Each of four winners will receive $500 and their films will be shown during the Reel Spirituality 101 Conference in October. Rules and downloadable entry forms are available online by clicking here.

“We desire to support and encourage CCCU students who are gifted in the art of filmmaking,” says Rebecca Ver Straten-McSparran, director of the Los Angeles Film Studies Center (LAFSC). “Getting into film festivals is the key to getting recognition and funding for film projects. The LAFSC film awards offer CCCU students a chance to get their foot in the door for other film festivals by giving award recognition and a cash prize.”

These Film Awards are sponsored by Reel Spirituality, the Los Angeles Film Studies Center and the Underwood Foundation, a non-profit foundation that promotes and supports Christian filmmaking. Reel Spirituality is a creative encounter between the church and Hollywood, featuring ministers and filmmakers in discovery of common ground as storytellers, image shapers, and culture makers. It is an institute of the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts at Fuller Theological Seminary.

LAFSC is one of 12 semester- or summer-long student programs offered by the CCCU through BestSemester. Culture-shaping programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (L.A., Calif.); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.), which is scheduled to launch in Fall 2006. Included in the culture-crossing programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; Russian Studies Program; and Uganda Studies Program. All programs undergo regular site visit evaluations by the Student Academic Programs Commission (SAPC).