UA students win BIG at The Loft. Over $1,000 awarded to undergrads at First Friday Shorts.

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Written by The Staff

Nov 08, 2008 at 11:58 PM

There were two awards handed out on Friday night, and both of them went to current undergrads in the University of Arizona's Media Arts program. The first award was The Loft Cinema's first ever Emerging Filmmaker award, and it was present to Tom Erickson, a senior in the BFA program. Tom was recognized for his work by a panel of UA faculty members that cited his passion, outside internship experience, and drive (he complted 5 treatments for his senior project; most seniors only completed 1). Tom was given a check for $1,000, which he graciously accepted saying, "Starving filmmakers can always use some extra cash!"

The audience for November's First Friday Shorts contest was treated a short film from Mr. Erickson before the show kicked off. His film was a smooth montage consisting of nighttime shots of University Boulevard on 16mm film. The non-dialogue piece was set to a soft jazzy music bed and read as a 'portrait of---' through beer goggles. While the film was pleasant, it certainly would have not done well in the FFS competition. Not on this night, for sure.

No, Friday's FFS crowd was verrrrrrrrry gong-happy. And there was certainly enough gonging to send everybody home happy. Several films throughout the night felt the wrath of the antsy crowd, including two other films that were almost non-dialogue. There wasn't really a pattern, though, because my film had a TON of dialogue and it almost got gonged, too.

There was one film, though, that was able to escape the diminishing attention span of the audience and continue to entertain even after the red spotlight came on. Still Hungry is a film produced by two current University of Arizona Media Arts students, Tom Smith and Kelli Horan - a film that was made a part of last month's 48 Hour Film Shootout where it also won the prize for 'best actor'. Smith is a former winner, but Horan was entering the monthly contest for only the second time.

There was some stiff competition coming from a Stephen Colbert-like lampooning of right-wing loudmoths entitled "Liberals Are Evil," and a Videodrone-inspired advertisement for an apple farm that featured gratuitous nudity, but Still Hungry was able to win over the audience through the simple act of cooking and eating my dog, Bagel.