Features

As the year winds down and commencement approaches, and amid many thesis shows and presentations across the College, this weekend offers the chance to see the culmination of so much hard work and creativity play out on a big screen. The BFA 3D Animation and Visual Effects and MPS Film Directing classes of 2024 will bring vibrant visuals and compelling stories to the public with their respective thesis film festivals: SVA Premieres and the Third Annual Apple Box Short Film Festival. These films are populated with vivid imagined worlds, and narratives and characters that cross time and space, tackling topics both earthly and otherworldly.

On Friday, May 17, see works from soon-to-be MPS Film Directing graduates including Emili Weintraub’s She Ate That!, in which a young woman grapples with work, religion and power dynamics as she attends a pivotal luncheon job interview on Yom Kippur. Or Peter Zhu’s Sweet Thunder, which finds a pair of queer, star-crossed lovers contending with past trauma and harsh realities. See Q&As with the filmmakers and an awards presentation, as well as the collaborative class film The Book Signing. The festival takes place all day from 11:00am until 7:00pm, and is free to attend with registration. More info can be found here.

On Sunday, May 19, a shopaholic teddy bear, teenage superheroes and a chaotic intern will converge at SVA Premieres beginning at 6:30pm (doors at 5:30pm). A young Indonesian girl’s complex relationship with her mother unfolds through their shared ritual of hair-combing in Jihye JJ Kim, Michelle Marakasherry and Tien Pham’s Hair for You. Karizma Francis, Doris Huang and Seogene Lee’s Memory Lane sheds a heartwarming light on families struggling to acclimate to loved ones’ increasing dementia. In Aqui, Anabella Gonzalez tells the story of a girl who begins to physically unravel as life’s many stressors overwhelm her, and in Avery Pendleton’s Open Mind, Open Heart, sparks fly during a meet-cute between two high school girls with super powers. A mistake-addled intern’s boss goes from frustration to enchantment in Jiyoon Oh and Hyojin Shim’s The Dream Factory, and a stuffed teddy bear’s shopping addiction nearly sends him into ruin in Bear, His Quilt, and Everything Else by Sabrina Joa and Monica Yoo. The screening is free to attend and open to the public. For more info and to RSVP, visit here.

These are just a handful of the works that will screen at the Theatre this weekend, capping off another wonderful SVA Shows season full of memorable thesis work from all 31 departments. For those who can’t make these screenings, links to watch the films online will be made available after the events.