Calling all Budding Steven Spielbergs in the Valley

Some great entertainers and filmmakers grew up locally, and now there's a festival that will encourage the next generation of movie makers.

Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Krekorian, who represents much of Studio City, is joining forces with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation  to launch a Los Angeles Student Media Festival.

The festival will be the first film and media arts competition in the city's history that caters solely to Los Angeles high school students.

North Hollywood High School alum include Oscar-winning composer John Williams and Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. along with actors Burt Convy, Alan Ladd and Elizabeth McGovern.  Harvard-Westlake distinguished alum in the filmmaking world include actors Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Candice Bergen, Bridget Fonda, Robert Wagner, Jon Lovitz and producers Steven Bing and Matthew Weiner.

The kick-off event will take place Dec. 18, in the Academy's Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood and will allow young filmmakers who live or learn in the city of Los Angeles to tell their unique stories and showcase them like never before.

"Though we live in the entertainment capitol of the world, our high school students have never before had the opportunity to show off their work in a setting befitting their great talent," Councilmember Krekorian said. "As we work to keep Hollywood in California, we should also cultivate the next crop of filmmakers whose innovation will lead the way into the next generation of entertainment and story-telling. That is just what the Los Angeles Student Media Festival will do and I am very excited to see what our students have to offer."

This idea is an offshoot of the popular FilmFest 43—a high school film festival Krekorian created and ran for two years while a member of the State Assembly. At that time, Krekorian also worked to pass the state's first successful bill to incentivize production jobs in California and chaired the Assembly's committee on stopping runaway production.

FilmFest 43 gave students in Burbank, Glendale and parts of Los Angeles the opportunity to present their work in a setting otherwise unavailable to them.  The inaugural Los Angeles Student Media Festival will go a step further by allowing all high school students in the city of Los Angeles to submit works of media art beyond the traditional mode of filmmaking.  

Students are free to tell their stories with a cell phone, a computer and just about anything else that comes to mind in the following categories: Animation, Comedy (Narrative, Commercial, Drama (Narrative), Documentary / PSA, Newscast, Narrative Series and Public Affairs.

For more information on the festival or to learn how to submit, please check lasmf.lacity.org.