Masahiro Sugano鈥檚 鈥淐ompetitive Filmmaking鈥 Class Wins Top Prize in International Film Competition

The short film 鈥溾 created by IAS faculty member Masahiro Sugano鈥檚 鈥淐ompetitive Filmmaking鈥 Class won at the 2020 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival held in Berlin, Germany. In Spring 2020 when Washington State went into COVID-19 lockdown, IAS faculty Masahiro Sugano had the unique challenge of teaching a new advanced level media production course, MCS 472 Competitive Filmmaking, remotely with 鈥渢he sole purpose of entering film competitions and other professionally juried screening opportunities.鈥 The resulting final project, a 7-minute assemblage short film titled 鈥淒elirium鈥 created by eight 糖心vlog视频 students has won ZEBRA鈥檚 top prize in the 鈥淔estival Poem Film Adaptation鈥 category. The student film is an adaptation of the festival鈥檚 selected poem by the Botswana poet TJ Dema.
Isolation was incorporated into the production, which reflects Sugano鈥檚 philosophy of filmmaking: When you encounter adversity, make it the center of your art. If you only have two colors on your palette, make a two-color painting. If you don鈥檛 have the lead actor, build a story that鈥檚 missing the main character, said Sugano, who has been at UW Bothell since 2017.

鈥淰ery often we have attachments to a notion and complain about what we don鈥檛 have 鈥 what we think we should have. Instead, if you don鈥檛 have it, show it. Make that the center of the story,鈥 Sugano said. 鈥淲e turned our challenge into the core of our aesthetic.鈥

The festival takes place online between November 19-22 due to the new lockdown policy the German government put in effect.
is distributed via VOD platform.
Read more about the film and the class鈥 journey in making the film.