Have a budding screenwriter in the house? Champaign-Urbana area students can submit a screenplay to the ninth annual Pens to Lens Student Screenwriting Competition. Pens to Lens is presented by 40 North-Champaign County Arts Council and Champaign Movie Makers.
Students have until Feb. 28 to submit their short scripts for the Screenwriting Competition, and those participating in the Student Film Festival Filmmaking Competition have a submission deadline of July 18. Films will screen at a red carpet gala at the Virginia Theatre in August.
Pens to Lens is a screenwriting competition that invites K-12 students in East Central Illinois to submit original short screenplays. If their screenplay is chosen, a member of the local filmmaking group Champaign Movie Makers will turn that script into a short film. Additional scripts will be adapted as movie posters by designers from the Champaign Urbana Design Organization (CUDO).
In addition to the screenwriting competition, the Pens to Lens Student Filmmaking Competition gives students the opportunity to share their artistic and technical skills with the community through their original, self-produced films. They will work with filmmaking equipment, collaborate with peers and mentors, and realize their own artistic vision.
Submission guidelines can be found here.
Local filmmakers are also available throughout the year to visit classrooms and afterschool functions. To request a visit, teachers should contact Elsie at ehedgspeth@40north.org. Pens to Lens has guides on screenplay writing for students, curriculum guides for teachers, and even filmmaking equipment that students can rent out. All resources can be found here.
In the past, 118 films have been made by local filmmakers as part of the Pens to Lens program. Some students that submitted to the screenwriting and filmmaking competitions are now in college at film school, working in the film industry, and even running their own film festivals. Submission guidelines, educational materials, previous years’ films, and more, are all available at PensToLens.com. For additional information, or if you are a local filmmaker, designer, or actor interested in getting involved with Pens to Lens, please contact Elsie at 40 North at ehedgspeth@40north.org or reach out to info@PenstoLens.com.