RIT takes home top prize in film festival

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Provided

(Back row) RIT students Tom Bardenett (far left), Matt Lees (second from left), Kenton Cumming (far right), (front row) Ed Foose and faculty adviser Dave Sluberski (middle) stand among judges after winning the Audience Choice Award at the Sleepless in Lake Placid 24-hour Film Competition earlier this summer.

For the second consecutive year, students from Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Film and Animation took home the top prize at the Sleepless in Lake Placid 24-hour Film Competition earlier this summer.

Led by faculty adviser Dave Sluberski, a team of four College of Imaging Arts and Sciences students—graduate student Kenton Cummings of Brooklyn, N.Y., and third-year students Matt Lees of Cato, N.Y.; Ed Foose of Evansville, Ind.; and Tom Bardenett of Syracuse, N.Y.—won the Audience Choice Award for its seven-minute long comedy film short titled, “Stuck in the Stay.”

The competition featuring some of the top film schools in the country required teams to shoot and produce their movies within 24 hours of receiving four specific thematic elements on the day of their arrival.

“This is a very competitive film festival, so it’s quite a feat to win the Audience Choice Award for two consecutive years,” says Sluberski, a lecturer with RIT’s School of Film and Animation. “I’m very proud of our students.”

“The School of Film and Animation’s curriculum, developed by our faculty, students and highly successful alumni, is rooted in a shared passion for filmmaking,” says Malcolm Spaull, administrative chair of the School of Film and Animation. “The rigor of our curriculum positions our students very well for these types of competitions.”

This marked the sixth year the 24-hour film competition was held in Lake Placid.