SBVC’s 2022 Wolverine Con & International Student Film Festival Grand Jury winner announced

San Bernardino Valley College Film, Television, & Media Department’s 2022 Wolverine Con & International Student Film Festival ran from March 30 to April 2, awarding its coveted Grand Jury prize to Zach Gutierrez for his short film Air Drop.

A San Bernardino resident and FTVM student, Gutierrez directed and edited the award-winning short. The suspense flick is about a woman who keeps randomly receiving airdrops from the front of her house; at night, she quickly opens the door, and before she notices her boyfriend, she slugs him right in the head with a baseball bat. 

“I won the Grand Jury prize at Wolverine Con for my short-film Air Drop. I’m a part of the film department here at SBVC; I feel honored and happy that I was able to win this title, along with a Canon EOS 850D,” said Gutierrez. 

This year’s four-day student film festival received over 82 films from high school and college students across the United States and Canada.

“I’ve always wanted to highlight local independent filmmakers in the area to help kick start their creativity and career. So I’m happy to share that this year’s Wolverine Con is the largest student participation we’ve ever received,” said Lucas Cuny, FTVM department co-chair. 

“I want to thank Lucas Cuny for supporting filmmakers in our passion for film. I also want to thank God for giving me two supporting parents that didn’t mind me staining the floors with fake blood for my student films. And finally, thank you to my brothers and my girlfriend for being my actors and actress in many of my films,” concluded Gutierrez. 

The four-day film festival started with an expo featuring vendors like the Arts Connection of San Bernardino County, ImageOne Camera, Riverside Studios, KVCR, and the college’s FTVM and theater arts and art departments. 

Other events included four panels (which included Panavision), a red carpet experience, two days’ worth of film screenings that concluded with an awards ceremony. 

“I’m so amazed by the FTVM program here at SBVC and the state-of-the-art equipment we can utilize to grow and develop as filmmakers. Coming from East Texas, I never imagined that my dreams would be coming to fruition here in San Bernardino,” said Odin Contreras, director of the short-film Temporal Fate. 

At the awards ceremony, 15 awards and prizes were given to the top short films submitted and screened in the SBVC Auditorium.  

“Submissions for the 2023 Wolverine Con will open as of April 3, 2022. Also, if anyone missed an opportunity to view a student film that was screened this past week, you can screen them now on Sparqfest,” concluded Cuny.  To view the 2022 Wolverine Con films, visit sbvc.sparqfest.live/en/index.html