By Hana Al-Henaid



Three films won awards at the sixth annual Harvard-Westlake Film Festival at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome on March 20. Thirteen films were selected from about 140 entrees to be screened at the fesitval, Video Art teacher Nancy Popp said.

Four films featured at the festival were submitted by Harvard-Westlake students, three of which were recognized. Kyle Kleinbart’s ’09 “A True War Story” received the Lizzie award for Cinematography, Justin Levine ’09 and Jack Heston’s ’09 “Untouchable” recieved the Humanitarian Award in Honor of Lizzie Barcay ’07, and Michael Diamant ’09 and Michael Stampler’s ’09 “Conflict in the Middle Table” received the Lizzie Award for Directing. Romina D’Allesandro’s ’10 “Care,” initially intended for the Character Counts competition for a Video Art I class was also screened in the festival.

“Water Damage,” submitted by Kellen Moore from Moorpark High School, won the Lizzie Award for Best Overall.

Of all the short films submitted, student co-chairs Lauren Bailey ’09 and Jonathan Haile ’09 selected around 40 for viewing by a committee of judges. With the help of faculty co-chairs Cheri Gaulke and Ted Walch, thirteen were selected and featured.

Prior to the public screening, the 13 films were anonymously sent to festival judges, including director Oliver Stone (Tara ’14), producer Martha DeLaurentiis (Carolina ’06, Dina ’09), actress Rita Wilson, producer Jeb Brody, Larry Charles (Sophie ’04, Pearl ’09, Zelda Wengrod ’13), producer Bill Gerber (Emma ’12) and founder of the festival, Elizabeth Yale ’04, for whom the Lizzie Awards are named.

This year’s guest speaker, actor Tom Hanks, congratulated Yale and encouraged the participants to continue making films.