NIU’s annual film festival is right around the corner and welcomes all film buffs to watch and discuss the many works crafted by student filmmakers. 

NIU will be hosting its annual Reality Bytes Film Festival on April 11-12. The festival will showcase 20 short films, all of which span 30 minutes or less. The films fall into four categories: Narrative, Animation, Documentary and High School. The films in this festival are created independently by college and high school students and aren’t strictly made by NIU students, either.

Many of them come from students all over the globe including Haiti, Egypt, India and Poland. All of these students showcase their work to compete for a cash prize in each category.

Since its founding in 2001, NIU’s Undergraduate Program Director of Media StudiesLaura Vazquez has served as director for this annual film festival for over 20 years along with Associate Professor of Media Studies Randy Caspersen. 

Vazquez put together the festival to give film students from all over the world the opportunity to screen their work to the public. When speaking with Vazquez, she confirmed that her team received a record-breaking 98 films to be viewed and decided upon for what will be shown at the event this year. 

She also touched upon how important it is for students to take part in the medium of film for the sake of our culture and society.

“All of these films are made by students and that’s really important because that’s the future of filmmaking,” Vazquez said. “I think it’s really important to give students that opportunity to share their work with the world and that’s what Reality Bytes is trying to do. The stories we tell make us who we are.”

Selecting films for the festival is a process of elimination. Students submit their films through an online aggregator called FilmFreeway to allow for easy management of the submissions. Those films are divided up and viewed by students in the Film Festival Administration course. 

After the first cut, the remaining films are sent over to professional judges who usually have connections with the film industry before being sent over to another group of judges to dictate the winners.

One film in the festival that Vazquez highlighted was a narrative film called “Through the Barricades” by Alexandrine Benjamin. The film follows a couple in Haiti who must make their way through the middle of social protests and murderous gangs in order to reach a hospital to give birth to a child. Benjamin will also be making an appearance at the end of the first night through Zoom. 

“We’re so glad to have this film but we’re also glad to have the filmmaker share their ideas about making this kind of story and how they shot it,” Vazquez said.

“Through the Barricades” will be showcased along with many other films across the two nights which will be listed on the Reality Bytes website.

Each night of screenings will start at 7 p.m. on April 11-12 at the Sandburg Auditorium located in the Holmes Student Center. The event is free and open to the public with door prizes being offered each night by local businesses.

For more information on this event, visit the Reality Bytes website or contact the event organizers at [email protected].