According to KPBS film critic Beth Accomando, it’s time again to celebrate the passion, dedication and fresh young talent found in San Diego and Tijuana. The 2008 Film School Confidential Festival, hosted and curated by Accomando, takes place at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park on Sunday November 16 at 6:00 pm. Film School Confidential is an event sponsored by the Media Arts Center San Diego (MACSD), the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA) and the San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS), all non-profit organizations. Film School Confidential is now in its seventh year.

This year’s program will feature short films by filmmakers from high school through grad school. Works include Edward Kim’s Untitled and Jesse Jessie Pelligrino’s The Girl Who Came from the Sea, both from UCSD. A pair of horror shorts by Rue Morgue magazine founder Rodrigo Gudiño will also be featured, and Point Loma retired teacher Larry Zeiger will be honored with the 2008 Kyle Counts Award for his years of encouraging and showcasing young talent.

"The films represent a remarkably diverse array of work and offer a great opportunity for people to see what young filmmakers are doing. Plus it provides student filmmakers with a chance to see what’s going on at other campuses,” Accomando says. 

Part of the proceeds from this event will go to the Greg Muskewitz Scholarship Fund, a fund created in honor of the late San Diego film critic Greg Muskewitz who recently died of cancer. The scholarship is to be awarded each year to young filmmakers in the MACSD’s Teen Producers Project who display not only a passion for film but an interest in making their communities a better place, two things Muskewitz always championed.

Accomando notes that unlike other student festivals, FSC is a curated event. There are no calls for entries and filmmakers do not have to pay a fee to submit their films. Instead, the films are chosen based on recommendations by teachers and professor, and by seeing the films at year end screenings at the various campuses. Accomando explains that her desire to run this festival comes from the fact that her UCSD short film Writer’s Notebook was once screened at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. The festival is Accomando's way of saying thanks for that positive and inspiring experience, and she wants other young filmmakers to have a similar experience early in their careers.

A dessert buffet with the filmmakers will follow the evening’s program.

For Festival information call 619-952-5768. For directions call MoPA at 619-238-7559.

Website: www.sdfcs.org

Film School Confidential 2008: A Showcase of San Diego Student Films

General admission $7; students, seniors, military and MoPA members $5