Student filmmakers only have a little time left to submit their films to the Butte Film Festival. The festival will take place on the weekend of December 6 in Oroville.
The annual festival strives to achieve the distinction of being Northern California's premier student film festival.
For Curtis Bell, President of the Butte Film Institute, film is an outlet that fosters creativity and nurtures artistic vision.
"There are not many mediums that are as collaborative as film, and so it's a way to creatively express myself while working with lots of other people. That's really why I like it so much,” Bell said.
Bell’s vision for the festival when it first started was to establish a platform to celebrate the creativity and talent of student-level filmmakers throughout Butte County.
The festival surpassed expectations, and this year their goals are aimed higher.
“We want to take what we did with the Butte Film Festival the first year… and we want to open it up to all across northern California, so student filmmakers from the Bay Area, Sacramento area, Humboldt area, and even as far east as the University of Reno,” Bell said.
Submissions due in October
BUFF has a submission process for this year's film submissions.
The deadline is October 5, 2024, with a late deadline of October 25. All entries for this year's festival must be created by students or student-level filmmakers.
“We want to be a lot more planned and a lot more organized this year, and we need to because this is going to be several days instead of one evening,” Bell said.
Each submission must be at least three minutes and no longer than 20 minutes, including the credit roll. A filmmaker can submit multiple entries, but each must be done separately.
The festival aims to display around 60 student films. Bell said there are likely to be six categories, and they want to show at least 10 student short films in each category.
“My dream for this year of Butte Film Festival is to see the entire Northern California Student filmmaking community come together under one film festival and celebrate filmmaking, and specifically student filmmaking, which is something that I think is really beautiful.”
Chaos, creation in the park
As a member of the Butte Film Club and heavily involved in last year's festival, Dillon Tharp, hopes to show his latest creation at this year's festival. He is currently filming his latest project.
Last year, he directed a scene for the festival's collaborative launch film project BUFF. This year, he's looking to showcase a cowboy western film he's been filming all summer.
"My grandfather was actually a stunt double and a lot of westerns for like John Wayne, and so I've been interested in making a movie like this," Tharp said.
A significant part was filmed at Upper Park in Chico, Calif. until the Park Fire delayed the process.
"Some of our locations are left intact, and some of them were affected by the fire, so we're shooting out at the bend in Red Bluff now," Tharp said.
“BUFF: The Truth is Out There,” was the major attraction created for last year’s Butte Film Festival and is now available on YouTube.
The festival will take place Dec. 6-8 at the historic Oroville State Theatre.
