about the festival
Student Films Across America is a program of the Door County Student Film Festival, now in its third year. The festival was founded in early 2006 by brothers and student filmmakers Brian and Steven Amos in their hometown of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. After receiving about 90 films from students around the world, the two held the first annual event: a weekend of screenings, showing 26 of the best films they received.
The experiences in running the first year of DCSFF made Brian and Steve become even more certain that people needed to reconsider the label "student film", usually used derisively. Thus, the brothers conceived and organized Student Films Across America, a touring program of the best films received for the 2007 festival. Nearly 600 films were received, from 44 states and 15 countries, and winners were chosen by a panel of judges including John August (screenwriter, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish) and Michael Emerson ("Ben", ABC's Lost). During June and July 2007, the crew traveled by minivan to 35 cities across the USA, bringing their three genre category winners and a local pick to an arthouse cinema in each town. Along the way, they met dozens of student filmmakers, some experienced college film majors, others high school students just starting their portfolio. At the shows, though, the most consistent reaction from audiences was that of surprise: the movies in the festival (among them, movies played at Sundance and South by Southwest, several Angelus Award semifinalists, and a Student Academy Award winner) were amazing.
Taking what they've learned from the previous two years, the Student Films Across America crew is restructuring the festival for 2008. SFAA will still be student-run: Steven is now a junior at Drake University, and Brian is a senior at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay. However, screenings will be held on high school and college campuses, and the shows will be organized by members of the community. Shows will be held during the spring semester, between March 15th and April 15th. With these factors combined, the 2008 Student Films Across America festival stands to showcase more student films to more audience members than any other student film festival in the world.