WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., October 18, 2023 —The West Liberty University 48-Hour Film Festival presented by Pete Holloway and Wheelhouse Creative will return this weekend. The festival takes place on October 20-22.

All currently enrolled students from West Liberty University are eligible to participate, along with students from high schools in local counties. Students will be required to create a short film in just 48 hours to compete for cash prizes for the top two places. Other prizes will be awarded in a variety of categories.

Festival Director Jared Thompson explains how the festival works, “The event begins on Friday, October 20 when participants randomly draw a genre, character, prop, and line of dialogue that must be used in some way in their film. The participants will then have a total of 48 hours to fully write, shoot, and edit a 6–10-minute short film. Participants may work in teams of their choosing, and are solely responsible for their own cast, crew, equipment, and locations.”

After those 48 hours have passed, the teams must submit their films for the screening on Sunday, October 22 at 7 p.m. at Waterfront Hall in downtown Wheeling.

Team participants, family, friends, and spectators will be admitted to the event at no cost to attend and view the screenings, however, donations will be accepted at the door. All proceeds will be used for future WLU Film Festival projects.

Any student who is interested in participating as an individual or a team can contact Jared Thompson at 304-336-5523 or jared.thompson@westliberty.edu for more information. Preregistration of teams is encouraged, and all teams must be present at the Film Festival kick-off on October 20th.

This 2023 festival is presented by Pete Holloway, Wheelhouse Creative, and West Liberty University.

West Liberty University is West Virginia’s oldest public university, and it offers more than 70 undergraduate majors, plus a growing number of graduate programs, both online and on campus. Learn more at westliberty.edu.