The University will host the first student Film Festival this Saturday. The festival will feature student submitted films in the areas of comedy, drama, documentary, animated and experimental films.

Without a film school on campus, the organizers felt there was a need to offer budding filmmakers a chance to display their talents.

“I thought that there was a lot of people who did this sort of thing, and there wasn’t really the type of public outlet for them to display it,” said Collins. “Also, we wanted people who do this sort of thing to have a place to get together and communicate.”

The films are no longer than 35 minutes in length. Any subject was acceptable; however, the organizers had the right to not show or accept films if they did not deem them appropriate.

There were submissions by students from all schools, majors and class years.

“We got about a dozen submissions, so even considering that we didn’t advertise it as much as we could have it was a pretty good response,” Collins said.

The films will be judged by a panel of student and faculty. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three films. The prizes were $50 for first place and $25 for second place.

There will also be awards for honorable mentions. Films were judged on their artistic merit.

“We pretty much took the 12 films and tried to come up with the ones we though were the best with a panel of students and faculty,” Collins said. “We tried to recognize all of the films that showed some degree of creativity.”

After the success of the festival this year, the organizers hope that this event can be continued and become a regular part of the University.

“I’m a senior, and I’m hoping that we can find someone to take this over for next year and hopefully it will grow from there,” Collins said.

The film festival will be held in Bartley Hall, room 1011 on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The event is being organized by Dr. Karyn Hollis of the English department and is sponsored by the Writing and Rhetoric concentration and Young Involved Villanovans. The student organizer for the event is senior Brian Collins.