SAFFORD — The seventh annual Safford High School Film Festival was a star-studded affair at the David M. Player Center for the Arts on Thursday.
Administration, teachers and parents were on-hand to see films created by this year’s Film and TV students, with a number earning awards.
Joey Barron and Haleigh Cundari shared the prestigious Spielberg-Tarantino Award. Barron wrote and directed the film “The Pail Sequel,” While Cundari and Shade Hargis teamed for the film “Everyone is Dumb.”
“It was absolutely a super fun experience,” Cundari said. “It did take a lot of work; we were filming almost every weekend for about three months, (and) the writing process maybe took six months.”
Hargis earned the Best Editor Award, Deborah Halford was presented the Best New Filmmaker Award, and the Feature Filmmaker Award went to Derek Castro, a senior who will major in filmmaking at Grand Canyon University next year.
“Honestly, it’s been fun. The film class here is really good; they teach us all we need to know,” Castro said.
The Walk of Fame award was given to a group of Thatcher students taking the Film and TV classes at Safford High School — Logan Rapier, Brianna Richins, Sarah Marcroft and Evelyn Boyer — for their film, “Murder by Death.”
It was also announced during the festival that Travis Stephenson’s short film, “We are Safford High School,” won the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s Small School and 3A School Spirit Awards and will be honored at an AIA banquet in May.
All of the films shown at the Film Festival will be uploaded to the Film and TV Program’s YouTube channel.
