Three shorts by twelve students in Ballard High School’s Digital Filmmaking Program have won honors at the Dominique Dunne Film Competition in Colorado Springs. This competition actively seeks and invites entries from schools with outstanding film programs throughout the United States and abroad. It has only two categories: Documentary and Dramatic Narrative. Each school is limited to only four entries.
Maya Konz, Nolan Baker, Bailey Wall and Kajsa Woolford won 1st Prize in the Documentary category for 9066, a film about the internment of citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II. Also recognized in Documentary was Heart of Gold by Miles Andersen, Josh Gaynor-Cote, Willow Hudson and Jesse Romero. It received an Honorable Mention. Heart of Gold follows a student through her final year of high school - a year complicated by a life-threatening medical condition, a stroke, and a heart transplant. In the Dramatic category, Avery Davis, Aaron Miller, Cameron Miller, and Skala Leake received an Honorable Mention for Comeback, the story of a soccer player facing a serious setback.
The students will receive cash prizes for each honor, as well as written critiques from members of the competition's prestigious Advisory Board including producer Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. (of The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Samuel Goldwyn Films), actor/director Griffin Dunne (An American Werewolf in London, After Hours) and producer/ director/actor Ed Sherin (Law & Order).
Students from Ballard's Digital Filmmaking Program won three of the six honors given by the competition. This is the fifth year in a row that Ballard’s film students have been among the winners.
