Two former film students won awards for their 2020 senior capstones, submitted by the film faculty members.
The Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association honored several mass communication students in their 2020 student competition. Hannah Boyens, film alumna, won third place in video narrative, and Kristina Patterson, film alumna, won first place in short form scriptwriting.
Bryan Cardinale-Powell, chair of the film department and associate professor of film, said mass communication students have entered in the past, but this is only the second year for the film department to submit.
“Our mass comm colleagues suggested that there’s some categories that would fit with our students, like the scriptwriting and the long and short narrative form categories,” Cardinale-Powell said. “And they’ve traditionally done really well in mass comm with all of the broadcasting and news-based categories.”
Cardinale-Powell said the 2019 competition was the first time the film department submitted.
“Last year we did pretty well too. There were a couple of winners for the 2019 contest,” Cardinale-Powell said.
Cardinale-Powell said they made a habit of submitting the screenplay and final product of the senior capstone projects.
Cardinale-Powell said there is no cash award for winners, but there is a plaque for first place winners and a banquet to honor finalists. There have been no banquets in the years the film department has submitted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We would love to go to the banquet, but we haven’t been able to go because of the last two years,” Cardinale-Powell said. “Hopefully, next year. We’ll be doing that next spring.”
Kristina Patterson won first place in the short form scriptwriting category. Billy Palumbo, visiting professor of film, said she won for the screenplay of her senior capstone, which she spent the fall semester of her senior year writing.
“The capstone process is so involved and in-depth. It’s a full semester of writing,” Palumbo said. “It allowed her the time to put that energy into it, put the thought and write and rewrite and rewrite, and I think that is what the film department would kind of focus on.”
Palumbo said the key to success for any screenplay, and particularly Patterson’s screenplay, is in the depth of the characters.
“One of the reasons that she wrote something that was successful was the attention to the characters. It’s a story about two friends who sort of lost touch, and over the years they reconnect,” Palumbo said. “I think it comes across pretty authentically.”
Palumbo said he is proud of all of his students, and he looks forward to film students submitting in the Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association awards in the future.
For more on the OBEA awards, read our story here.
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