HARLINGEN — It’s the Academy Awards, Valley style.
The 7th Annual Student Film Awards is here again, with an all-star cast of young movie makers with fresh ideas and an expertise to match.
“The kids through the year, they’ve been putting together their little mini movies,” said Shane Strubhart, spokesperson for the Harlingen school district.
“They have a maximum of seven minutes so they submit all their entries to Ms. Guajardo and she sends each category to a judge that actually specializes in that field,” he said.
Pat Guajardo, practicum audio-visual teacher, was excited about this year’s entries.
“We have over 120 entries this year,” she said. “That’s more than last year when we had I think 94 or 96.”
New faces this year include those from Brownsville and San Benito, along with others from all over the Valley who’ve worked hard these past few months on their projects.
“They start off at the beginning of the year,” she said. “They have different categories that they work on from music videos to mini movies. They’ve taken this whole time to be working on it, touching it up.”
Many students have been working on more than one project and have been touching them up after completion.
Some students have surprised her with their dedication.
“There are individuals that aren’t’ going into this industry that are succeeding and winning,” she said. “It’s going to be interesting and it’s going to be fun.”
Want to see the looks on the kids’ faces when the winners are announced? Come to the gala event Friday night.