Cardinal Filmworks hosts 18th annual Frog Baby Film Festival

Student filmmakers have a chance to share their talent on Friday at the Frog Baby Film Festival. Cardinal Filmworks, an organization for students interested in film production, leads the festival each year.

The festival spreads “awareness of the film production that goes on at Ball State and gives an outlet for student filmmakers to get their work out to the public,” said Jeff Spott, president of Cardinal Filmworks.

Any Ball State undergraduate student can submit films to be considered for the festival. The films go through two rounds of judging; a preliminary round run by graduate assistants and a final round run by faculty. The graduate assistants judged based on basic story structure and filming technique, which dropped the submission pool to about 40 films.

Faculty members, ranging from all different departments, made the final decision. Students submitted 62 films this year, 24 of which will air on Friday.

After screening the selected films at the festival, prizes are given to filmmakers in a variety of categories. Attendees can also win prizes by entering into a raffle.

Spott is hoping the festival will continue growing and attract more of the community.

“Our ultimate goal is to eventually make it an open film festival to anyone who wants to submit and it just happens to be hosted at Ball State,” he said.

The festival will be in Pruis Hall on April 1, free of charge and open to the public. Doors open at 8 p.m.

Check out these videos from The Reel Deel for interviews with student filmmakers.