The Springfield Anglican College is thrilled to announce its Film and Art Festival, celebrating creative expression and innovation by talented young artists and filmmakers. This exciting event took place at the Springfield Event Cinema on Wednesday, 30 August, and showcased the diverse artistic endeavours of students on the big screen, with submissions being judged by renowned University of Southern Queensland film lecturer, Dr Daryl Sparkes.
The festival featured an array of captivating short films and stunning artworks, all crafted by talented students from The Springfield Anglican College Secondary Campus. More than 30 entries across 10 film genres and 18 art entries across 6 categories reflected the students’ diverse creative visions in response to the criteria.
Mr Steven Morris, College Principal, says, “The College’s Film and Art Festival is a testament to The Springfield Anglican College’s commitment to nurture and showcase its students’ artistic talents. This festival, now in its third year, gives students a creative outlet to share their unique perspectives, ideas, and narratives of the world with their fellow students, their families, and the broader community.”
The festival provided an exceptional platform for young visual artists to showcase their work, with images of their drawings, paintings, photography, and designs. The audience witnessed the remarkable creativity and innovation of the next generation of visual artists, and voted for their favourite works.
TSAC was honoured to have Dr Daryl Sparkes, Senior Film and Media Production Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland, and Zaine Harvey, Honours student at USQ, as the guest judges for the festival. Dr Sparkes has 35 years of film industry experience, including producing documentaries for Channel 7, Channel 9, ABC, SBS and Foxtel, and brings a valuable perspective to the evaluation process, contributing to the recognition of exceptional talent among our students.
Dr Sparks says, “This year, films from The Springfield Anglican College have been exceptional. The stories in the films have a broad range from comedy to suspense to tragedy. The quality of the filmmaking techniques from the students is well above the standard I would expect from high school students.”
Embarking on a difficult process to determine the winning entries for each category, Dr Sparks says the first thing he looks for is the storytelling. “The great thing about the films is that they all connect with the audience, so I then look at how inventive the film is in telling this story, both visually and through sound.”
Ethan Richards is a Year 12 student and Prefect for Creative Arts and won three awards (Best Editing and SFX, Beyond the Wall; Year 12 Identity category, Echoes; Overall Festival Winner). He says, “I am very thankful to have received these awards, and would like to thank Dr Daryl Sparkes and Zaine Harvey, for their hard work and efforts in judging all of the films at the festival.
“The film industry has always intrigued me even when I was a kid, and I used to take on-screen acting classes. Now, I’m inspired by the works of David Fincher, which feature long monologue shots and time skips, as well as having an engaging twist at the end of the film.
“One of my films was heavily inspired by his works, and I have tried to adapt techniques made famous by Fincher in my own films. I want to continue some work in film, even if that means just making films in my spare time and posting them somewhere to see. I would not be where I am today without the support of my family and Film, TV and New Media teacher at TSAC.”
Dr Sparks adds, “Events such as this are very important for the artistic development of the students. They are also good calling cards for the students in the industry as well. I think quite a number of the TSAC films should also be entered in industry festivals as well, they’re that good!”
The films and artworks will be on display at the College.
