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Top 5 Nominees Announced for Slickrock

Updated: May 22, 2021

By Ryan Abner and Adam Saldivar

The annual 2021 Slickrock Student Film Festival is just around the corner, and the announcements for films that have placed in a top-five position in their respective categories have just been released. With the final award winners being announced live on May 30 on ABC news, it's exciting for many Minarets filmmakers to see that they have a shot at winning.


This year, over 15 Minarets films made it to the Final Five round.


PSAs

Minarets consistently sees its biggest numbers in nominations in multiple PSA categories, since Media 1 students are required to enter these categories as one of their spring semester projects. This year is no different for overall PSA success for Minarets, with 10 of the 15 Final Five films being in a PSA category.


“Addiction is Decay” ----------------------------------- Evan Tosetti

“The Consequences of Drug Use” -----------------Taylor Wilson

“Just Hold On” ------------------------------------ Zachary Martin

“Put It Down” --------------------Quinn Hedberg, Mackenzie Pogue, Alex Ralph, Hunter Cornet

“Quit” ------------------------------------------------ Benjamin Esau

“90s Internet Safety” ---------------------Hayden Livingston, Gianni Belluci, Paul Havens, Conner Henard, Solon Walker

“Mental Health” ---------------------------Hayden Livingston, Gianni Belluci, Paul Havens, Conner Henard, Solon Walker

“What Eating Disorders Do” ---------------------------------Kealani Peterson

“Help Is Available” --------------------------------------------Jezzy Neuman

“You’re Not Alone” ----------------------------------------------Daniel Stevenson


Blockbuster

Typically, Blockbuster is an uncommon category for Minarets to appear in as of the last few years. The category requires students to make a 4-minute short film about virtually anything, a category many are eager to participate in but very few win.

This year, however, Minarets managed to get nominated for not one but two blockbuster short films.


"The Media Kid"----------------------------------------Ryan Abner, Sam Franco, Ethan Reed,

"Charlotte"---------------------------------------------------------Ethan Hill, Cameron Johnson

General Advertisement

Another favorite category among students is General Advertisement, as it's considered commercial work experience as well as a chance to give back to small businesses in the community. Interestingly enough, the two businesses featured in the two Final Five advertisements from Minarets are located across the street from each other in Coarsegold.


Coast2Coast Pizza -------------------- Ryan Abner, Sam Franco, Ethan Reed, Brandon Guy

Zanders Coffee -------------------------------Leah Hansen



Cover Music Video

Easily the most competitive category in the entire festival for years, cover music videos are always tackled by Minarets students. Last year, Minarets won the category, and Best of Show overall, with the cover music video “Stupid Deep,” directed by Johanna Ziegler, now a senior. This year, Ziegler has created another cover music video that has placed in the top five and hopes to win the category again.



“When We Lived In La La Land”----------------------------------Johanna Ziegler, Dadalus Haynes


Another interesting observation is the nominations for other high schools this year. Out of all the schools with nominations, Minarets holds the most with 15, but typically, Buchanan High School is known to give Minarets a run for its money. This year, however, Buchanan is almost missing in action. The only nomination Buchanan received this year was for the News Broadcast category, which many Minarets Press and Minarets Media filmmakers can confirm as Buchanan’s specialty. While it is unfortunate to see Buchanan’s media program not performing as well as it has in past years, this could also indicate a better chance for Minarets to sweep more categories with its main rival nearly out of the picture.


Surprisingly enough, the school with the second most nominations was Coalinga High School, earning 7 nominations across the board despite normally being a smaller player in the festival. What’s particularly intriguing to the Minarets competitors is that three of Coalinga’s films are in the cover music video category, a category that is normally Minarets’ ace-in-the-hole. It is an ambitious move for Coalinga, but only time will tell if they can compete with Minarets for the best cover music video, and perhaps even Best of Show, with just weeks left until the festival.






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