The Illini Independent Film Festival will feature more than 40 student-made films from both the University and different colleges across the country.

The IIFF is April 27 at the Armory, 505 E. Armory St., in room 101. It is the second annual festival organized and judged by the students of the Media and Cinema Studies 464 class, Film Festivals. The class is divided into different groups with specific jobs, such as partner relations, film screening and press relations.

“In the class, we learn about the history of film festivals, and part of the class is putting together our own film festival,” said Elijah Schwadron, a member of the press relations group and freshman in Media.

Last year, the festival was called “Movies to the MACS,” but the class decided to change the name to make the festival more professional and relatable, appealing to a wider audience throughout Illinois, Schwadron said.

The goal of this year’s festival is to have an event that is “put on by students, for students, to showcase films by students,” said Nathan Luft, a member of the press relations group and senior in LAS.

Schwadron said the IIFF is primarily a festival for young filmmakers who simply enjoy and love film, and wish to showcase their filmmaking abilities to the public.

“We don’t have a film school in the University,” Luft said. “I think the festival is an outlet for creative people to get their film shown and to have an audience that is going to be receptive to seeing it.”

Luft said the goal of the class is to have the festival establish a more permanent foundation for future classes, unlike the first festival.

“They are consciously trying to establish an identity for the IIFF that future classes can build on in years to come,” Richard Potter, professor of the class, said in an email. “Towards that end, I think the name, the publicity materials and the organizational structure of the event are solid components.”

The films that have been submitted range from short comedies to feature length dramas. The ratings for each film also vary, but any film that features nudity or excessive violence were disqualified.

“We are very loose and open with the requirements because we wanted to be as open as possible to get as many submissions as possible,” Luft said. “The only requirements we had were that the film had to be between one to 120 minutes and had to be within common bounds of decency.”

After every film is presented, the class will judge and vote on which films were the best. The film that achieves first place will win $75, while second place will win $50. Seven free tickets to The Art Theater in downtown Champaign will be given to the best film made by University students, Schwadron said.

The festival is sponsored by the College of Media, The Art Theater and Indi Go Artist Co-Op.

Jacqui can be reached at [email protected].