On March 9, 2024, the College of Arts & Media (CAM) will host the inaugural CU Denver Colorado High School Film Festival in the Tivoli Community Theater on the Auraria campus.

The CU Denver Colorado High School Film Festival was launched in 2023 to celebrate the work of high school filmmakers and to provide more exposure for their films. The festival seeks to present the films created by high school students from Colorado and beyond. CU Denver Film & Television Professor Andrew Bateman has worked in conjunction with the CAM recruitment and admissions team to create and run the festival. Bateman enlisted a group of 30 Film & Television college students to help judge the films and assist with the festival. 

High school applicants were encouraged to submit their films by January 1, 2024, and the festival received over 355 entries from 37 countries. Bateman and his team of students whittled the submissions down to 48 finalists, 25 of which were created by high schoolers from Colorado. Among the entries, Bateman’s team encountered fiction, documentary, animation, public service announcements, experimental film, and music videos. Considering the window for submission was only open for three months, Bateman is very pleased with the number of entries they received.

At the festival on March 9, from 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. in the Tivoli Community Theater, the finalists’ films will be screened and will undergo a second round of judgment by a panel of film industry professionals, who will determine winners for the festival according to a variety of categories. The festival is free and open to the public.

The overall festival winner will receive $250 credit to use for film gear rentals from festival sponsor Lighting Services, Inc. Additional prizes include scholarships to attend the LYNX National Arts & Media Camps. LYNX Camps are summer camp programs for high school students designed as educational previews of the college degree programs offered at the College of Arts & Media at CU Denver.