Asbury University Presents: Highbridge Film Festival—at Home
WILMORE, Ky. (Apr. 14, 2020) – Asbury University’s acclaimed Communication Arts Program is hosting its 2020 Highbridge Film Festival, only this year it is “Highbridge at Home.” The Highbridge Film Festival Showcase will premiere online Saturday, Apr. 25 at 7 p.m. as a live webcast event. The online audience can watch the livestream broadcast from highbridgefilmfestival.com. Festival organizers made the shift to an online event in response to the COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home guidelines.
“Highbridge Film Festival is a great Asbury tradition celebrating the power of story, and this year is no different,” said Todd Wold, festival director. “While we have to acknowledge that this isn’t what we envisioned when we started planning this year’s event, we received a truly extraordinary set of film submissions from students and we’re excited to bring them to our audience.”
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. The 2020 judges panel includes Mandi Hart, Terry Botwick, and Steven Fracol:
Mandi Hart is a filmmaker and attorney specializing in creative content development and intellectual property. She worked in documentary film production for three years before obtaining her J.D. She is president of Cave Pictures Publishing, an independent publisher of spiritually resonant comic books and graphic novels; and of MORE Productions, a firm that both produces culture and provides consultation services regarding culture creation. Hart is also a screenwriter and published author of articles concerning product placement as a film financing technique; tax incentives for film production and the challenges of maintaining copyright protection in the social media age.
Terry Botwick is the principal of Papatime, a film and television production company, and has been a television network and studio executive who has now been producing independently for more than a dozen years. He recently produced the award winning, “Captive,” starring David Oyelowo and Kate Mara distributed by Paramount Pictures, and “Cool It,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released by Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate. Botwick formerly served as President of Vanguard Films & Animation. With funding from Starz Media, Vanguard produced and released high quality CGI animated movies including, “Space Chimps,” distributed by Fox. Prior to Vanguard, he formed Thunderpoint Partners, a structured film portfolio co-finance and production company. Botwick also served as president of Big Idea Productions, whereas executive producer he successfully brought the iconic VeggieTales brand onto the big screen with an award-winning major motion picture release, “Jonah, A VeggieTales Movie.” Previously, he was senior vice-president of Current Series Programming and Specials for CBS Entertainment, overseeing both the creative and business aspects of the network’s entire slate of comedy and drama series, reality series, as well as large special events. Mr. Botwick has been responsible for the creation and oversight of more than 2,000 hours of television series, special events, movies, direct to video product and theatrical films.
Steven Fracol is a Director of Photography for Film and Television. He began his career as a handheld cameraman shooting college football and basketball, professional soccer and wrestling as well as rock headliners of the day. He cut his teeth in the art of visual storytelling after landing a job with Kansas City’s public television station, leading to jobs shooting news for Kansas City’s NBC affiliate, where he won the first of five Emmy Awards at the age of 24. Later, he joined a Kansas City production company, shooting for a variety of high-profile clients including Wal-Mart, Sprint, Yellow Freight, Utilicorp, Hallmark Cards and others. Steven and his wife Stacey started New Vision Pictures in 1994, which quickly gained a solid reputation shooting award-winning news promotions for television stations across the country. He also became sought after in Kansas City’s Advertising community as a DP/Director of choice for both local and national ad campaigns, and became a prominent Director of Photography shooting for directors and producers from New York to Los Angeles. In 2004, Steven entered the world of Steadicam, the cinematic tool of choice for powerful, visual storytelling, and spent the next 15 years in Hollywood as an A Steadicam Operator for, television show such as “My Boys”, “Sons of Anarchy”, “Scandal” and others, as well as the feature films “Land of The Lost”, “Green Lantern”, “Gangster Squad” and many more. Steven recently transitioned to Director of Photography and is set to lens Season 17 of “Grey’s Anatomy” for ABC this fall.
Official film selections will be announced later this week, and more news about the festival will be announced in the coming days.
“During this difficult time for all of the broader Asbury community, this online event will draw students and the entire Asbury family together to celebrate student creativity in a very meaningful way, and provide a way to showcase our filmmakers who have put so much effort into their projects,” said Wold.
Make plans to watch Highbridge Film Festival at Home April 25 at 7 p.m. Stay tuned for watch party ideas and ways to share the experience online by following our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram (@hbfilmfest) or Twitter (@HBFilmFest).
About Highbridge Film Festival
The Highbridge Film Festival began in 2005 as a vehicle for Asbury University’s School of Communication Arts to showcase student films and in the process, encourage visual storytelling. Each year the festival selects about a dozen student films and provides a venue for special presentations from Communication Arts and the panel of judges 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. 2020 marks the 16th anniversary of the festival, which has grown into a nationally recognized collegiate film festival delighting audiences and attracting wide-ranging interest from the film industry.