# UKY Film Festival celebrates student filmmakers with blue carpet event  
**Published:** 2026-05-12T13:24:20.000Z  
**Source:** [University of Kentucky News](https://uknow.uky.edu/student-news/uky-film-festival-celebrates-winners-student-creativity)  
**AI-generated:** yes (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001)  
**Canonical:** https://feeds.lexingtonky.news/article/uky-film-festival-celebrates-student-filmmakers-with-blue-carpet-event

LEXINGTON, Ky. — University of Kentucky students showcased their cinematic talents at the 2026 UKY Student Film Festival, an annual celebration of emerging filmmakers held April 30 at [The Kentucky Theatre](https://www.kentuckytheatre.org/). The [blue carpet event featured 17 student-produced films](https://uknow.uky.edu/student-news/uky-film-festival-celebrates-winners-student-creativity) spanning narrative, documentary, experimental and animated genres, drawing hundreds of guests to the historic downtown venue.

Sofia Ceccarello, a media arts and studies student, earned top honors with three awards: Best Narrative Film, Audience Choice and Best Writing for her film "The Color of the Walls." Ceccarello, who also won Best Narrative Film at the 2025 festival, said the story reflected her personal journey. "My grandma had Alzheimer's, and I'd wanted to write about her for a long time," she said. "This year, I finally had the chance through a school project, and the timing felt perfect."

Other award winners included Noah Childress for Best Experimental Film and Best Sound Design, Cadence Gormley for Best Documentary, and Merritt Manire for Best Animation. Autrey Brown won Best Cinematography and Lelia Branstetter earned Best Performance. Benjamin Ingram received an honorable mention in the experimental category.

[The UKY Film Festival, which started as a student showcase in 2015](https://ukyfilmfestival.org/), evaluates submissions through a rigorous judging process. A selection committee first reviews all entries, with selected films then judged by a panel of award-winning industry professionals. This year's judges included Emmy Award winners Mike Benton and Justin Skeens, screenwriter Alexie Basil, and Lisa Brin, head of FilmLEX and former marketing executive for Disney, Universal and DreamWorks Animation.

Films were scored on a 10-point system evaluating overall quality, story and theme, visual and audio elements, and character development. [For more information about future submissions, visit www.ukyflimfestival.org](https://ukyfilmfestival.org/).

## Sources

- [University of Kentucky News](https://uknow.uky.edu/student-news/uky-film-festival-celebrates-winners-student-creativity)
- [The Kentucky Theatre - Historic cinema in downtown Lexington](https://www.kentuckytheatre.org/)
- [UKY Film Festival official website](https://ukyfilmfestival.org/)

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This article was generated by AI (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) based on source material from University of Kentucky News, enriched with 2 web searches. The original source is available at https://uknow.uky.edu/student-news/uky-film-festival-celebrates-winners-student-creativity.