Film lovers, get ready. The Dallas International Film Festival is right around the corner; and on April 20, you can see who wins the TXU Energy Light Up the Red Carpet Student Film Contest – live! Tune in as the excitement builds on the red carpet starting at 6:30 p.m. and culminates during the awards ceremony at 8 p.m., compliments of TXU Energy and the Dallas Film Society. 

The free live stream will be available at txu.com/redcarpet, and you can view all six finalists’ short films at txu.com/studentfilmcontest.

Since last fall, high school and college students have been competing to win more than $30,000 in cash, grants and other prizes with short films demonstrating their vision of the future of energy. Nearly 70 young filmmakers entered the contest, and now six finalists are in the running for the top prizes:

Finalists (High School)

• Abelardo Gonzalez, “No Blackout” Vidal M. Treviño Magnet - Laredo
• Carolina Treviño, “The Energy Police” High School for the Performing and Visual Arts - Houston
• Christian Vasquez, “A Spark” Booker T. Washington High School - Dallas

Finalists (University)

• Dillon White, “Zap!” Northlake College - Irving
• Edgar Cortes, “Domi Cile” The Art Institute of Dallas – Dallas
• Wojciech Stypko, “Man Power” University of North Texas – Denton

The winning high school and university entries will each receive grand prizes of $7,500. The other prizes include $5,000 for first prize and $2,500 for second prize in both the high school and university categories. The high school finalists’ audiovisual departments will receive 100 percent of the prize money, while the university students will split the cash winnings with their schools’ AV departments. All finalists and semifinalists will also receive video editing software valued at about $400.

This year’s contest included short films from student filmmakers across Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston, the Rio Grande Valley and Austin. Voters were asked to score the videos based on forward-thinking ideas or perspectives, solution-oriented stories and overall presentation and entertainment quality. Competing entries included short films of various genres, including music video, comedy, animation, horror/sci-fi and drama. 

About TXU Energy
TXU Energy is a market-leading competitive retail electricity provider, powering the lives of more Texans than any other retailer. TXU Energy offers a variety of innovative products and solutions, allowing both its residential and business customers to choose options that best meet their needs, including exceptional customer service, competitively priced electricity service plans, innovative energy efficiency options, renewable energy programs and other electricity-related products and services. Visit txu.com for more information about TXU Energy. REP #10004.