News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles, CA - January 20, 2025

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59th California Student Media Festival Now Accepting Entries 
Student festival seeks to celebrate projects in video, animation, music, photography and interactive media categories

 

Now in its 59th year, the California Student Media Festival is our nation’s oldest continuing student media festival. The festival’s board of directors is announcing today its call for entries through April 1 at mediafestival.org. Any California student preK-12 is eligible and it is free to enter. The festival itself will be held on May 17 at Hollywood High School, just steps from the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is free to attend.

More about the festival: Over the past twenty-five years, the California Student Media Festival has awarded more than $180,000 to California Schools. It has expanded to include the work of more than 6,000 student participants from schools across the state. The Festival exists to celebrate the amazing media and multimedia projects produced by California’s K-12 students and teachers — rewarding and acknowledging their successful classroom work at an awards event in spring every year.

The Festival advocates for information and media literacy, encouraging students to display their talents through media and multimedia inside or beyond the classroom. It immerses the students in a culmination of boundless expression, storytelling, learning, and collaboration while it provides educators with the motivation to expand media integration in their own classrooms.

This 501(c)(3) organization is managed by its dedicated board of directors, with the festival overseen by a steering committee. These volunteers tirelessly take on various responsibilities for the festival especially as the event day approaches all while working their full-time careers. Additionally, the steering committee relies on the participation of even more volunteers – leading educators, media and technology experts, librarians, and everyday teachers -- who judge and select winners to fully execute the festival. To fund the festival, the Festival depends on sponsors and donors. 

Festival Opportunities: The California Student Media Festival offers several opportunities for students and adults to participate. 
•    Students can produce and enter media projects into the Festival for free. Past student winners can help present, and other students can also help at the Festival event.
•    Adults can encourage and guide student productions, judge student media products, help plan and carry out the Festival, sponsor the Festival, donate to the festival, and promote it widely.

For more information on volunteering to judge entries or to learn more about the Festival, visit mediafestival.org. 
 

MEDIA CONTACTS 

Karen Green
President, Board of Directors

California Student Media Festival
president@mediafestival.org

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Hall Davidson

Executive Director

California Student Media Festival Foundation

halldavidson@mediafestival.org

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