Scholarship Competition
MONTEREY COUNTY FILM COMMISSION AWARDS
FIRST FILM STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS
Two CSUMB Students Win $500 Prizes
l-to-r Estee Blancher, Alison Eastwood, Clinton Kuska, Anna Veronica Calillo
Estée Blancher and Anna Veronica Calvillo were named the first recipients of $500 scholarships in the new Monterey County Film Commission Film Student Scholarship and Awards Program. The two are students in the Teledramatic Arts and Technology Department at California State University, Monterey Bay. Blancher's film was created in collaboration with fellow CSUMB student Clinton Kuska.
The recipients were honored at a special screening of Alison Eastwood's directorial debut film, “Rails & Ties,” on May 4 at the Lighthouse Cinemas in Pacific Grove. Film commission board president Anne Sanchez presented the students their prizes. She thanked the donors in the community who helped make the scholarship program a reality, and expressed the commission's plans to continue the awards program and assist more film students in the future.
Among the guests were Clint Eastwood, Alison Eastwood, Pacific Grove Mayor Daniel Cort, members of the Monterey County Film Commission's board of directors, and “Reel Friends of the Film Commission” members.
The winners plan to use the money to help distribute their films. Blancher and Kuska's production is “In My Heart: A Child's Hurricane Katrina Story,” and Calvillo's film is “Awakening: The Poetess.”
The Monterey County Film Commission scholarship program was created to provide financial aid and incentive to students of film and beginning filmmakers who reside in Monterey County or are enrolled in a college or university in the county. The fund was established as a permanent endowment with the Community Foundation for Monterey County. The scholarship program chairperson is board member Phyllis Decker.
The two films will be shown at the Teledramatic Arts and Technology capstone festival at the World Theater May 16 from 6 to 10 p.m. The festival will showcase projects by the program's graduating seniors. It's free and the public is invited.
