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04/27/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/27/2024 13:34

Coming-of-Age Story of Immigrant Child Wins Big at Redstone Film Festival

Coming-of-Age Story of Immigrant Child Wins Big at Redstone Film Festival

Annual College of Communication competition celebrates best student filmmakers

The crowd at COM's annual Redstone Film Festival, held April 26, was filled with the nominated student filmmakers, along with their crews and classmates (some decked out in suits and evening gowns), faculty, and family members cheering on the films being honored.

Film & TV

Coming-of-Age Story of Immigrant Child Wins Big at Redstone Film Festival

Annual College of Communication competition celebrates best student filmmakers

April 27, 2024
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Bob, an understated film about a young Chinese immigrant boy who feels abandoned when his mother wants to enroll him in boarding school, practically swept BU's 44th annual Redstone Film Festival, held Friday, April 26. Written and directed by MFA screenwriting graduate student Tian Yu Du (COM'24), the short film took home best film and most of the technical awards.

"This is an opportunity for us to show off our students," said Paul Schneider, a COM professor of film and television and department chair, as he kicked off the event.

The screening and awards ceremony, held at the Tsai Performance Center, complete with a red carpet, is billed as "a first-look screening of tomorrow's top talent." The crowd, filled with the filmmakers themselves, crew and classmates (some decked out in suits and evening gowns), faculty, and family members, cheered on the nominated films.

The festival featured original films by COM film and television students. First, second, and third place awards were handed out, along with several other awards, ranging from best screenwriting to best sound design. The awards are sponsored by Canon and the Sumner M. Redstone Charitable Foundation, established by the late Boston native and billionaire media magnate Sumner M. Redstone (Hon.'94). Prizes included Canon camera kits, iPads, and cash, meant to help the filmmakers fund their next project.

This year's finalists were chosen by a committee of production, screenwriting, and film-studies graduates, with a panel of six film industry professionals judging the finalists.

Maura Smith (COM'14), a COM master lecturer in film, had the honor of announcing the final awards of the night. "As many of you know, making a film is no small task. It takes an incredible amount of effort, work, collaboration between all of the members of the cast and crew to make a film that is successful, has something to say, and is meaningful," she said. "I think all of the films we saw here tonight certainly achieved that."

In addition to the first place prize, Bob also won best screenplay, best cinematography, best editing, best production design, and best actor. This wasn't the first time the short film had been honored-it took first place at the 2023 Directors Guild of America Student Awards in the category Best Asian American Student Filmmaker for the East Region.

Bob's production designer Emily Ma (CAS'23, COM'23) (left) and producer Jessica Yijie Chen (COM'23) with their team's armful of hardware.

Du-like many of the night's other filmmakers-was unable to attend Friday's ceremony as she is finishing up a semester in the BU Los Angeles Intern Program. "I'll text her right now and tell her the good news," the film's production designer, Emily Ma (CAS'23, COM'23), told BU Today after the event.

Second place and best sound design went to Lock Jaw. The horror film, directed by Nina Barresi (COM'23) and produced by CK Anderson (COM'23), is about a woman participating in a weight loss study in which her jaw is wired shut, forcing her to follow a liquid diet. When she's had enough, she struggles to break free from the overwhelming pressure of normalized beauty standards.

The comedy The Notice took home third place. Directed and written by Yelisey Kazakevich (COM'25), it's about a man who decides to rob a bar, but has his plans thwarted by another stickup happening at the same time.

The Notice director and writer Yelisey Kazakevich (COM'25) (left) and producer Diego Santiago (COM'25) gleefully accept their third place honors.

This year's other finalists: Runner's Blood, a drama about a delusional athlete obsessed with being the best; Forgive Me Father, about a young priest and an older bishop confessing their sins; and Pas De Deux, a thriller that follows an elite figure skater who is caught using performance drugs.

Awards were also given for alumni short films, student-written screenplays, and film and television graduate students' thesis projects. New this year was the Sumner Redstone Television Pilot Contest honors.

At last year's Redstones, Du won the Adrienne Shelly Foundation Script-to-Film Award $5,000 production grant, which helped kick off the making of her first place film. The grant, which goes to a COM student female director and is made possible thanks to the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, is in honor of Shelly (COM'87), a producer, writer, and actor who was murdered in her New York City apartment in 2006. She is best known for her film The Waitress, which later inspired a Broadway musical of the same name.

Ma, Bob's production designer, who recently learned she'd been accepted into the American Film Institute's production design program, says Bob's production team were all either immigrants or first-generation Americans. "I think it was so incredible to work on a team that had such vast and different experiences," she said, "which I think brought a lot of depth to the story, because each of us has a story to draw from."

The full list of winners:

First Place:Bob, written and directed by Tian Yu Du (COM'24) and produced by Jessica Yijie Chen (COM'23)

Second Place:Lock Jaw, written and directed by Nina Barresi (COM'23) and produced by CK Anderson (COM'23)

Third Place:The Notice, written and directed by Yelisey Kazakevich (COM'25) and produced by Diego Santiago (COM'25)

Best Screenplay:

Bob, written by Tian Yu Du (COM'24)

Best Cinematography:

Bob, cinematography by Raphael Edwards (COM'23, CAS'23, Sargent'23)

Best Editing:

Bob, edited by Raphael Edwards (COM'23, CAS'23, Sargent'23) and Tian Yu Du (COM'24)

Best Production Design

Bob, production designer Emily Ma (CAS'23, COM'23)

Best Actor:

May Hong, who played Lei Xue (the mother) in Bob

Best Sound Design:

Lock Jaw, sound designer Max Tanzer (COM'23)

Audience Award:

Bob, written and directed by Tian Yu Du (COM'24) and produced by Jessica Yijie Chen (COM'23)

Alumni Short Film Award

Chameleon Corridors, produced by David Grober (COM'73), written by Jigar Ganatra

Alumni Short Film Honorable Mention

Eid Mubarak, produced by Adam Wescott (COM'06) and Mahnoor Euceph, written and directed by Mahnoor Euceph

The Film and Television Studies Award for Innovative Scholarship

This award is given to outstanding students in the MFA Film and TV Studies Program based on their thesis projects, as chosen by the faculty. The winners are not split into first and second place; both are recipients.

  • Lindsay Gould (COM'24), Disney from Home: The Consumerist Spectacle of the Disney Episode
  • Xinkai Sun (COM'24), Madame Satã: Queer Disidentification and Performance

The Fleder-Rosenberg Screenplay Contest

Short Film

First prize: Sifr Dimachkie (COM'24), Khosgelam

Second prize: Ben Locke (COM'25), Taper

Third prize: Brian Thompson (COM'23), Answer Key

Feature Film

​​First prize: Sifr Dimachkie (COM'24), Leather Beat

Second prize: Alexa Salimpour (COM'23), The Cherry Harvest

Third prize: Lily Hill (COM'24), Before the Lamb

Sumner Redstone Television Pilot Contest, Half-Hour

First prize: Nell Ovitt (COM'23), Strange Women

Second prize: Olivia Belluck (COM'24), The Book of Charlotte

Third prize: Lydia Evans (COM'25), Wizzed

Sumner Redstone Television Pilot Contest, Hour

First prize: Robert "Amour" Felton (COM'23), The Price of Angel Wings

Second prize: Tori Merkle (COM'24), Seafarers

Third prize: Audrey Porter (COM'23), Lovely Rita's

The Adrienne Shelly Foundation Script-to-Film Award

Daniela Arguedas (COM'25), Blueberries

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