News

Film Festival Winners Announced

(August 8, 2007, GBOD) -- Three youth groups from across the connection received top honors in the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship's first online film festival for youth. See winning entries at www.insightfilmfest.org/winners.htm.

Sponsored by GBOD's Young People's Ministries, the Insight Film project gave local youth groups an opportunity to tell stories related to themes of faith and spirituality.

"We are very excited about the results the film festival has produced! Our hope is that this competition will continue to grow as a way youth groups can come together and reflect on their faith journeys and share those journeys with others," said P. Jay Clark, who heads Leadership Development with Youth and is Director of "Youth '07."

• First United Methodist Church of Curtis, Neb., captured first place for "How Good It Is to Be Good." The winning film explores the themes of honesty, drunk driving, vandalism, and forgiveness.
• Second place goes to New Hope United Methodist Church of Brunswick, Md., for "The Merge," which depicts in Claymation a real-life church merger.
• The third place winners are from Elam United Methodist Church of Glen Mills, Penn. Their entry, "Inked," examines what happens when a teen rebels against her father and gets a tattoo.

The top three winning entries received cash prizes of $1000, $500, and $250, respectively.

Winning entries were also shown during Youth '07, the denomination's largest quadrennial youth event, held in Greensboro, N.C., July 11-15. Over 6200 United Methodist youth attended.

Fifteen youth groups entered short videos ranging from three to ten minutes, covering the genres of documentary, fiction, and animation.

"Next year, we will be focusing on 30-second and 60-second commercials," said Clark.

The General Board of Discipleship’s mission is to support annual conference and local church leaders for their task of equipping world-changing disciples. An agency of The United Methodist Church, The General Board of Discipleship is located at 1908 Grand Ave. in Nashville, Tenn. For more information, call the Media Relations Office toll free at (877) 899-2780, ext. 7017.