As short films have become more and more popular, many festivals have popped up for lovers of these short films to gather and create! One of these national festivals have come to Maryland, at our very own Weinberg center for the competition they’re holding- it’s the 72 Film Fest! The competition gets its name from the rules of their competition, teams across the nation compete against each other with their short films- but, they only have 72 hours to create their entire movie. They begin with a theme given by the competition, this year’s theme being “Constellations”, proceed to develop an idea, make a script, and, finally produce and direct their short film all within the span of 72 hours. Every entry is showed and all levels of production are welcome- amateur or professional!

     This year, the film festival is taking place on Friday the 13th, but the main event is set for Saturday the 14th. As said before, the film festival will be at the Weinberg Center and be going on through 6:30-8:30 pm on Friday to show the entries and on Saturday, it lasts through 7-10pm (including the after party at Nido’s) for the main event of announcing the finalist and giving out the awards for the winners of the festival. Albeit, there is a sneak peek for the kickstarter film Sisterhood of Girls Who Won’t Date Me along with a Q/A too! For one day, the tickets to attend the festival are about $12 and for both of the days it costs $17.

     This annual, nation-wide competition is going on its twelfth year this weekend! Their goal ever since they started has been to inspire and provide an outlet for people’s creativity. Whether they take part in the screen-play, directing, filmography, script-writing, or even the acting, as long as they can put their creativity into making this film with their friends and teammates, that’s what matters! That’s another thing, they’re able to put something that they’re proud of up on the silver screen and they can know that this film was created by them and their friends in such a short amount of time- in addition to the possibility of having it win an award! The competition’s goal is simply to give them that chance to produce a film and explore their creativity by doing so.

     Short films are delightful to both watch and make, even more so when you’re with friends! That’s why the 72 Film Fest is a great place for those interested in short films and may want to start developing their own short films, too. It can either open you up to the world or make you delve even deeper into the culture if you’ve already been exposed. Or, it’s just a nice way to spend the evening with a group of friends at the Weinberg. If you are interested, visit the official site for this event here!