Arcadia Senior Wins Best Overall Film Award at 2018 Arizona Student Film Festival

Jacob Staudenmaier, Arcadia High School Senior, won the Best Overall Film Award at the 2018 Arizona Student Film Festival Competition on April 14. Jacob’s film “Oasis” won First Place in the High School Category and then was selected as the top film out of all finalists. The 15 finalists were screened at the Harkins Scottsdale 101 Theaters as part of the 2018 Phoenix Film Festival. This year’s competition had the most submissions ever, with films entered by hundreds of students from all over the state of Arizona.

The film “Oasis” was an independent project undertaken by Jacob Staudenmaier, with production assistance from Chris Smith. “Oasis” was prepared pursuant to the following prompt: “Without the use of dialogue or voice over, make a film that is less than two minutes long about a character making a difficult and dramatic decision. Show that the character is pulled in two different directions at an emotional level, visualize their process of consideration, and show that they make a decision.”

The film “Mute”, which was undertaken as an Arcadia advanced film-making class project, was also selected as a finalist in this year’s competition. Under the direction of Film Instructor Eric Luse, the film students were not permitted to use any music whatsoever in creating the film. The film focused on a situation of teenage bullying. Students involved in “Mute” were Jacob Staudenmaier, Dash McDonald, Lindsay Formica, Shane Babasick, Heather DeGroote and Costi Haig.

Started in 2007, the Arizona Student Film Festival is a yearly film competition that celebrates the next generation of Arizona Filmmakers. Students from all over the state of Arizona are invited to submit their best short films under 8 minutes. The films are reviewed by professional judges and only a select few are chosen as Finalists to be screened during the Phoenix Film Festival.

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