Film still from “Rat” by Briony Zhao ’24, winner of Jury’s Stellar Award at NJYFF

Short films by Program in Visual Arts student Briony Zhao ’24 and recent graduate Cathy Teng ’22 earned top awards this summer at the 2022 NJ Young Filmmakers Festival (NJYFF), an annual competition run by the Thomas A. Edison Media Arts Consortium.

Zhao’s 8-minute narrative film, Rat, received the Jury’s Stellar Award. This past spring, Zhao studied with assistant professor Moon Molson and received the Lawrence P. Wolfen ’87 Senior Thesis Award from the Lewis Center, a fund established for travel or research costs, materials, equipment or other expenses for current juniors for thesis work in visual arts.

Film still from “Swam” by Cathy Teng ’22, winner of Honorable Mention at NJYFF

Teng, a member of Princeton’s Class of 2022 and swim team who completed a degree in Computer Science along with a certificate in the visual arts program, received an Honorable Mention Award from the jury for her 2-minute animation entitled Swam. She took a digital animation course taught by lecturer Tim Szetela.

Both films screened in July at the 48th annual festival premiere at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey.