Palo Alto High School’s Student Film Festival will showcase a selection of films from the Video Production classes from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 6 in the Media Arts Center. Admission is free to all attendees.

Students from the Beginning Video Production class as well as the Advanced Video Production class will have their films showcased. Graphic Design students also designed promotional posters inspired by the films, which can be viewed outside the MAC.

Beginning Video Production students created films in a variety of genres from silent, to horror, to German Expressionist-influenced films, to enviro-comedies that aim for a spot in Palo Alto’s Greenlight Film Festival. Advanced Video Production students created films with genres ranging from original poetry adaptations — which aim for the Scholastic’s Art and Writing Awards for Film contest — to films inspired by their Individuals and Difference unit and an eight hour challenge examining science fiction, technology and schools.

Some student works will be screened for the San Francisco International Film Festival and Cinequest, which is a “qualifier” film festivals for the Oscars. Three Paly student films have already been invited to screen at Cinequest for the high school student competition.

According to Video Production and Graphic Design teacher Brett Griffith, the MAC atrium screen will be continuously showing a selection of student work throughout the night. The specific films will not be announced until after the film festival, but they will be posted to the Paly Video vimeo in a few weeks time.

There will be two different types of awards handed out: the Critic’s Choice Awards and the Best Overall award. The Critic’s Choice awards will be handed out to four current students from the 2014-15 school year and will be recognized by a Los Angeles and New York based group of Griffith’s peers working as independent, features and commercial filmmakers or academics within higher education, according to the school’s website. The new Best Overall award will be available to former Advanced students who were active members of the student film club, have had a film recognized by a major film festival, have participated in the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus or are going on the Student Television Network field trip to San Diego competing in the National Filmmakers’ competition, according to Griffith.

“I am featuring this new ‘Best Overall’ award so that current students can be inspired by all that Paly filmmakers can do,” Griffith said via an email to The Paly Voice.