Charlottesville, Va – Thursday, April 27, 2017 – Light House Studio, an award-winning nonprofit filmmaking center for youth in central Virginia, today announced that the short science fiction thriller Loop is the winner of the Bronze World Medal for Best Student Film at the 2017 New York Festival’s World’s Best TV & Films competition. Winners were announced Tuesday at the annual National Association of Broadcasters’ Show in Las Vegas. The
New York film festival honors programming in all lengths and forms submitted from over 50 countries.
Loop was created by young Virginia filmmakers Ryan Beard, Stephen Gentry and Eli Hall in Light House Studio’s two-week Narrative workshop in summer 2016. The film explores a near-future when virtual reality machines have been banned, spawning a dangerous and alluring black market. Prior to winning the Bronze World Medal, Loop won first place in the Virginia Film Festival’s ACTION! High School Director’s Competition. The film was
screened for a sold-out crowd at Charlottesville’s historic Paramount Theater before the film festival’s closing film, La La Land.
Since its creation in 2016, Loop has been a finalist at the Kids First Film Festival (New Mexico), the William and Mary Global Film Festival (Virginia), the Newport Beach Film Festival (California) and was the Winner of the Gabriel Spirit Award at the Sun Valley Film Festival’s Future Filmmakers Forum (Idaho).
“A core part of Light House’s mission is to show our students’ work,” says Deanna Gould, Light House Studio’s Executive Director. “We are thrilled for our students to win such a prestigious award, and for filmmakers and industry executives from around the globe to see their film.”
Each year Light House teaches a variety of filmmaking workshops for more than 1,000 students from 70 schools in central Virginia and beyond. Find out more at www.lighthousestudio.org.
