Students win red carpet accolades at 11th Calabasas Film Festival

MOVIE-MAKERS—Middle left and right are Viewpoint 12th-graders Alexa Jeong and Zooey Jeong, along with their parents, Tran Ho and Hollywood acting star Ken Jeong. Alexa won Outstanding Achievement in Writing for her film, “Crescendo.” Courtesy photo

Several promising young filmmakers took to the red carpet at the recently completed 11th annual Calabasas Film Festival.

Viewpoint School in Calabasas announced its filmmakers won two of the top student awards at the festival’s Sept. 22 winners’ ceremony.

The festival brought together current and former students, including renowned cinematographer Eric Steelberg from the class of 1995, who was awarded a certificate of merit from the City of Calabasas.

“Eric is one of the students who created the film program at Viewpoint,” said Catherine Dunn, the school’s department chair of Film and Video.

“Eric’s passion and talent for cinematography was evident from those early days and he continued to be as invested in the program even after he graduated, returning to mentor many of our students’ Film IV shoots,” Dunn said.

Other student winners include:

• Outstanding Achievement in Ensemble: “Pest Control” (Elijah Paul, Agoura High School)

• Outstanding Achievement in Directing: “Sheltered” (Lorenzo Ghaffari, Chaminade High School)

• Outstanding Achievement in Film: “In-Security Guard” (Riley Segal, Oaks Christian School)

From more than 100 submissions, Viewpoint students won:

• Outstanding Achievement in Editing: “Minus Daisy,” written, directed, produced and edited by Sam Green

• Outstanding Achievement in Writing: “Crescendo,” written, directed, produced and edited by Alexa Jeong with assistant director Julian Dans and photography by Natalie Yerelekian; sound by Zooey Jeong, and lighting by Kamari Paschall.

“The Calabasas Film Festival’s mission is to showcase quality films from high school students, honoring their innovative storytelling,” said Viewpoint film teacher Monica Hoenig, thrilled by the students’ success in the competition as she shared her thoughts about the importance of the festival for aspiring young filmmakers.

“As a teacher and mentor, my job is to guide and support these talented students, helping them bring their creative visions to life,” Hoenig said.

The kindergarten-through-12th-grade Viewpoint School has entered films in each of the 11 years since the beginning of the Calabasas Film Festival.

Sisters Kelley Fries Miller and Nicole Fries co-founded the event in 2014 with the United States debut of the major film, “The Equalizer” with Denzel Washington.

Calabasas City Councilmember David Shapiro has been a key mentor for the event since its inception.