After receiving over 80 film submissions the Butte Film Festival — which will be held Dec. 6-8 — is encouraging more students in Northern California to submit their short films for a chance to win awards, cash prizes and see their film on the big screen.
Students can submit their student films to the festival’s FilmFreeway profile.
The deadlines for submissions include:
- $10 Early Bird Deadline: Sept. 15
- $15 Regular Deadline: Oct 5
- $20 Late Deadline: Oct. 25
The festival’s FilmFreeway profile states the films must be suitable for general audiences and not contain obscene, defamatory or offensive material. Non-students are encouraged to apply, but the films must be at the student-level.
This is the second annual Butte Film Festival, following after the massive success of the first. This year comes with more cash prizes of up to $1,000, awards and more opportunities for students all over Northern California. This has been made possible with donations and sponsors who helped raise over $20,000.
The festival was born from the Butte Film Club, but has since grown in scale and become a nonprofit organization that is no longer associated with any schools.
The Butte Film Club received a grant of $5,000 from The Associated Students of Butte College to put on the event, which was held at the nearly sold out El Rey Theater and premiered 20 student films from students in Butte County.
But this year they have grown out of the El Rey and Butte College, now opening up submissions to all of Northern California, including accepting submissions from the Bay Area and Reno. This year the venue will be at the Oroville Historic State Theater, which offers the full cinema experience according to the festival director, Curtis Bell.
Bell and Nathan Espindula have been working overtime to promote the event. Bell and Espindula have been traveling across Northern California, visiting schools and film clubs in an attempt to encourage students to submit their films.
The festival has already received over 80 submissions from students across the state and surrounding areas including Sacramento, Reno, the Bay Area, Humboldt and Butte County.
The first Butte Film Festival had a panel of judges voting on six categories; action, comedy, miscellaneous, drama, horror and music video. Each category winner received a trophy and the best film winner receiving $500. Another award was given to best animated film due to several unexpected animation films being submitted, Bell said.
This year the team of judges will increase to handle the amount of film submissions and screenings. Bell also shared that the categories are expected to be similar to the previous year, except the festival hopes to add animation as its own category.
The winner of best film will also take home $1,000, but the festival is looking at options to give cash prizes to the top 5 winners, Bell said.
Chico State’s film club, the Digital Filmmakers Guild — which also will be premiering its own short films next year at the 2025 Student Media Arts Showcase –- will be working with Butte Film Festival to create one-minute short films to introduce each category.
This years festival will give awards to each category:
- Best of Category – Categories yet to be announced
- Top 5 Films – Best films across all categories
- Best Director
- Best Writer
- Best Actor
- Best Supporting Actor
The festival will take place over three days:
- Friday, Dec. 6 — Opening Ceremonies and Screenings
- Saturday, Dec. 7 — Screenings
- Sunday, Dec. 8 — Award Ceremony and Closing Ceremony
Ticket prices to attend the event have yet to be determined.
If you are a student filmmaker the Butte Film Festival offers a unique opportunity for students in Northern California to see their work on the big screen.
Chris Hutton can be reached at [email protected].
