For ISU students with a creative flair and a little video equipment know-how, the Student Union Board’s Short Film Festival is a chance to show off amateur talent and perhaps even win some cash.

Phillip Ross, director of SUB films and senior in construction engineering, says SUB films hasn’t received any submissions yet, but expects most of them to come in this week.

Last year, the film festival received 20 submissions. This year, Ross hopes to receive as many as 30 entries.

Submissions will be accepted through Friday.

All students are eligible to submit their original films, which will fit into one of three film festival categories: short films shorter than three minutes, feature films longer than three minutes but shorter than 30 minutes and animation films.

“We see a wide range of projects that come in,” Ross says. “Some are very serious and others are silly comedy pieces. We get all types of film including art, comedy, comedy-animation, documentary and graphic design pieces. Some people submit exploratory pieces that test out different ideas and ways to do animation.”

The submitted films will then be judged on March 30 by a panel of three ISU students and two faculty members.

The judges will be using a point system to rate the films and will then pick the different winners based on how many overall points the films received.

“I look for a few specific things when judging,” says Dan Mundt, one of the judges for the festival and lecturer for the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. “I want to see if the applicant went beyond someone who just has a camera pointed at something.”

The judges will be awarding a total of 12 prizes for the films submitted, and winners will receive cash prizes, Ross says.

There will be a first, second and third prize winner for each category, with respective prizes of $50, $25 and $10. There will also be a best-in-show award of $75 and a runner up and audience choice award of $50.

The public will have the chance to see all the submitted films on April 5 and 6 in the Design Auditorium. Ross expects a wide range of people to attend the festival.

“ISU students will get the chance to show off their talents at the public’s viewing of the films,” Ross says.

“The film festival gives the student body a good idea of what’s going on around campus, as well as seeing how their fellow students express themselves through films.”

Mundt says he encourages students to attend the viewing to see the creative and innovative ideas of their fellow students.

“We have students on campus that produce some incredible pieces,” Mundt says. “In the films, you can watch ideas that just popped out of someone’s head.”