Florida’s Saint Petersburg campus hosted the Campus Movie Fest Feb. 29, 2016. CMF is the world’s largest student film festival that gives college students the chance to get their creativity flowing and compete for top ranking film.

  The students were given MacBook Pros loaded with Adobe Creative Cloud Software to contribute with editing their videos. The students were also equipped with Luminex DSLR cameras and portable microphones.

  The USF students were given different subjects to base their videos on. With those subjects the students let their imagination flow. The movies range from comedy skits to suicide prevention documentaries. The films were at least five minutes each.

  Two USF Saint Petersburg students hosted the Campus Movie Fest. One of the hosts was a former winner of the Mr. USF pageant. The host promoted the event on social media pages and actually had a contest through Twitter the night of CMF. The student audience entered in to win CMF merchandise and electronics.

  The Twitter challenges varied from different categories including “Roast Your Host.” The students had to hashtag CMF to enter to win prizes that were distributed later that night. One prize that was awarded was a Go Pro camera.

  There were three different categories that the USF students would compete to win in. The categories were Best actor or actress, best cinematic look and best overall story.

  Shannon Gazdacka won best overall all story. Her film was a story on a young 14-year-old boy who committed suicide. The film documents and interviews his family and friends. They discuss how the boy’s life was and how he impacted the world. Most of them said the incident was all very sudden. No one knew that he would take his own life. Gazdacka ended up winning a cash prize and a CMF title.

  The student could use the money for tuition or any other personal finances. CMF has other chances for college students to participate and enter to win at least $15,000.

  Student can visit CMF website at campusmoviefest. com to learn more about the student film contest. CMF not only gives college students the chance to win big, but it is also a learning process. Through making these films students learn about different life situations for example students can make a film on social justice. By researching various issues on social justice students may learn about certain topics they have never heard of before.

  Social justice is a hot topic. Topics range from politics, to diverse social groups such as, Black Lives Matter. Campus Movie Fest made this contest relevant for students and was a hit with both participants and student film makers.

  For more information visit: campusmoviefest.com.