In its second year, the Black Warrior Film Festival is now accepting submissions for the student-run competition in April.

The festival takes place over three days, culminating in an awards ceremony at the Bama Theatre. Some of the awards will include Best Film, Best Narrative and Best Documentary. Student filmmakers must submit their projects by Friday if they wish to participate in the festival, which takes place April 11 to 13.

The festival is accepting entries from undergraduate, graduate students, and students who are one year out of college. The requirements state that narrative films must be no longer than 30 minutes, and documentaries no longer than 40 minutes.

Danny Ryan, a junior majoring in telecommunication and film, co-founded the festival last year with Leigh Rusevlyan and is overseeing the planning of this year’s event.

(See also “Black Warrior Film Festival will be held Saturday in Reese Phifer“)

“I wanted students to have a reason to make films outside of class and have an opportunity for them to showcase their talents in front of a large audience,” Ryan said.

This year, the Black Warrior Film Festival is accepting submissions from several different schools in the Southeast, including Florida State University, the University of Texas and Wake Forest University.

“The festival will be more competitive this year because we have more schools involved,” Ryan said. “But I think that UA has a lot of talented filmmakers and will represent well.”

Rusevlyan, a senior who is majoring in telecommunication and film, said film festivals prepare them for more competitive festivals and are really important for student filmmakers if they plan on going down the independent route.

“Our goal from the beginning was to grow in some way each year,” Rusevlyan said. “We have a larger committee this year as well, so we have a lot of great new input and ideas circulating.”

Ryan and Rusevlyan said they were inspired by film festivals such as Sundance, which TCF students can attend each January, and said they decided to set up a smaller-scale event in Tuscaloosa.

(See also “UA students participate in Sundance Film Festival“)

“Those attending film festivals really appreciate film,” Ryan said. “They are there to celebrate filmmakers, rather than just passively watching a movie.”

The team said they are encouraging participants to submit all films they have made to increase their chances of success.

“We’re looking for films that have strong stories and that are visually captivating,” Ryan said. “We want to see submissions that are creative and original and hope that students will have fun making them.”

Students who wish to participate can submit their films to blackwarriorfilmfest.com by Friday for review.

(See also “New campus film festival hopes to resemble Sundance“)