By Charly SHELTON

“The Best Student Film Festival Ever” is set for Friday, July 12 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sparr Heights Community Center.

“The festival this year is going to be all student films from the local area,” said Christopher Vinan, event organizer and co-founder. “We have schools like [Crescenta Valley High], Rosemont [Middle School], Clark Magnet [High School]; it’s all local students submitting films that were filmed locally as well.”

The organizers want to give as much freedom to the entrants as possible, Vinan said, so they decided to not have any requirements for the film to meet, such as a specified time length or type of subject material. The only guideline is that the films are student made; whether elementary or college level students, their submission is welcome. The three best films from this film festival will go on to be shown at the Montrose Summer Film Festival in August.

Vinan commented that film festivals can sometimes be a bit dry, so they tried to spice things up for this upcoming festival.

“[At some film festivals] sometimes you just sit down and they show film after film after film, which is not a bad thing. I love films myself, but we wanted to make it a somewhat bigger event so we are going to have live music there. We are also going to have live stage performances, we are going to write little skits, little comedic skits and stuff like that. So that’s what the festival is going to be. It’s basically a film festival and more.”

This year’s theme is 192013, playing on the popularity of the 1920s culture that was recently brought to mind with films like “The Great Gatsby” that was released earlier this year.

“The theme is 192013, so it’s the 1920s and our year. All the songs are going to be what’s been released this year, like the most popular ones, and we are going to cover them with a jazz feel,” said Vinan.

The deadline for submissions is Saturday, July 6, but there are always other ways of supporting the festival.

Volunteers are needed to help with ticketing and running the snack stand, among other positions.  For those who would rather support in a different capacity, audience members are needed, too. Admission is $2 at the door.

Sparr Heights Community Center is located at 1613 Glencoe Way in Glendale 91208.

For more information or to help, email Christopher Vinan and the rest of the organizing team at chrismauv@yahoo.com.