ACADEMY HONORS BALLARD HIGH SCHOOL FILMMAKERS WITH 19 NOMINATIONS

The Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) has announced nominees for the Northwest High School Awards of Excellence.  Students from the Ballard High School Digital Filmmaking Program earned 19 nominations.  These awards celebrate the most outstanding productions from five Northwest states: Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.  Productions are nominated by NATAS industry professionals.  The winners will be announced on June 9 at the 55th Annual Northwest Emmy Awards.  

Ballard’s nominations span eight categories, reflecting the diverse skills students learn in the program.  In the categories of best Writer and best Audio/Sound, every production nominated was by Ballard's film students.  This is the twelfth year in a row that Ballard High School film students have been nominated by the Academy.  Last year they received 17 nominations.  

All the nominated productions had their premieres at the Ballard Film Festival (BFF).  This event screens new films by BHS Digital Filmmaking students at the end of every semester.  The next BFF will be Saturday, June 16 at 7 pm in the BHS auditorium.  Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for adults and will be sold at the door.  

News of these nominations comes on the heels of big wins at the Northwest High School Film Festival, held May 2, where the Ballard Filmmaking Program students led the pack of winners with 13 awards and honors across six different categories.  One of the Ballard films nominated by NATAS - the short documentary Building Solutions - will also be featured at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 28 at 3 pm at SIFF Uptown Cinema.

Here's the list of NATAS nominations by category.  (Many of these productions can be seen on the Digital Filmmaking Program’s vimeo page.) 

Best Short Form Fiction:

Bottled Emotions by Zach Boone, PJ Hase, Aidan Jereczek & Bailey Wall

Paul,Dark, and Handsome by Ellie Dynes, Jesse Romero, Miles Anderson & Cole Kastner

Richard by Wylie Soltes, Ethan Hawthorne-Dallas, Ian Colbeck & Aaron Mamaril

Best Short Form Non-Fiction:

Building Solutions by Krystelle Kurz, Jonathan Bowers, Claire Elliott, Aven Fay, Duncan Kastner, Skala Leake & Annabelle Bowman-Mohn

Onthe Backs of Salmon by Miles Whitworth, Cecilia O’Rollins, Chris Barrett, Martin Bolivar, Caroline Harader, Jasper Land, Maddie Lausted, Freeman Marshall & Aaron Miller

Best Long Form Non-Fiction:

Oso Strong by Maddie Lausted & Freeman Marshall

Best Public Service Announcement:

Stay Sharp by Claire Kilkenny, Hannah Weaver & Wylie Soltes

Best Animation/Graphics/Special Effects

Building Solutions by Krystelle Kurz, Jonathan Bowers, Claire Elliott, Aven Fay, Duncan Kastner, Skala Leake & Annabelle Bowman-Mohn

Richard by Wylie Soltes, Ethan Hawthorne-Dallas, Ian Colbeck & Aaron Mamaril

Best Audio/Sound

Paul,Dark, and Handsome by Ellie Dynes, Jesse Romero, Miles Anderson & Cole Kastner

Richard by Wylie Soltes, Ethan Hawthorne-Dallas, Ian Colbeck & Aaron Mamaril

Best Photographer/Editor:

BottledEmotions by Zach Boone, PJ Hase, Aidan Jereczek & Bailey Wall

City’scape by Brendan Hickey, Jonathan Bowers & Gracie Morris 

Oso Strong by Maddie Lausted & Freeman Marshall

Richard by Wylie Soltes, Ethan Hawthorne-Dallas, Ian Colbeck & Aaron Mamaril

Superman’s Superman by Nick Fay, Braiden Hayes, Ivan Lodefink, Freeman Marshall & Arturo Rodriguez

Best Writer

Onthe Backs of Salmon by Miles Whitworth, Cecilia O’Rollins, Chris Barrett, Martin Bolivar, Caroline Harader, Jasper Land, Maddie Lausted, Freeman Marshall & Aaron Miller

Oso Strong by Maddie Lausted & Freeman Marshall

Richard by Wylie Soltes, Ethan Hawthorne-Dallas, Ian Colbeck & Aaron Mamaril