Cinema and screen studies students at Oswego State were introduced to a brand-new film festival last week by the Oswego Film Club and it was simply fresh.

Students and faculty alike gathered in the Park Hall auditorium on Sept. 15 to screen the films for the inaugural Fresh Fest Film Festival. Eight short films were produced over a 36-hour span the previous weekend by randomly assigned teams which typically consisted of one senior, junior, sophomore and two freshmen. The collaborations made for some unique chemistry and intriguing films.

Winners from Fresh Fest

Best Script: Marissa Pierce for “Beautiful Silence”

Best Film Editing: Michael Calobrisi for “Breathe”

Best Cinematography: Brandon Potter for “Barefooted”

Best Performance: Langhston Smith as “Steve”        in “Barefooted”

Audience Choice: “Barefooted” by Issack Cintron, Dan Pilewski, Cody Pitcher, Natalie Trainor and Brandon Potter.

Third Place for Best Picture: “Oswego New Beginnings” by Tasina Berkey, Breck Donohue, Andrew Nimetz, Alexis Rivera, Peri Saat.

Second Place for Best Picture: “Beautiful Silence” by Marissa Pierce, Christian Howles, Brandon Macey, Jessa Costa and Shane Heiser.

Best Picture: “Nothing Means Something” by Sheridan Seward, Jamie Hager, Yaritza Sencion, Salvatore Mule and Namyun Kim.

Unlike fellow film festivals “Panic” and “Mixed Emotions,” which have established themselves within the horror and romantic comedy genres respectfully, Fresh Fest lacked a specific genre. To coincide with the “fresh” concept of the festival, the theme given to the filmmakers was “something new” or “new beginnings” allowing them to interpret the prompt however they wanted. This resulted in a fair share of comedies, such as “Fresh ‘Stache,” “First Time Problems” and the Audience Choice Award       winner “Barefooted.”

The festival’s most awarded film, “Barefooted,” was a raunchy comedy about a college student’s initiation process into an eccentric club that turns out to be a cult with some head-turning intentions. Filled with countless innuendos and memorable moments, “Barefooted” landed three awards, the aforementioned Audience Choice, Best Performance and Best Cinematography.

“Being able to win awards and getting my name out there in the cinema and screen studies field is pretty awesome. Fresh Fest was really fun,” said Brandon Potter, recipient of Best Cinematography for “Barefooted.” “It was a great way to get to know each other. I liked how we were put in random teams because it also gave us a better chance of meeting people we didn’t know. We didn’t really know much about each other and that made it so much better to share ideas and get  better acquainted.”

One of the films that placed in the top three was “Beautiful Silence,” a heart-felt romance film about a lonely guy’s friendship with a deaf girl that slowly develops into something more significant. “Beautiful Silence” was the second most awarded film at Fresh Fest, taking home awards for second place in the Best Picture category and Best Script the latter of which was awarded to senior Marissa Pierce.

Pierce later revealed that the influence for the film’s story stemmed from a     gum commercial.

“We were talking about the overall concepts of what we wanted to create and it reminded one of the freshmen, Shane, of one of the Extra gum commercials,” Pierce said. “So we all watched that and were like, ‘Wow that’s great! Let’s try to make something like that.’ We took the overall concept of taking a couple from the first time they meet and decided to take it to where they first started dating and cared for each other.”

Some upperclassmen, such as Pierce, felt Fresh Fest served as an opportunity to leave a lasting impression on the cinema and screen studies program, while new majors, like Potter viewed it as the launching pad to their college careers.

However, at its core, Fresh Fest was founded with the intentions of connecting those upperclassmen with the freshmen and transfer students. This allowed the upperclassmen to share their knowledge with their younger peers and in turn, the enthusiastic energy and excitement of the “newbies” injected new life into those who have been around the block a few times.

The outcome of this festival was more than pleasing to sophomore Jacklyn McTigue, the Film Club’s film festival coordinator and the visionary behind the festival.

“As a freshman, I wanted to do Panic really badly but I didn’t really know anybody to do it with,” McTigue said. “So I wanted to do something that would help other freshmen and transfers [students] and not have them stress out about having to find people. Everyone seemed to have had a good time and that’s all I really                  care about.”

Based off of its success and acclaim by students and faculty, it’s safe to say that Fresh Fest may be here to stay. With the latest news of the SUNYWide Film Festival no longer being hosted by Oswego State, McTigue revealed that the film club is “considering” launching a fourth festival in the spring semester in place of SUNYWide.

“I think everyone likes the idea of having two [film festivals] a semester,” McTigue said. “If we don’t have SUNYWide, we’ll most likely have another one next semester too.”

For now, attention turns towards the seventh annual Panic Film Festival, which will take place around Halloween.