It's Not Too Late to Enter the Teen Coastside Film Festival

Anyone interested in entering the third annual could still submit his or her work, despite today being the deadline.

Kayla Figard, the event's organizer, said she's fairly lenient about people turning their projects in late. In fact, she said she's only strict about one rule of the festival: an entrant must stay for the entirety of the Jan. 22 show, before an after the viewing of their own film.

"The point is not just to see your own film and win anything, but to view your peers' films and support them as well," she said. "That's the only strict rule I have."

That's not to say, however, that there aren't guidelines for potential entrants. Figard will show films from young Coastsiders, but in order to be considered a competitor, the submitter must be 19-years-old or younger. Films should be shorter than 15 minutes in length, she said, and must be appropriate for all audiences.

She said that as of Saturday afternoon, she was expecting about 9 films in this year's competition—more than ever before.  One film has been made using a 3D-modeling technique known as Machinema, which Figard it particularly excited about.

Also new this year will be an awards system separate from the standard first, second and third place awards of $100, $75 and $50, respectively. The panel of five judges—community members from Pacifica and Half Moon Bay—will also choose the best quality of each film and note it. During the awards ceremony, an Oscar statue, as well as a gift certificate the Pacifca's Florey's Books, will be given to the filmmaker in recognition of that quality.

Figard's film, "Hot Stuff," which was filmed in Pacifica, won last year's Coastside Teen Film Festival second place prize even though, according to Figard, it wasn't even supposed to be considered in the competition.

"I wanted it [the festival] to last longer, so I entered my film" she said. "The judges didn't know that they weren't suppose to grade mine, we weren't clear on that and I ended up winning the prize. If I do make another film and enter it, it will be just for show."

"Hot Stuff," attached in the media box to the right, is the story of one boy's friendship with an orange habanero pepper. It was inspired by Figard's little brother, who was bullied a lot as a child and used to find anything to play with, even if it was a vegetable.

Figard chose a habanero pepper because the film includes a scene where bullies pursue the boy, and she wanted "to make it a pepper so it could actually hurt the bullies."

SPOILER ALERT: Figard decided to kill the pepper off in the last scene because she wanted to represent the fickle attention span of a child; he plays with a pepper all day long, goes through the trouble of trying to save it from bullies and finally sets it down on the kitchen counter where it's eventually added to a soup my mom.

Filmmakers who are interested in entering this year's festival can drop their work off at the , the or the Figard will decide whether she'll include the work post-deadline.

The actual festival will happen on Jan. 22. Snacks will be provided by Pacifica Friends of the Library.