Kayla Martinez/THE RIDER
The Student Film Association at UTRGV hosted its third annual FreakFest horror film festival Wednesday at the Studio Theater in Liberal Arts Building South on the Edinburg campus, screening 10 student films and recognizing filmmakers with awards.
Maria Cavazos, a theatre sophomore, won Best Picture for her short film, “The Real Mummy,” which she directed, starred in and edited. The film was selected from nine eligible entries.
“[Winning] means a lot to me, especially because [filmmaking] is something I’ve wanted to do in my whole life,” Cavazos said. “It was pretty hectic and stressful filming it, and then pretty fun editing it. But overall, just overall, a great, amazing experience.”
The festival featured awards for Best Picture, Best Performance, Best Technical Production and Best Screenplay.
Student Film Association President Jerry Fuentes said the organization spent several months planning the event, building on the experience of previous festivals.
Kayla Martinez/THE RIDER
“We’ve had [FreakFest] for two years now, so we kind of know the recipe and how to follow it,” Fuentes said. “We planned it out from the very beginning, and we accounted for everything. How many films were [people] gonna submit? How many people are gonna show up? … It was a lot of stressful planning in the last few months, and I think that it worked out at the very end.”
The event began with a mixer featuring free food and beverages before local band Middle of Nowhere punctuated the mixer with a live performance of original songs and covers.
“Last year, we started the tradition of introducing a live band to Freak Fest,” Fuentes said. “I wanted to continue that tradition even now.”
Lead singer Nic Robles said Fuentes invited the band to perform after another group was unable to attend. Lead guitarist Joe Medrano added that, similarly to film, performing live music takes dedication and hard work.
Following the performance, the screening for the films begun. SFA received 10 films to screen, all falling under the horror genre in time for the Halloween season and theming of the event.
Cavazos said submitting a film was a simple process that required filmmakers to complete an online form and provide attributions to the cast and crew.
Kayla Martinez/THE RIDER
Fuentes said that ultimately, SFA met the goals they set for this event, and as a chapter at UTRGV.
“The purpose of FreakFest, SFA as a whole, is to teach these new people coming in that filmmaking is a viable option as a career,” he said. “I just spoke with a young man, and he told me, ‘Hey, how do I do this? How do I start?’ And I told him what I knew … I want people to come out of [FreakFest] thinking that, ‘Hey, I can do this too.’”
Fuentes added that the organization welcomes students from all majors and aims to build a filmmaking community in the Rio Grande Valley.
“You don’t have to be a film major to do film,” he said. “We’re here to build a community because the RGV is growing. Whether it’s economically, population wise, artistically … We’re undeniable.”
Students interested in joining SFA can find the organization on V-Link. The organization also plans to host another film festival, “The Starries,” in the spring.
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