St. Auggie Shorts Film Festival returns with record submissions and student premieres

By Gabriella Palomo

Flagler College’s annual St. Auggie Shorts Film Festival will return on March 6 for its third year,
bringing filmmakers and students together for a two-day celebration of short film, networking
and hands-on experience.

Dr. Tracy Halcomb, coordinator of the Cinematic Arts program and co-director of the festival
alongside visiting professor Jim Gilmore, helps oversee the event’s planning and execution from
start to finish.

“We organize the students and set up the film festival website and also the FilmFreeway site
where filmmakers enter their films,” Halmcomb said. “Jim and I also organize and coordinate the
Opening Filmmaker Reception and the Closing Reception.”

The most important step in the preparation process is selecting the films. This year, the festival received a record-breaking number of submissions, totaling over 100, and selected 50 films to screen.

Students play a central role in narrowing those submissions. Across three to four cinematic art
classes, students review and rank films, acting as juries for each category. The senior capstone
class in the coastal environmental science program selected the winner of the environmental film
category.

Beyond serving as jurors, students act as hosts, distribute filmmaker swag bags, check in pass
holders, conduct red carpet interviews, photograph events, introduce film blocks and lead Q&A
sessions.

A student emcee hosts the awards show, and students design award certificates and create and
distribute promotional materials across campus and downtown St. Augustine.

“Our cinematic arts students spend their college career creating videos and films for class
assignments,” Halcomb said. “We wanted students to be able to meet other filmmakers and for
students’ work to reach a larger audience, so we created an event that would bring the filmmaker
network to our students.”

For Flagler College student filmmaker Isabel Hoepelman, this year’s festival marks a personal
milestone. The junior cinematic arts and fine arts major is submitting her work for the first time
after learning about the event last spring in Professor Gilmore’s introductory class.

Her film, Crescendo in Nainsook, is an experimental short film with elements of horror running 2
minutes and 51 seconds.

“The story is what you interpret from the visual,” Hoepelman said.

Shot on Super 8 film, the project required in-camera editing. Only the sound and title were edited
after it was filmed.

“My favorite part is the editing,” Hoepelman said. “I shot it on Super 8 film, so all editing was
in-camera. It was also my first time cutting together the sound the way I did for this, so that was
an experience.”

She secured equipment through Flagler’s Pollard equipment room and sourced film from the
Film Photography Project. Fellow students Bre Adair and Austin Hadd assisted with production,
with Adair starring in the film.

“My favorite part about being a filmmaker is getting to create such dynamic art,” Hoepelman
said. “It’s always moving and changing. I also like how most of the time, I’m doing it with some
pretty cool people.”

Beyond individual opportunity, Hoepelman believes the festival strengthens the local arts scene.

“The St. Auggie’s Shorts Film Festival brings a fun event to our community where people get to
watch some cool films and discover awesome artists,” she said. “Also, people made a lot of
silent films here back in the day, so having a film festival is a cool callback to the town’s
history.”