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# Teen film fest rolls into town
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/teen-film-fest-rolls-into-town/
- Published: 2008-06-21T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T19:57:56.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homelessness

*Twenty student films to be screened this weekend*

*By ALICE OLLSTEIN Special to the Daily Press*

MAIN LIBRARY This weekend, The Third Annual Santa Monica Teen Film Festival will screen 20 films from around the country to determine which will come away with the title “Best of the Fest.”

During the past several months, over 70 entries poured in from as near as Santa Monica and from as far as Vermont. Past candidates have hailed from Indiana, Texas, Canada, New York and Hawaii.

“We’ve had a few entries every year from out of state, but this year we had a lot more,” said Erica Cuyugan, the Young Adult Librarian at the Santa Monica Public Library. “\[The festival\] is growing in terms of recognition.”

Attending audience members will vote for the “audience choice” award, and the other titles will be bestowed by a panel of industry professionals and teenagers.

There will be an award for Best Animation, Best Documentary, Best Music Video and “Santa Monica Budding Filmmaker,” which will go to a local student who shows promise and potential in cinema.

Prizes will include trophies, gift certificates to Best Buy, monetary awards and exclusive meetings with working Hollywood professionals.

The first place winner will get the opportunity to meet with executives from 2929 Productions. This year’s festival will feature serious documentaries — one on child health care and one on homelessness — and more animation and music than ever before.

“They’ve been wildly creative,” Cuyugan said. “They cover so many topics.”

Archer senior Zoe Malecki will see her films in the festival for the third year in a row.

She is excited to screen an animated short and a documentary about the famed L.A. landmark Pink’s hot dog stand.

“It’s good fun, and a way to see other great films and get my work out there,” she said. “I love \[the festival\] because so many people get to be in it. I don’t know of any other teen festivals out there.”

Malecki, who plans to enter films until she is too old to qualify, is also impressed with the publicity potential of the festival.

“Last year, the judge’s pick was a documentary about Samohi. Later, my grandma heard about it on CNN.”

Cuyugan has observed many trends over the years she’s been running the festival.

“The quality of the films has improved greatly,” she said, crediting this both to evolving technology and young students’ familiarity with the technological world.

“They’re the ones growing up with computers and understanding them from a very young age,” Cuyugan said. “To them, it’s second nature.”

But what stands out most to those running the festival is the unique nature of a “teen film.”

“There’s always a niche of films that deal with issues teens think about every day,” Cuyugan said. “They like to capture that on film.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 21, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/062108.pdf?ref=smdp.com)