Imagine having only 5 days to plan, film, and edit a short film. The Campus MovieFest (CMF) is an international student film festival that provides students with free equipment for one week—5 days to be exact— to make a short movie. The festival is open to students of all majors and the top films even have the chance to be shown at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
San Diego State University sophomore Film Production major Chelsea Best has earned the opportunity to have her short film “Enamored” featured at the Cannes Film Festival this May. The team’s, Mates@State, cast and crew include: Ashlyn Savidge, Graciella “Chela” Regua, Matthew Gibson, Kimmy Weinberger, Jonathan Verdugo, Emily Kaiserauer, and Wing-Yiu Cheung. With only 30 CMF films featured at Cannes out of the thousands of films submitted, including 60 from SDSU, this is the opportunity of a lifetime for Best.
“Enamored” is about a young woman who meets the man of her dreams—with a twist.
“I really wanted to have fun with it this year,” said Best, who directed “Enamored”, “I knew I wanted to do something creepy that would psych people out in the end. It was fun watching and listening to people’s reactions while they were watching.”
Journalism major Graciella Regua came up with the idea for the plot of “Enamored” and wrote the script. At CMF SDSU, the film ended up winning Best Actress, awarded to Ashlyn Savidge and the Jury Award, which is awarded to the top 4 films of the school. Best and Savidge have the honor to present “Enamored” at Cannes on May 9 through 23.
“It’s kind of a bittersweet story,” said Best when asked how she became involved in filmmaking, “I applied to ASB and yearbook and they declined me. Right before I started junior high, there was a mass email sent out about a news broadcast class, so I decided to try that and completely fell in love with it.”
Best continued doing news broadcasting in high school, where she learned how to use camera equipment and got exposure to being on and off camera. In the future, she hopes to maybe direct movies—but the possibilities are endless.
You can help fund Best’s trip to Cannes by donating here.