Eastern Arizona College’s Fine Arts Division hosted a High School Film Festival last week in conjunction with the EAC STEM Festival.
Students currently enrolled in Arizona high hchools submitted short films to be reviewed and chosen by EAC judges. The selected films were screened on February 25, 2023, in the Lee Little Theater. The best overall film received a trophy and a scholarship to Eastern Arizona College.

EAC created The Arizona High School Film Festival to reach out to young filmmakers across the state. “This is an event for high school students to showcase their work outside their own schools and to have their films shown on the big screen,” said Glen Cashetta, EAC’s media communications instructor and coordinator of the film festival. “It was a huge success and I can only see this event becoming bigger and  better every year.”

Winners at the festival were:

Best Picture  

“The Wasted” 

Jacob Hunter Encinas, George Tecumseh Tapia – Willcox High School

Best Director 

“Eternal Slumber” 

Nicole Lease, Colin Pregler – Buena High School

Best Editor

“Without It”

Deborah Hallford Hadassah – Safford High School

Best Cinematographer

“Eternal Slumber”

Nicole Lease, Colin Pregler – Buena High School

Best Screenwriting 

“The Wasted”

Jacob Hunter Encinas, George Tecumseh Tapia – Willcox High School

Best Actor

“The Wasted”

Jacob Hunter Encinas – Willcox High School

Best Actress

“Without You”  

Nicole Lease – Buena High School

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