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Read Interviews With the Sixth Annual Student Short Film Showcase Winners, Awarded By The Gotham, JetBlue and Focus Features
Reem Jubran, Calleen Koh, Nicole Chi, Eva Steinmetz and Sujin Jung Graduate students hailing from UT Austin, Temple University, UCLA, Loyola Marymount University and CalArts are the winners of the sixth annual Student Short Film Showcase, co-presented by JetBlue, Focus Features and The Gotham, Filmmaker‘s publisher.
In a refreshing turn this year, all of the awardees are women. Indeed, their films focus on the rift in perspective between young women and the generation that came before them. Nicole Chi’s Los Mosquitos explores the tension between a 15-year-old Honduran teen and her adorable younger cousin who, to her chagrin, becomes a bottomless vessel for adult praise; Eva Steinmetz’s Marina chronicles a difficult interaction between the titular caretaker and an ailing patriarch; Reem Jubran’s Don’t Be Long, Little Bird finds a mother-daughter vacation shift into a dreamlike appreciation of Palestine’s bucolic splendor before occupation; Sujin Jung’s Cocoon surveys how three generations of Korean women approach the pressures of assuming gendered expectations during a family gathering; Calleen Koh’s animated short My Wonderful Life depicts one mother’s gruesome plot to avoid the crushing weight of her domestic duties.
The awardees each received a $1,000 grant, an invitation to the 2024 Gotham Awards in Manhattan, their short’s year-long inclusion on in-flight entertainment systems on JetBlue planes as well as additional mentorship and workshopping offerings from The Gotham. The initiative also receives support from SoHo House. Four of these shorts are available to watch on Focus Features’ YouTube channel. Due to film festival prospects, Koh’s film will not be available to steam.
In conjunction with Focus Features uploading these films to their channel, Filmmaker has published interviews with Chi, Steinmetz, Jubran Jung and Koh, which can be found below.
