The Campus MovieFest has made its way back to Sonoma State University for its eleventh year. The purpose of this event is to give students an opportunity to get their creative juices flowing and construct a five minute film.

Campus MovieFest (CMF) is the world’s largest student film festival. Beginning in 2001, their goal has been to provide resources for students to make a five minute film in one week. 

CMF came to Sonoma State on Wednesday, providing cameras, tripods, laptops with editing software and microphones to students who were interested in creating a film. The student’s five minute films, due Oct. 11, will be judged by a panel of anonymous people made up of Sonoma State students and faculty.

Since the deadline for this Campus MovieFest is up, those who did not know about the event can consider signing up for it next year. 

Any student is eligible, even if they haven’t made a movie before, CMF encourages anyone to give it a go at this fun experience.

“About 90 percent of participants in this film festival have never made a movie before,” said CMF Promotions Manager, Raghav Ravichandran.

CMF provides on-campus tech support as well as a 24/7 hotline for students who have questions concerning filming or editing.

“CMF provides help in hopes it will bring about a whole new generation of filmmakers, as well as inspire passionate individuals that thought they would never do something like this,” said Ravichandran.

The guidelines for Campus MovieFest are simple. Everyone who helped with the film must attend Sonoma State, however the actors do not.

The film must be five minutes or less. No copyright music will be permitted and no nudity or extensive drug use. Full rules and guidelines can be found on CMF’s website.

The panel of judges will choose the top 16 films, these films will be shown at the finale on Oct.13 at 7:30 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom. However, the students who made the films will not know which films will be shown until the night of the finale. 

Out of the top 16 films, only four will be awarded. Those four films will be entered to compete in the CMF national competition “Terminus” that will be held in Atlanta, Georgia to compete for $150,000. 

The other prizes include a director’s slate and winners t-shirts. Films may be selected to be screened on Virgin America Airlines and screened at the Cannes film festival in France in the summer of 2017.

Campus MovieFest provides many different opportunities for students, filmmakers and non-filmmakers, to explore their creative sides. There are several other contests students can make and enter films for. 

One being the “Seeker’s Stories,” the documentary category, where students are given an opportunity to tell a story about something interesting or unique that is occurring around the world, within five minutes or less. 

The winner of the “Seeker’s Stories” will be awarded $10,000 in cash, a trip to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival as well as have their film premiered at the festival. 

Campus MovieFest is made specifically for getting students out of their comfort zones, making films that have great potential and find the generation’s next best filmmaker.