Congratulations to my student Kateah Nims! Today she became the first Arts and Academics Academy student to win an award at the Northwest High School Film Festival! Kateah took home an Honorable Mention award in the Animation category for her hand drawn animation piece “Abstract Oricalis.” The piece was created in my Graphic Arts class, but also doubled as a trailer for Kateah’s senior project – a video game with the same name.

Having student work win an award at the Northwest High School Film Festival is a big deal for my small high school since there were 25 schools who entered the festival this year; many with dedicated video programs/teachers instead of one teacher (like me) who teaches a little bit of everything related to the technical arts. And I’m feeling pretty proud since it is also my first year on the job at AAA!

Fun was had by all 21 AAA students who ended up attending the festival. We got to see a lot of great work on the huge Cinerama screen. And we got to eat a lot of yummy chocolate popcorn… maybe a little too much popcorn.

You can see Kateah’s piece plus other AAA video and animation projects at Arts Night at the Highline Performing Arts Center on June 2nd.