Millburn Film Fest Announces Winning Student Films To Be Screened

MILLBURN, NJ — The Millburn Education Foundation announced this week the winning films of the upcoming 10th Annual Millburn Film Fest. All of the winning films were created by Millburn School District students and chosen by the 2021 judging panel.

This years judges included eleven Millburn High School Alumni and past Millburn Film Fest participants. They were joined by the members of the Millburn Arts Advisory Committee again this year.

For the first time ever, the films will be shown via a drive-in event on May 21 with awards at 8 p.m. and the premiere at 8:15 p.m. in the Millburn High School parking lot.

The 10th Annual event is made possible by Academy Award Sponsor and longtime Millburn Education Foundation supporter Simon Westfall-Kwong Real Estate Group of Keller Williams. The film fest is also proud of its ten year partnership with the New York Film Academy. Parking will be limited with a small amount of bring your own chair seating so all are encouraged to get tickets early at www.millburnedfoundation.org

The eight winning filmmakers range from 5th grade to 12th grade students. Their films explore a variety of subjects and filmmaking genres.

The winning films are The Alien, Clayception, Piano Man, Rachel Balkovec: Perseverance, Empowerment and Women in Baseball , Smash Team 1, Ternary, A Visitor and Who Killed Sarry.

• The Alien, an animated film by Saneev Sandran, is about an alien who comes to Earth looking for intelligent human life but encounters a variety of environmental destruction. Will the alien befriend humans and call earth home?
• An aspiring young filmmaker yearns to tell the story of a blue ball of clay in Carli Platt’s film Clayception. But how will she find inspiration? The ideas start flowing, but from where? Will there be a happy ending?
• Piano Man, a film by Griffin Talbert, delves into the end of Millburn senior Kevin Han’s high school career. Kevin is unmotivated by schoolwork and believes he is untalented compared to his other focussed, senior friends. Alas, Kevin is totally unaware of his own unique gift.
• Fifth grader Jamie De Rosa created an animated film, A Visitor, that follows a lonely girl who gets a mysterious visitor. After tragedy strikes, she will never see her visitor again—or will she?
• Gifts of the supernatural kind are showcased in Ternary, a film by senior Rachel Solomon about struggling, terminally ill musician Ryan Reznor, Ryan encounters an unlikely duo of nonconformists who are willing to offer him the help he desires but Ryan will have some difficult choices to make.
• Daniella Jacob’s documentary, Rachel Balkovec: Perseverance, Empowerment and Women in Baseball is a small glimpse into the journey and struggles of Yankees minor league hitting coach Rachel Balkovec.
• Daniel Lee’s personal documentary, Smash Team 1, highlights the antics of his Millburn Esports Smash team.
• Who Killed Sarry is Daniel Lee’s other film, which follows Zach and Danny’s dilemma after accidentally killing their friend's salamander and their inability to own up to it.

In addition, to the eight official selections, three films received honorable mention: Smile by Will Berezin, Nature and Science by Smit Kapadia, and Unfollowed by Alex Marx.

Highlights of the 10th Annual Film Fest can be seen here in the official trailer: MFF 10th Annual Trailer

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