Third USC Multilingual Student Film Festival 

Spring 2025

Theme

The 2025 Film Festival theme is HERO.

Short description

USC Multilingual Student Film Festival is an initiative of the Center for Languages and Cultures. It is a fun competition among students who are registered in language study at USC.

Students create an original video that showcases their creativity and conversational skills in the target language. Each participating language selects one video to represent their group at the Festival during a viewing event. A jury panel consisting of faculty members from all participating languages votes to select winners, who receive prizes. A live audience will also vote for the best film via smartphones. 

Goals

The Festival aims:

• to create a community of language learners among beginning students of all languages;
• to showcase the richness and diversity of language at learning at USC and to foster community;
• to energize students;
• to serve as a creative assessment, and
• to increase motivation to continue learning the language of your choice at USC. 

Competition entry rules and requirements

• In order to participate, students have to be registered in a Basic Language course. 
• Each language program will present only one video at the Festival. The video should be in one of the 15 languages offered by USC.
• The video must include English subtitles. 
• Video should be between 4 to 6 minutes in length.
• The video must include credits with the names of video creators.
• It must be made only in the target language (no English).
• Videos must have a significant amount of talking; music can be used as background; please include a slide with credits for copyright);
• All entries must be the result of group work. No more than 4 people per group. All members of the group must talk equal amounts of time.
• Films must be submitted through a working YouTube link to the committee by the established deadline to be included in the competition. 

Winners 

First, second and third prize winners will be announced at the end of the Festival and presented with a small token of appreciation.. In addition, videos that have best acting, best cinematography, most original/creative concept or the funniest story may receive honorary mentions. The night of the ceremony, submitted films will be screened and a winner will be selected by popular vote. 

Deadline for submissions: Friday, April 5th 2025

Award Ceremony: Tuesday, April 30th 2025 from 4 to 5:30pm

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Center for Languages and Cultures Community Outreach Committee 

María Mercedes Fages Agudo (Chair)

Jamie Fudacz

Steven Gonzalez

Jennifer Misran

Jackie Cohen-Steinberg

David Zarazúa

Past Festivals

2024 Festival

Participating Films

Basic Level

Hebrew (2nd Prize Winner)
במבה עושה אותנו שמחים (Which Foods Make Israelis Happy?)

Russian (3rd Prize Winner)
Мечта Бена (Ben’s Dream)

Spanish (1st Prize Winner)
¡Feliz! (Happy)

Spanish (2nd Prize Winner)
Costo de la Felicidad (Cost of Happiness)

Advanced Level

Spanish (1st Prize Winner)
La amistad (Friendship)

Spanish (2nd Prize Winner)
Un gato de amistad (A Friendship Cat)

Jury

Tammie Seabrook Anderson, Associate Dean – Experiential and Applied Learning, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences
Susan Harris Corban, Executive Director, JEP
Beatriz Valls, Visual & Performing Arts Division, Studio Arts, Glendale Community College
Jason Benesh, Content Producer / Director, United Media Front, LLC
Jessica Kanoski, Senior Assistant Director of Language and Culture, Dornsife Office of Undergraduate Academic Advising and Administration

2022 Festival

Photos from the Award Ceremony

Read Daily Trojan article about the event