By Anika Stikeleather

The Maryland Filmmakers club at the University of Maryland celebrated student projects and expanded creative third places on Dec. 2 at this semester’s Maryland Film Festival at the Adele H. Stamp Student Union. 

Club members, film contributors and event-goers filed into Hoff Theater to celebrate peer art and affirm community bonds. Third places are those separate from home and work that often foster connection, according to the University of Chicago.

The screenings included 12 short films — six from club members and six from other campus parties — likely the highest number of productions in a single semester, according to Kenneth Klepsig, president of Maryland Filmmakers and a junior government and politics and psychology major.

The films told a variety of stories across genres, from a documentary on the Unifursity Furries non-profit to a stairwell set horror story. 

“Sometimes it’s hard to kind of find an audience for it, an audience that would be receptive to this kind of stuff,” Klepsig said. “We just want to support the work that people have done.” 

Maryland Filmmakers is a student-led organization focused on providing resources, equipment and connections for student directors, according to Benjamin Gutierrez, vice president of the club and a senior cinema media studies major. 

Audience members and existing filmmakers left inspired, according to Kavon Burley, a senior public policy major and Maryland Filmmakers member. Burley attended the event with Malachi Anderson, a senior history major, and said both are actively interested in filmmaking, and they were struck by the crowd’s reactions and support.

Burley said he hopes to join the festival next year.

“The excitement and the joy of seeing the audience members view these films for the first time is what’s going to linger with me,” Burley said.

According to Burley, while the arts are under attack, a mixture of creativity and community keeps him returning to the club. 

“Everybody’s willing to pitch in on a certain project and just put their all behind it,” Burley said. 

For many undergraduate filmmakers, they’re able to enjoy the spotlight after a semester of work at these film festivals, Gutierrez said. He added that the cinema media program is relatively small, and these extracurricular spaces, which pull from multiple disciplines, have become a meaningful out-of-the-classroom space.

“We had so many people who had so many different ideas. Let’s just bring them all in one place,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said he welcomed prospective filmmakers, ensuring they would enter a supportive community. 

Typically, their fall film fest is a “practice run” for the spring, but after seeing the effort this semester, they added a Best Picture Award this semester for the first time to further celebrate student artists, Klepsig said. 

“If You Can Hear Me,” a film about a young woman turning to online forums to cope with depression, won the award for its relatable storytelling, according to Gutierrez. 

“I was like, holy s—. That’s deep,” Gutierrez said about the film. “At the same time, I got inspiration from [the filmmakers].”

Gutierrez was heavily involved in this year’s festival as an event organizer and cinematographer for the romantic comedy “Middle Ground.” He also served as director and co-writer of “Sober,” a comedy inspired by early 2000s films. “Sober” is a film following a girl’s struggle to find her space at a college party. 

Gutierrez said the amount of support for “Sober” was overwhelming. He said he included behind-the-scenes footage in the final cut as an homage to the love and nature of student filmmaking. 

“You don’t have everything. It doesn’t have to be perfect,” Gutierrez said.  “Just kind of keep rolling. That was the line that I kept in at the end credits.” 

Maryland Film Fest will return in the spring semester to further provide a platform for aspiring artists on campus. 

“There’s a lot of creative people with a lot of passion,” Klepsig said. While classes center on film analysis, “this puts it into practice. So you can not only learn manual skills, but also meet like-minded people.”

Featured Image: “If You Can Hear Me” Lead actress Zoe Price and director Victoria Melville embrace after receiving the award for Best Picture, concluding Maryland film fest on the evening of Dec. 2, 2025. Photo by Anika Stikeleather