Chelsea Best, a theater, film and new media sophomore was anxious submitting her short film, Enamored, to Campus Movie Fest.
The movie festival is the largest student film festival in the world and gives students an array of opportunities if their film is selected into the top four of their school.
As if what is at stake is not nerve wracking enough, every student that participates in Campus Movie Fest only has five days to write, film and edit their movie.
The time restraint, mixed with not knowing who her competition was made Best nervous.
There were over 60 submissions into Campus Movie Fest from San Diego State. Out of those submissions the top 16 films were played in front of all the participants.
From those 16 films, the top four movies receive the Jury Award. Films given this award can be given the opportunity to go to the Cannes Film Festival in France in May 2016.
To her delight, Enamored was not only got shown in the top 16 but it was also given the Jury Award.
A few weeks after winning this award, Best received an email from Campus Movie Fest.
“They mentioned very briefly about some of the films getting chosen to go to the Cannes International Film Festival, but that kinda went over my head because it is so rare for that to happen,” Best said. “I was waiting for the trolley to come home after a long day and I check my emails and I literally freaked out because I just saw an email saying, “congratulations you are going to the Cannes International Film Festival” and I was like what does this mean?”
Out of the four films from SDSU that received the Jury Award only two made it to Cannes: Enamored and Showdown by Maxwell Renner.
“It’s so weird though to think about what we made last year versus this year because I feel like I haven’t really changed that much,” Best said. “After watching the film from last year it is like wow I have changed a lot.”
The concept of the film was created by Graciela Regua, a journalism sophomore, after Best mentioned to her how she wanted her film to have a twist.
The movie is based on an infatuation that a girl has on a boy after meeting him for the first time.
The girl creates an alternative reality in her thoughts of a world where they are together, and obsesses over him in real life.
“I think I was inspired by Gone Girl and The Sixth Sense, two of my favorite thrillers,” Regua said. “I loved the idea of convincing the audience of one thing and then completely flipping the script.”
Best said they incorporated two cameras with different light sensitivity to portray the girl’s imagination versus reality.
Ashlyn Savidge, a theater sophomore plays the main character of the film.
She also won the best actress award at SDSU’s Campus Movie Fest.
“I knew from the beginning that I wanted to work with Ashlyn,” Best said. “I just love working with her, it is so easy.”
Savidge was also the main character in Best’s Campus Movie Fest last year.
“Shooting Enamored was different from the first year because last year was my first filming experience ever, this time I had a lot more experience,” Savidge said.
Both Best and Savidge will be attending the Cannes Film Festival in May.
In Cannes they will have the opportunity to promote the film and network with several people in the film industry.
