Gaels welcome future filmmakers with 2024 Bay Area Student Shorts festival

Image c/o Bay Area Student Shorts Film Festival

By Drew Paxman
Visiting Columnist

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You may recognize Jennifer Leo’s name from her work on Pixar’s animated feature Toy Story 2. Or perhaps you are familiar with her work on Steven Spielberg’s science fiction thriller Minority Report. Maybe her work on the documentary 24 Hours on Craiglist stands out. Regardless, all of her success across these different genres stems from the first short film she produced as a student at San Francisco State.

“Short films are a calling card,” Leo addressed the audience of eager filmmakers and enthusiasts as Keynote Speaker for the 2024 Bay Area Student Shorts Film Festival (BASS). “[They are a] great way for you to get attention and for you to get jobs.”

Leo’s speech opened a night of community and celebration for high school and college student filmmakers that gathered in the Soda Center at Saint Mary’s College of California on April 13. Out of a pool of over 100 film submissions, 11 were selected to be presented at the festival. From those 11 films, five were selected for individual awards in six separate categories.

John Angelo Serrano, a student at California College of the Arts and the director behind “Best Animated” winner Pips Delivery felt disappointed that he had to wait until after his first year of college to create a film. Inspired by his own commute to campus, he began animating right away. “I felt like it was kind of whimsical in a way that I am traveling so much just to have a three hour class,” he said.

Festival Coordinator Megan Young was ecstatic when Pips Delivery won “Best Animation.” “It was so adorable,” she remarked.

Lost in the Woods was another big winner, taking home the “Best Cinematography” prize. The documentary film tells the story of Patrick Barnes, a dancer who “gave up a traditional career in dance to perform for people living on the margins of society.”

“Lost in the Woods was amazing,” said Young. “It was beautifully shot, the story and the narrative were amazing and flowed so well. The two directors put so much effort into it and it really does show on the screen.”

BASS Programming Coordinator Olivia Watkin gave some love to another animated film, Meghan G. Graham’s Roadkill Jamboree. “There’s no words to describe what she did,” explained Watkin. “Every person I’ve talked to has been…gobsmacked…it’s stop motion animation, it’s special effects, it’s a synthesis of all these different techniques.”

BASS has been showcasing student films since 2018, when Saint Mary’s Communications student Kasey James decided to create the festival as a part of her capstone project. Young and Watkin have organized the last two film festivals. “The day after BASS last year, we met to start the planning for this year. We’ve been planning this for 365 days,” Young claimed.

The pair had a vision: to expand upon the original “theater-screening style” event by making it semi-formal and including “catered dinner, guest speakers, coffee trucks, awards, plaques. Everything that you can imagine that would hopefully be at the Oscars,” Young described.

This year’s festival coincided with the news of a new major coming to Saint Mary’s in the fall–Media Production, a degree conceptualized by Communications professor and documentary filmmaker Jason Jakaitis.

The major, as described by Watkin, is “built to double major, built to be a minor, built to be an opportunity for on-campus leadership roles.”

As for the future, BASS will continue to highlight student filmmakers from around the Bay Area long after the graduation of seniors Young and Watkin. 

“I think what’s next for BASS is whatever the community wants,” said Watkin. “And I think that’s the best way to have it. I think that’s the only way it becomes sustainable, I think that’s the only way it really becomes part of the [Saint Mary’s] community.”

As both BASS and these student filmmakers continue to grow, Leo’s advice remains profound: “Everything takes a decade. Be patient and enjoy each little step along the way because you will get to where you want to go.”

Students interested in planning the 2025 Bay Area Student Shorts Film Festival can follow bayareastudentshorts and filmclub_smc on Instagram, or can contact Jakaitis.

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