UCI Digital Filmmaking Debuts at the Newport Beach Film Festival

"Cursed to Remain" Directed by Bryan Jackson

UCI DIGITAL FILMMAKING DEBUTS AT THE NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL
FOURTEEN FILMS BY STUDENT FILMMAKERS TO LIGHT UP THE BIG SCREEN 
    

IRVINE, Calif. (April 14, 2015) – UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School or the Arts (CTSA) is pleased to announce the Digital Filmmaking program’s inaugural debut at the 16th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF).  This is the first time UCI/CTSA has been invited to participate in the Festival and is a testament to the advancement this young program has made in a short time.  Digital Filmmaking students will present fourteen original short films on Saturday, April 25 at 1:00 pm at Sage Hill School, one of the screening venues for the festival. 

“Students today become working movie makers of tomorrow,” says Dennis Baker, Director, Short Film Programming for the NBFF. “Digital Filmmaking students and staff will bring the CTSA perspective to our festival to blend with the other universities and colleges currently presenting. Each school displays their approach to movie making. By showcasing these movies together over the weekend, we get a preview of what is to come in the industry. I’m very pleased about the participation of this young department in our film festival.”

The collaboration with the festival has been spearheaded by Bryan Jackson, faculty in the Department of Art based Digital Filmmaking program. "We are thrilled to be invited to be a part of the Newport Beach Film Festival,” stated Jackson. “The range and diversity of work in the UCI Collegiate Showcase reflects our creative approach to the production of new content in the Digital Filmmaking program. The experience of the festival screening will help our students grow as filmmakers and empower their voices. It’s an exciting opportunity for our students to share their work with the larger film community."

Students of the program are being noticed not just locally, but nationally, expanding the awareness of the program presented at CTSA.  “Two Points of Failure,” a film directed by Michael Moshe Dahan and screening on April 25, was selected for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.  Dahan’s experimental film enlisted the help of several digital filmmaking students from the department for his production and creative team.  The program is designed to ignite creativity and teach students technical skills to succeed in both the film and art world job markets.  The program also encourages students to continue to shop the films on the festival circuit and expand their creative portfolios.  For more information about the Digital Filmmaking program, please visit http://digifilmuci.com

About the Newport Beach Film Festival

Celebrated as one of the leading lifestyle film festivals in the United States, the Newport Beach Film Festival seeks to bring to Southern California the best of classic and contemporary filmmaking from around the world. Committed to enlightening the public with a first class international film program, a forum for cultural understanding and enriching educational opportunities, the NBFF showcases a diverse collection of studio and independent films from around the globe. The 16thAnnual Newport Beach Film Festival runs April 23–30 and will spotlight over 400 films from around the world. www.NewportBeachFilmFest.com

About Claire Trevor School or the Arts

As UCI’s creative laboratory, the Claire Trevor School of the Arts explores and presents the arts as the essence of human experience and expression, through art forms ranging from the most traditional to the radically new. The international faculty works across a wide variety of disciplines, partnering with others across the campus.  National-ranked programs in art, dance, drama, and music begin with training but end in original invention. Students come to UCI to learn to be citizen-artists, to sharpen their skills and talents, and to become the molders and leaders of world culture. For more information, please visit www.arts.uci.edu

Visit the Newport Beach Film Festival Program, inlcuding schedule for UCI screenings: Program 2015