Greenhill SxSW and Other Festivals February 2022

2/24/2022

This year the Greenhill AVP squad had three films juried into the South by Southwest Film festival in Austin from March 11-20, 2022. This is one of the biggest and most important film festivals in North America and one of the very few high-profile festivals that accepts and juries high school films. Over the last 14 years, Greenhill has had 55 films juried into SxSW and won five times.

Out of the Blue is a film by August Jaeggli ‘22. A person walks through the woods when they decide to sit down and listen to a tree. The tree tells them a story of a man who used to visit. This one-person film built around drawings made by August is a testament to his great artistic skills, creativity, and vision.

Spud is a film by Will McDonald ‘22 and Gavin Bell ‘22. The story of two roommates and a magical microwave, Spud will keep you guessing what will happen until the very end. Guest appearance by US teacher Treavor Kendall. Spud has also been juried into many other film festivals to date including:

AltFF Film Festival

IndieX Film Festival **Honorable Mention Best Young Filmmaker

Independent Shorts Awards Film Festival **Best Young Filmmaker

Indie Short Fest **Honorable Mention Best Young Filmmaker

Pure Magic International Film Festival **Best Student Short

Pennsylvania Teen Filmmakers Showcase **Finalist Best Comedy **National Best Picture Award

NY Flash Film Festival

Top Shorts Film Festival **Best Young Filmmaker

Mill Valley Film Festival **Best Youth Produced Film

Tallgrass Film Festival

Rock Rockman’s Redemption is a film birthed from the Starship franchise which was started during the Summer Video Production class of 2016 from the minds of AVP alums James “Jeb” Brown ’19 and Bill “Bilbo Swaggins” Yang ’18. The Starship Universe offshoot Rock Rockman’s Redemption by Uday Narayanan ’21 is amazing. Uday worked on this film for over a year, testing the limits of the program Blender and his own sanity. It’s a fist pump to the solar plexus kind of film, starring Uday and with a guest appearance of James Brown as Rock’s father, Brock Rockman, and help from AVP alum Adam Weider ’17.