On May 7, for the first time ever, hundreds of viewers were able to attend the Tri-Co Film Festival regardless of their locale. Usually hosted near campus at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, this year’s festival celebrating the film and media work of Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore College students was, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, held via live stream on PhillyCAM’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
The program for the ninth annual fest—curated and juried by Selah and the Spades writer/director Tayarisha Poe and media and installation artist Georden West—included 15 short films and a multimedia special feature. Three additional shorts, including They Say What on Camera? by Saket Sekhsaria ’20, were part of “the Director’s Sidebar,” a program of exceptional films not selected for competition.
Six prizes were awarded over the course of the evening including the First Jury Award, which was given to Julia Coletti ’21 for her film Panic, an animated public service announcement intended to calm people down and do the opposite. (That is a still from her film above.) Boicemail by Alexandra Iglesia ’21 won the Audience Favorite Second Runner-Up.
The shorts program will be available to watch via PhillyCAM’s YouTube channel through the end of May, and the Director’s Sidebar films and multimedia special feature can be watched on the festival’s site. Additionally, the shorts program will screen live on PhillyCAM’s cable TV channel every Saturday in June at 1:30 p.m.
This year’s fest was run by a team of Fords including Festival Director Sophia Abraham-Raveson ’18, Associate Director Eddie Osborn ’19, and advisor James Weissinger of the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities, which also was this year’s host organization. In addition to HCAH, Swarthmore’s Film and Media Studies Department, and Bryn Mawr’s Film Studies Program, this festival’s sponsors included community partners PhillyCAM, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, Lightbox Film Center, Scribe Video Center, CinéSPEAK, and Gershman Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival.
Winners of the Ninth Annual Tri-Co Film Festival
- First Jury Award: Panic by Julia Coletti ’21
- Second Jury Award: Price Per Session by Jake Rothman Swat ’23
- Third Jury Award: Date of Birth? by Grace Sue BMC ’20
- Audience Favorite Award: Just Visiting by Annarose King BMC ’23
- Audience Favorite Runner-Up: Monarchs in Riverbeds by Fouad Dakwar Swat ’22 and Ariana Hoshino Swat ’20
- Audience Favorite Second Runner-Up: Boicemail by Alexandra Iglesia ’21