Strong lineup of short films

OREM — "Better and Better" could be the running theme for submissions at the LDS Film Festival as the finalists for the 2008 short films competition were announced earlier this week. With a record number of submissions to this year's festival, Christian Vuissa, festival founder, said, "The quality of submitted films keeps improving. I think we have the strongest program in the festival history lined up this year."

Brigham Young University student filmmakers are well represented at this year's festival with such pieces as "Butterflies," "Violette" and "To My Future Self," featuring Kirby Heyborne.

"Violette" was directed by a French film student, Aline Conti. The story is a simple tale of young girl who, seeking to separate herself from her surroundings, is befriended by a shepherd tending to his sheep. Filmed in French, the subtitled film features breathtaking cinematography to the credit of the film's director of photography, Cole Webley.

Another BYU student film to be featured at this year's festival is Andrew Bailey's "Butterflies." Bailey wore many hats on this film, tackling writing, directing, editing and special effects. Bailey successfully pulls it all together into an intelligent yet lighthearted story about a boy who discovers he has butterflies in his stomach.

Animation again makes a modest appearance in this year's short films competition with the entry "Rindin the Puffer," a traditional 2-D animated short by filmmaker Len Simon, which features an ostracized Puffer fish who saves his friends, inadvertently.

Seasoned film veteran T.C. Christensen will have a short film in the competition this year. Christensen's film, "Only a Stone Cutter," is an LDS Church history vignette about John Rowe Moyle. Moyle routinely walked 22 miles from his home to the Salt Lake Temple during its construction. There, as a stone mason, he chiseled his deepest convictions into granite.

Kohl Glass, 2005 short film competition winner, returns with a new film, "Der Ostwind," an animation/drama that played at last year's Sundance Film Festival.