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Content warning: This article contains mentions of cannibalism.

An animated film reel unfurled across a projection screen, reading “OrangeReels Film Festival” before a fully-seated Watson Theatre. In the audience, some filmmakers bounced their legs and bit at their fingernails, while other actors beamed awaiting their screen debut.

“For some filmmakers, this may be their first festival, and for others, it may be one of many,” said Will Delgado, the vice president of OrangeReels. “Whatever stage they are in, there’s one thing for sure: In this very room is the future of cinema.”

OrangeReels returned for its second annual film festival Friday night. Following a selection process by Syracuse University alumni, a dozen short films were chosen for the Watson screen. Films ranged from horror to animation to music videos, playing for an audience of over 200 people. The festival concluded with an award ceremony that recognized each filmmaker’s work.

This year, the festival took place at the beginning of Family Weekend. Many audience members were family of the student filmmakers who were there to support their work.

The film festival is the passion project of SU film senior Angelina Lim, who wanted to increase collaboration between students in the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. With funding awarded to her through SU’s Young Research Fellowship Program, Lim brought the festival to life last year.

Cameron Joy Gray, a 2022 alumna of VPA’s film department, was one of three judges who screened films to be included in the festival. Gray recalled how she and her peers in the film department wanted to collaborate with television, radio and film students in Newhouse, but rarely had the opportunity to.

“We didn’t have this festival where we could really be in conversation with one another’s work,” Gray said. “I was super excited to become part of it.”

Lim said the success of the first film festival – with 54 submissions and over 150 people in attendance – inspired the event to become annual. But with an expected surge in growth for this year’s festival, Lim knew she needed help. She teamed up with Delgado, a junior television, radio and film major, for a bigger and better festival.

Delgado said he focused on creating consistency across OrangeReels’ social media accounts to attract more filmmakers and students on campus to participate in the festival. He chose a distinctive color palette and digital assets to brand the festival. Lim said this focus on branding and advertising helped yield this year’s larger turnout.

Aquinnah Crosby, a film senior, submitted “Anthropophagous,” a short film she directed while studying abroad in the Czech Republic last semester. When she learned her film was accepted to the festival, she looked forward to sharing it with others.

Crosby said she was inspired by holodomor, a man-made famine in Ukraine that killed millions of people from 1932 to 1933. Crosby’s short film follows a Ukrainian mother’s struggle with starvation that ends in sacrificing her newborn baby to survive.

Crosby said she loved seeing the audience’s reaction to the final scene of her film in which the mother character licks a human bone, implying she was forced to consume her own child. Crosby sat in front of a family at the festival and recalled a mother gasping in shock at the scene.

“Any reaction that is powerful is a good reaction,” Crosby said. “It just means, as a filmmaker, you’ve done something to your audience. You’ve changed them. You’ve made them feel something.”

Following the success of this year’s film festival, Delgado and Lim are excited for the future of OrangeReels. Lim said they were asked to apply to become an SU registered student organization, which would maintain OrangeReels’ presence on campus after the pair graduates.

“(This year’s) film festival is over, but I don’t think this is where we end our jobs as president or vice president,” Delgado said.

Instead, Delgado and Lim expect to focus on ensuring OrangeReels has a lasting impact on the SU community by finding future leaders to pass the torch to.

Gray agreed that becoming an RSO will help OrangeReels’ longevity on campus. She said it will also inspire more students outside of Newhouse and VPA to submit to the film festival, which will enrich the level of collaboration among students.

“I can only see this getting bigger and better every year,” Gray said.

Published on September 29, 2024 at 11:00 pm

Contact: Jepryor@syr.edu