Forest City Youth Film Festival showcases Southwestern Ontario’s best young filmmakers
The 7th annual Forest City Youth Film Festival (FCYFF) was held at the Wolf Performance Hall on Tuesday, showcasing talented storytelling by young filmmakers across Southwestern Ontario secondary schools. Nineteen short films and 5 feature film pitches were screened to an audience of over 120, including parents, filmmakers and industry professionals.
For each of the five categories, films had the chance to win prize money, with $300 going to the winners and $200 to each runner up. FCYFF’s youth co-hosts and H.B. Beal Secondary school students Finn Brady and Kalista Langford led the crowd through each of the categories with a humorous approach that included jokes about what their own submissions might have been, before announcing the awards for each of the categories.
“This is by far my favourite event of the festival,” said Forest City Film Festival managing director Ethan Hickey, in a speech introducing the youth hosts. “Every single filmmaker, every single actor and post-production and editor a part of every project here is just so inspiring, I hope that you guys have fantastic careers and keep working together.”
This year’s festival was notable for having the highest number of short film submissions in the festival’s history. Each category at the FCYFF was judged by industry professionals including Sarah Legault, a London-based Juno Award winning music video director, stop-motion filmmaker, animator and writer; Michelle Daly, former CBC head of comedy and current Director of Writing for Film & TV program Toronto Film School, Oshini Wanigasekera a Toronto-based filmmaker, actor, and animator.
The animation category saw impressive short films using several forms of the illustrious medium — including 2D, 3D and even claymation — to tell insightful stories of romance, betrayal, and the dangers of AI. Directed by Cate Brunt from London’s H. B. Beal Secondary School, the winning short film, The Crab and the Potter, used a miniature set and claymation characters to tell an absolutely delightful story about its titular characters. Hailing from Kitchener, returning FCYFF award winner Randy Lettenbauer debuted his 3D animated short film Relics, winning runner-up in the animation category and also the Most Enterprising Filmmaker award. The animation category was the only one to have two runners-up, with Melting Wax directed by Alexa Layne also a runner up for animation.
“It’s such a good opportunity for both amateur and experienced student filmmakers alike to see their films on the big screen, especially in such a city like London.” Lettenbauer said of the festival in an interview with Antler River Media. “It gives them the inspiration to keep going, and the motivation as well.” He noted he keeps his awards from previous festivals above his computer in his room as additional motivation whenever the process gets tough.
The documentary category saw insightful short films showcasing stories in London, including a mini-documentary about the ‘Saunders Cars Against Cancer’ student-led car show directed by Rebekah Omondi, a personal story of director Myka Del Mundo’s mother and her emotions returning to school as a mature student. While Del Mundo’s story took runner up, the winner of the documentary category was The Pursuit of Passion by director Veerak la, covering his own search to find his true passion in life.
The experimental category saw stories with creative filmmaking techniques used to showcase interesting stories of isolation, the uncertainties of life and the harms of screen obsession. Runner-up The Engine directed by Nathan Blatz followed a man undergoing a kind of amnesia as he progressively became more and more disoriented with a dizzying go-pro camera taking the audience right along with him. The Best Short winner, This Average Dystopia, directed by Tanis Payson, used a mixture of footage and self-performed monologue to convey the terrifying weight of living under modern times as a young person.
Lastly, the narrative category brought together fully story-focused short films by youth filmmakers. An unexpected common theme across was a sharp focus of horror. Winning film When The Party’s Over directed by Stratford District Secondary School graduates Peer Wahlquist and Emelia Auster told an ensemble cast story of a group of teenagers throwing an end of the world party. When The Party’s Over also won Best Overall Film at the festival. “When the party’s over was written during a time of change for my friends and I as we were wrapping up the final months of our school careers” said Whalquist during the festival Q&A. “The fact that we were moving away from the school system that we knew and our friends we’d known for so long really felt like the world was ending.”
The youth festival also had its own pitch competition, hearing five feature pitches from students in the region. Runner-up winner Grace Docherty brought forward a pitch on the dangers of AI and government surveillance with In the Eye of the Beholder, and Theone Damue won with her body-swap pitch about pageantry and racism set in the American Deep South in the 1950s.
Kate Nash, youth liaison coordinator for the FCYFF, told Antler River Media she is amazed at the growth of the festival over the four years she has been in the role.
“I’m really inspired by the hard work and dedication that goes into film, to be able to see students as young as 15 and 16 years old creating these amazing pieces of art and getting to watch them on the big screen is really special to me,” she said.
The winners and runner-ups in each category will advance to the Ontario Youth Film Festival on Nov. 13, where their films will compete with other talented youth filmmakers from three other regional youth festivals across the province.
“The bottom line is just encouraging young people to make films,” Nash said. “The arts are so important and we can’t let them die, it always starts with supporting them in your community.”