Aspiring student filmmakers from across Atlanta Public Schools (APS) will soon put their creative talents to the test during the third annual APS Student Film Festival.
Designed to foster student creativity and 21st century skills, the film festival allows students to showcase their learning through individual or collaborative projects with categories including live action, stop motion, digital animation, and mixed media. The Oscars-style awards ceremony will be held Wednesday, May 13, at Maynard Jackson High School and will recognize the winners for this year’s festival.
“The APS Student Film Festival represents the kind of learning we want to see in every classroom across our district,” said Dr. Natasha Rachell, director of Instructional Technology for Atlanta Public Schools. “When students create films, they are not just using technology, they are researching, writing, collaborating, problem-solving, and communicating ideas in powerful ways. This festival gives students a platform to showcase their voice, creativity, and academic learning in ways that feel authentic and meaningful.”
Jennifer Hall, content integration specialist in the Department of Instructional Technology, leads the film festival initiative as part of the department’s broader work supporting creative and innovative learning experiences for students. After witnessing the power of students collaborating on video projects and showcasing what they were learning in class, the Department of Instructional Technology worked together to bring the idea to life as a way to celebrate student voice, creativity, and storytelling through film.
“The goal of the film festival is to provide students with an opportunity to hone their creativity, showcase their learning or passions, and collaborate if they opt to do it with a partner or as a larger group project,” said Hall, a former middle school English Language Arts (ELA) teacher. “We’ve been promoting the film festival as an opportunity for students to hone those 21st century skills: creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.”
According to Hall, the annual district technology competition typically allows solo participants or partners, while the film festival permits individual students or entire classes to participate. Additionally, students can enter in the academic or aesthetics category, based on something they’ve learned in class and want to film and explain on video, while others may choose to tell a story from a more creative angle.
“This year we’re adding the ability for students to create based on different film techniques, such as live action, stop motion, digital animation and mixed media, which means it might have two or more of those components,” she said. “For the first two years, we had kids creating these amazing stop motion animations, and they were competing against kids that were doing real acting and props and things like that. So, to make it a little bit more balanced, we’ve expanded our categories this year.”
The competition also allows students in all grade levels to collaborate and work together to create films. In years past, entries have come from elementary, middle and high schools, including gifted and talented classes, Exceptional Education students, and ESL (English as a Second Language) classes.
“We live in the Hollywood of the South,” Hall noted. “You might have kids at our schools now who are going to choose to work in the film industry, and they can go ahead and start building those skills now. The goal is for our kids to create, and they create amazing things. This is an opportunity for students to explore literature, build their language skills, and create something about whatever they’re learning.”
Students can submit films from one minute to 15 minutes in length, and will be judged based on creativity, content, and digital citizenship. Professionals from Lenovo, Canva, Book Creator, Adobe, Apple, and other companies will serve as judges.
Last year, nearly 300 students participated in more than 100 films on topics ranging from ELA and social studies, to pollution, recycling, health, and nutrition. Previous entries have included documentaries, movie trailers, and more.
Hall said the film festival is especially important because it provides equitable access to technology for all students.
“I love that our district has one-to-one access with devices so kids can film and edit using their Chromebooks,” she said. “We are very fortunate for that, and the use of digital media and film presents an opportunity for students to communicate the way they know best. That opens the doors for all students — whether they’re language learners or Exceptional Education emerging learners — to use visuals to explain their thinking.”
The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 17. The competition is open to students across all grade levels.
