BY KATHERINE JOVANOVIC

This week, Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest student film festival, will visit the University of Florida.

CMF travels to over 50 universities across the United States, Mexico and United Kingdom. The competition will provide students with a Panasonic/Lumix HD camera, an Apple Macbook Pro loaded with Adobe Creative Cloud, Sennheiser sound equipment, 1,000 royalty-free songs, and 24/7 training and technical support to create a five-minute short film.

Quincy Bazen, who helps run the CMF, said the organization was started in 2001 by four Emory University students as a competition between residence halls. He said the competition has grown over the years, starting with sponsorships from Delta and Amazon. Sponsors now include Adobe and Panasonic.

Bazen first heard about CMF while attending University of South Florida. His films from the competition include “Expatriate,” “Positive” and “Breakthrough.” He said that working for CMF was the next logical step in his life after graduation because he participated in the festival all four years of college.

He said most participants in CMF are first-time filmmakers.

CMF acted as a good resource for Bazen in college because there was no film program at USF. He said CMF is beneficial for students at both schools with minimal and large film programs.

“It’s another place to flex creative muscles,” he said.  

The top 16 short films will be shown at the Grand Ballroom in the Reitz Union on Friday at 8:30 p.m.