PBS SoCal Names Fine Cut Student Film Winners at Vidiots Ceremony

Student filmmakers from USC, California College of the Arts and Cal State Northridge took top honors at PBS SoCal's 27th annual Fine Cut Festival of Films, sharing prize packages valued at more than $55,000.

The festival revealed the winners at a screening and awards ceremony Tuesday at Vidiots in Eagle Rock, inside its Eagle Theater. Daniel Simon Zhang (USC) won in narrative for "Stop When Your Ancestors Say So." Mia Hagerty (USC) won in documentary for "A Good Death." John Angelo Serrano (California College of the Arts) won in animation for "Bigger Picture."

The evening's top prize, the Jack Larson Southern California Student Filmmaker Award, went to Sam Markson of Cal State Northridge for "Jewish Moms Scare the Crap Out of Me."

Fine Cut is PBS SoCal's longest-running series. It launched in 1996 with just four local schools. This year the competition drew more than 430 film submissions from 53 schools.

"Fine Cut gives students the opportunity to showcase their diverse voice and creativity to a wide audience," said Angela Boisvert, PBS SoCal's senior director of production. "Over the years, the program has featured notables like Ryan Coogler, Ben Proudfoot, Patricia Cordosa and Rashida Jones. And we hope that the resources provided by the Fine Cut programs will provide an avenue for the students to continue their filmmaking journey."

Winners received a $2,500 grant from First Entertainment Credit Union, plus filmmaking rental equipment, production resources and professional software donated by entertainment industry partners.

The Bridges-Larson Foundation supports the festival. Screenwriter, producer and actor Jack Larson created Fine Cut; he is perhaps best known for playing reporter Jimmy Olsen in the 1950s TV version of "Superman."

Variety's executive editor of television, Michael Schneider, and senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson hosted the ceremony for the fifth consecutive year.

This year's judges spanned animation, directing, cinematography and design. They included animator, writer and director Sofia Alexander ("Onyx Equinox"), character designer and illustrator Asia Vigil Ellington ("Primos"), cinematographer Jonathan Furmanski ("The 'Burbs"), director and producer Yu Gu ("A Woman's Work: The NFL's Cheerleader Problem"), producer Jennifer Kobzik ("Social Studies"), director Linda Mendoza ("Black-ish"), director Bethany Rooney ("Criminal Minds"), storyboard artist Victor Sampaio (Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio") and director Jesús Salvador Treviño ("Star Trek: Voyager").

Films from Fine Cut began airing on PBS SoCal this week, and many are also streaming on the station's website. The broadcast schedule runs Thursdays through October: Sept. 24 features "The Successor" (Jacob Gambina, CSUN), "Dog Brain" (Helen Benavidez, CSUF), "Hydra on the Horizon" (Curran Seth, UCSB), "Swimming Lessons" (Meloddy Gao, UCSC) and "Unikid" (Darian Hernandez, CSUF). Oct. 1 brings "Talk Straight Duda" (Eduardo Maia, USC), "Seagull Coffee" (Yunqing "Sally" Pan, CalArts), "American Daydream" (Ziyu Luo, NYFA), "Sister's Keeper" (Oliver Thrush, Biola University) and "The Rat Race" (Sarah Jackson, CSULB).

Oct. 8 includes "The Unlucky Rabbit" (Shane Hernandez, LMU), "Wilbur & Harold" (Giovanni Edwards, CalArts), "Screenagers" (Angela Suh-Young Kim, UCLA), "Rebound" (Anna O'Donnell, USC), "Bigger Picture" (John Angelo Serrano) and "Perfectus" (Regis Iofis, San Jose State University). Oct. 15 airs "Stop When Your Ancestors Say So" (Daniel Simon Zhang), "From, Farmersville" (Savannah Gasca, CSULB), "The Oceanarium" (Matthew Lei, CalArts), "Somang" (Tim J. Lim, UCLA), "Heart-But Dim Sum Friends!" (Veda Lee, CalArts) and "La Cadeja" (Selene Sanchez, Woodbury University).

Oct. 22 screens "A Good Death" (Mia Hagerty), "Silence = Death" (Trace Pope, USC), "Addie" (Antonina Bolyaev, City College of San Francisco) and "Death Is a Giant Peanut" (Amy Boisvert, CalArts). The run closes Oct. 29 with "Jewish Moms Scare the Crap Out of Me" (Sam Markson), "Dissent" (Sager Al Nuaimi, ArtCenter), "Creep" (Daniela Abarca, Laguna College of Art and Design), "El Bar De Hernando" (Andrés Bernal and Maria Gomez, NYFA) and "Natural Selection" (Amanda D'Ambrosio, CSUF).

Fine Cut will hold its annual mentoring workshop for California students on Sunday at Radford Studio Center, where professional producers, directors, writers and animators will advise students in their preferred track.