By Alicia Tang
On May 6, Greenwich Country Day School (GCDS) junior Ellery Futch successfully hosted the first of her soon-to-be annual county-wide film festival. Through the Fairfield Flix Fest, Futch hopes to revitalize and connect film communities across the county that have lost momentum over Covid. Teens in Fairfield County submitted their works to four categories: short film, documentary, public service announcement, and animation.
Ellery Futch is knee-deep in her involvement in film. She engages with her craft year-round, both inside of school, where she initiated an independent study, and outside of school, where she has submitted and won contests in other states. Futch was struggling to find local film festivals that all teens in the area were eligible for when she conceived of the idea to host one of her own. At the same time, Futch was looking for a junior thesis idea – the festival hit two birds with one stone.
Reflecting on her search, Futch recalled, “there’s maybe one other [film festival] locally that includes all schools, but that one kind of closed down because of Covid.” Meanwhile, other local festivals were school-specific, and did not permit students from other schools to submit.
Futch kept inclusivity at the front of her mind when planning the festival – she wanted to serve the untapped niche of filmmakers and creatives from every school across Fairfield county.
Flexibility was key for balancing the enthusiasm of the event with the current safety restraints of Covid. Through her eagerness to unite the attendees, Futch continually asked authorities for their feedback during every step of the process, and subsequently updated the film festival website with their assessment. On the website she announced the requirements would be subject to change and requested the cooperation and understanding of festival attendees.
The judging was multifaceted: first, a panel of preliminary judges consisting of her peers and teachers at GCDS evaluated the film submissions according to a rubric they were provided. This rubric classified the most impressive submissions as ‘Box Office Gold’, notable films as ‘Big Opening Weekend’, decent films as ‘Indy Buzz’, and substandard films as ‘Rotten Tomato’. The rubric’s criteria for scoring was script and storytelling, creativity, cinematography, audio/lighting, and costume and props.
Then, the highest-scoring three films from each category were sent to industry professionals including screenwriter and Greenwich International Film Festival founder Wendy Stapleton; Adler Films founder and El Dorado Entertainment co-founder Jonathan Adler; acting coach and casting director Jay Skully; producer, Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Laura DeNey; and screenwriter and executive producer of Revolutionary Roads Peter Kalmbach. Futch had also invited David Levien, a heavily awarded screenwriter and director known for his work on Showtime’s Billions, to be the keynote speaker at the event. Most of these well-accomplished panel judges are alumni of GCDS. They unanimously voted for nearly every category winner.
The winner of best short film with an entry titled “More than Polish”, Chiara Collin-D’Augelli, was lauded for her effective storytelling despite the absence of dialogue. Judge Skully commented on her exemplary cinematography, which included “flowers as a matching shot, the clever use of color, and the twist at the end.”
Emily Sedgwick won with a film titled “It’s About What You Can Do” which was found both inspirational and realistic by the judges. Judge Skully was specifically impressed by the “blend of outdoor footage with the interviews.” Sedgwick was able to combine “a great story” with “excellent images and use of camera compositions” according to judge Kalmbach.
The winning film in the Public Service Announcement category, “The Algorithm” by Jhonni Dixon and Advika Dushyanth, struck a chord with judge Adler whose fiance is an influencer; he commended them on the film’s modern-day relevance, and its ability to appeal to and suction in the audience.
Finally, both Futch and the judges raved about Elisa Taylor’s claymation, “Bento Love,” winner of the animation category. “It really brings to life the experiences of so many 2nd generation kids in a beautiful and meaningful way”, Judge DeNey remarked enthusiastically, and spoke of Taylor, “I hope to work with this filmmaker one day!”
The winners all received cash prizes, as well as recognition at the award ceremony where their respective entries were screened for the audience.
Though Futch refrained from submitting a piece of her own, she feels rewarded by the unanticipated success of the event which drew over 70 film submissions and over 100 attendees.
“There was definitely a sense of community and there was a lot of creative energy in the room with all the films. I got to meet so many cool people… it was awesome,” she recalled fondly.
Diversity is a component that Futch would like to work on for future years of the festival: her goal is to receive submissions from “as many different schools in Fairfield County as possible, private and public.”
Next year, Futch would like the intro to film class for which she will serve as teacher’s assistant, to organize the event. In following years, she would like to give other schools in Fairfield county the opportunity to host… “hypothetically someone from GHS could run in the 3rd year then someone from GA the next.”
Film is really about telling a narrative, Futch explained. “All the winners were able to take a story and draw the viewer in and make them feel a certain way whether that is meant to be inspired or happy or maybe even sad and worried.”
