Judge’s Panel Announced, Tickets Now on Sale for 2024
WILMORE, KY., Friday, March 8, 2024 – Asbury University’s acclaimed School of Communication Arts will host the 2024 Highbridge Film Festival on Asbury’s campus, April 11 through 13. Programming kicks off Thursday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. with The Sounds of Stage and Screen Concert in Hughes Auditorium; festival seminar sessions throughout the day on Friday, April 12 in the Miller Center for Communication Arts and culminates with the 20th-annual Highbridge Film Festival showcase screening and awards show at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 13 in Hughes Auditorium. Tickets for the film festival showcase and red-carpet reception following are on sale online now. In-person sales begin on campus three weeks prior to the festival.
“Martin Scorsese once described cinematic excellence as ‘an eternal quest, a journey without a final destination.’” said Todd Wold, Festival director. “While filmmaking perfection may always be just beyond the horizon, a filmmaker reaches an ultimate destination when their story is beheld by the audience. After a long, sometimes arduous road trip, the stories of our Highbridge filmmakers arrive on the Hughes Auditorium screen April 13.”
Official film selections for the festival are screened by an esteemed panel of film and creative industry professionals to determine student award-winners in the Narrative, Documentary, and Super Short categories. Our 2024 panel of judges includes Christine Swanson, Matt Giblin, and Katie Hooten.
Christine Swanson
A visionary filmmaker from Detroit, Michigan, Christine Swanson recently directed the genre bending dramedy “Albany Road” starring Renee Elise Goldsberry and Lynn Whitfield. It will be released in Fall of 2024. She also directed the record-breaking, smash-hit film The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel, starring Aunjanue Ellis. It was 2020's Best TV Movie award recipient from the African American Film Critics Association and nominated for a Critics Choice Award for Best Movie Made for Television as well as five NAACP Image Award Nominations including Outstanding Directing. Her other celebrated movie credits include All About You, The Miki Howard Story, and For the Love of Ruth, for which she also earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Television Motion Picture. Christine has directed numerous episodes of television including Sweet Magnolias, Bel-Air, BMF, P-Valley, All American, All American Homecoming, Found, Chicago PD, FBI and Roswell, New Mexico to name a few. Christine received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Film from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and her Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame. Christine serves on the Board of Trustees for Saint Mary’s College and on the advisory committees for Film Fatales and PANO Network. She lives in Los Angeles with her Studio Executive husband, Michael Swanson and their four amazing children.
Matt Giblin
As Director of Technology, Matt Giblin leads the Innovation Team at AbelCine, a leading provider of products and services to the production, broadcast, and new media industries with locations in LA, New York, and Chicago. In this role, Matt identifies new and emerging motion picture technologies and develops strategies to support and implement them to enable visual creatives to produce cinematic imagery at the most advanced technical levels.
In addition to his position at AbelCine, Matt is an experienced Director of Photography and Producer. He has filmed three features, several web series, and dozens of short films, commercials, and music videos. He loves collaborating with filmmakers who have a unique vision, a strong script, and is open to trying new ideas. His favorite projects allow him to travel—including to Abu Dhabi and Dubai for the Special Olympics World Games.
Katie Hooten
Katie Hooten is Head of Studio at MPC in Los Angeles, leading a team of creatives and artists who visually develop worlds and solve production issues using art and visualization. A founder of Hardy Howl Films alongside partners Todd Edwards and Timothy Hooten, she has a background in TV and feature development and production. Producing work includes projects with Blur Studio as well as The Third Floor in Los Angeles, producing pre-vis and post-vis for some of the largest franchises in the feature space. Katie's filmography includes independent and studio productions for live action and animation, as well as award-winning music videos and commercials. Her company's breakout hit Hoodwinked (2006) kicked off a wave of indie animation that continues today, establishing a new model of quality entertainment made for a fraction of the cost of its competition. Katie began her professional film career with the independent feature Chillicothe (Sundance Film Festival, 1999), followed by various roles in production management at Walt Disney Feature Animation Studio, working on such films as Atlantis, Lilo and Stitch, Spirited Away, and Treasure Planet.
For additional information about the 2024 Highbridge Film Festival or to make a film submission, please visit our submissions page at highbridgefilmfestival.com. The film submission deadlines are Monday, March 25 for high school students and Friday, March 29 for Asbury students. Tickets are $15 and available via the online portal with in-person sales available at the Asbury student center and cafeteria kiosks beginning three weeks before the festival weekend.
ABOUT HIGHBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL
The Highbridge Film Festival began nearly two decades ago as a vehicle for Asbury University’s School of Communication Arts to showcase student films and encourage visual storytelling. Each year the festival selects about a dozen student films and provides a venue for special presentations from Communication Arts and a panel of judges drawn from the film and television industry. The film festival is entirely produced and promoted through the combined efforts of the School of Communication Arts’ Special Events class and student volunteers. 2024 marks the 20th edition of the festival, which has grown into a nationally recognized collegiate film festival delighting audiences and attracting wide-ranging interest from the film industry.