On April 25, the Film Club hosted the 15th Annual Hotchkiss Film Festival in Walker Auditorium, continuing a student-led tradition that showcases films from high school students. This year, submissions came from seven schools across New England.
Club heads Trey Ramirez ’26, an honors film student who developed his interest in filmmaking by making videos for Varsity Boys Basketball, and Leon Li ’26, who is involved in film as a critic and member of the film club, put together the program with Ms. Ann Villano, instructor in photography, film, and related media. Out of over 50 submissions, 17 films were selected for the program.
Alum Brian Ryu ’13, an Emmy- nominated filmmaker and Luke Gardiner ’21, a filmmaker who won the festival’s Grand Jury award in 2019, returned to serve as judges. Gardiner graduated in 2025 with a double major in Film and English from Columbia University. His most recent short, Evergreen, was just accepted to QFest St. Louis; He is currently developing Elderwood, which will star Succession actor Peter Friedman. While at Hotchkiss, Ryu’s short documentary My Flag was nominated for Best High School Documentary at the International Student Film Festival Hollywood in 2011. My Flag fostered a discussion between a Chinese and a Tibetan student about the inclusion of the Tibetan flag in the school’s dining hall.
The judges evaluated submissions across three main categories: overall best film, best story, and best camera work and visuals.
High school students from peer schools submitted original short films, including documentaries, narrative films, and a category that Ramirez described as his personal favorite: the “super shorts.” “The super shorts are one to two minutes long. We call those ‘palate cleansers’, and they were shown between longer films,” Ramirez said. “Those are mainly experimenting with visuals and effects. I think the audience will enjoy those the most.”
Films varied from a documentary, Boston Corners, by Mollie Ford from Housatonic Regional High School, about a bare knuckle 37 round boxing match that took place near Ancram, NY in 1853 to film student Asta Huang’s ’27 reflective narrative inspired by a Werner Herzog documentary.
The Film Festival was founded in 2012 by Carla Frankenbach ’12 and Ryu. Since graduating, both founders have gone on to pursue careers in film. After graduating from USC Cinematic School of the Arts, Frankenbach worked as a writer for John Wells on a series including Animal Kingdom and Shameless. Ryu received a B.F.A. in Film & TV Production from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a Master’s in journalism from Columbia University. He is currently developing two short documentaries and teaching film at a public high school in New Jersey.
“They founded this film festival to allow a channel for young filmmakers to showcase their work and meet judges from the film industry,” Ramirez said. “We have sustained that goal since.”
The school’s film students came away with three top awards: Cooper Grace ’27 won the Grand Jury Award for his film, Fish Out of Water; Best Cinematography was awarded to Warren Edwards ’27 for his short about Varsity Boys Basketball, Becoming a Unit; and Best Super Short was awarded to Ramirez for his one-minute experimental film, Paradise Waits. Katherine Antoniou from the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts won Best Visuals for her film Railroad Flowers: A Memoir, and Best Story was awarded to Milton Academy student Chloe Yeu for her film, Daughter of Sound.
Gardner said, “When I was a student, the Hotchkiss Film Festival, the Film Club, and Ms. Villano were seminal in inspiring me to chart my path toward doing this crazy thing we call filmmaking. It is a real privilege and genuine joy to be invited back to campus and return the favor: uplifting students from Hotchkiss and beyond as they explore film.”
