Calling all high school and higher education students in Pierce County!
No experience or professional equipment is required for submitting to this free film festival!
Theme: “CLIMATE SOLUTIONS”
The Pierce County Youth Film Festival is your chance to explore and showcase creative storytelling while addressing one of the most critical issues of our time: climate change.
Now in its second year, this festival invites students to create powerful short films that highlight local climate solutions – both those happening today and bold visions for the future. Using film as a medium, you can amplify real-world solutions, inspire innovation, and share your dreams for a more sustainable world.
We encourage you to break from the documentary format and explore different and creative ways to tell these stories of climate solutions in Pierce County.
Prizes will be awarded to Best and Runner Up in the Creative Clips and Short Film Category (for each High School Student Tier and Higher Education Student Tier). Amounts of prizes to be announced.
Filmmakers can choose to submit to one of the following categories:
SHORT FILM CATEGORY:
In five minutes or less, put together a short film that shares a story of the theme “Climate Solutions". Use a video camera and editing software or just a camera phone to put together your film.
High School Student Tier (9-12 grades)
Higher Education Student Tier
The top three films in the Short Films category from the high school student tier and the higher education student tier will be chosen by a panel of youth judges representing different areas of Pierce County. The winning films from each tier will be screened at the Film Festival Event (6 short films in total).
CREATIVE CLIPS CATEGORY:
Share a clear and concise message to the audience in 60 seconds or less. Use your phone or camera to capture a unique message that gets to the theme of “The Climate of Our Communities”.
The top 10 submitted films in the Creative Clips category will be screened at the Film Festival Event and the top three winners will be selected by the audience live at the event.
All films that are screened at the Film Festival Event will be judged based on the following criteria:
ORIGINALITY & CREATIVITY - Using the equipment available to you (phone, device, or video camera), bring us on a journey into your perspective of climate change solutions in your community. Tell your own unique story of the climate solutions you are seeing and envision for the future.
PLOT & EFFECTIVENESS OF MESSAGING - The science of climate change doesn't need to be the focus of your film. Both human and more than human communities that we are a part of experience climate change in their own ways. Tell us the story of your community! Your film will not be judged on the perspective you share, but on the effectiveness of your message on how your community experiences climate change.