening films on campus. The festival marked a big step in UU Cinema’s relationship with student filmmakers.

Michael Magaña, film festival director of SUFF, said that the goal of the festival was to provide these talented filmmakers with a venue.

“Our mission this year, that will stay the same for years to come, is to give students the opportunity to showcase their work to a broad audience on campus, and that’s what we did with 68 student submissions,” Magaña said. “The backbone to our festival was original student programming, so it was kind of a festival for the students, put on by the students, and it’s going to stay that way.”

The film festival had four categories to showcase the diverse talents within the filmmaking community on campus: music videos, either adapted or original, shorts, animation and film trailers.

William Olivas, co-director of cinemas, said that the format was a success, and that the festival showcased everything from long-format films to promotional videos.

“During the first two days of the festival when our student exhibitions were the most dense, we probably had two, three, four hundred students milling in and out all day long,” Olivas said.

Throughout the entire weekend, Olivas said that the attendance was probably between four to five hundred people. While many students may have come for a specific film, they ended up staying for much more of the showcase due to the high quality of the films, said Chaz Pence-Griffin, the other co-director of cinemas.

Every film category had a unique strength to captivate audiences and showcase the talents of the filmmakers, which were on full-display during the festival, Pence-Griffin said.

“There was a lot of high quality in the scripts and the stories, the cinematography, the editing, the sound, so we really had a diverse amount of quality films turned in this year,” Pence-Griffin said.

While UU considered the event a success and plans on holding the event next year, some things about the festival may be changed. UU experienced difficulties showing some of the films, which may have been due to how they were submitted.

In order to combat similar issues in the future, the submission process will be revised for next year’s festival, Olivas said. While he did not want to reveal any changes prematurely, Olivas said that digital submissions will be emphasized for next year’s festival.

Pence-Griffin said SUFF is figured to be a staple event in the future for UU, given the success of this year. Olivas also thinks the festival has a bright future, and said that he was proud that SUFF will continue to provide many talented students to show their work for years to come.

Said Olivas: “We had a lot of freshman filmmakers come up to us and say how glad they were that SU offered something like this, and in my freshman year we didn’t and I’m excited that we can leave that behind for future generations of Syracuse students.”

Published on April 7, 2014 at 2:00 am

Contact Brendan: bskrisel@syr.edu