Published Thursday, April 25th, 2024
Leah Bennett and Blake Bodlak received awards during the BisonBison Film Festival and the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival.
Wayne State College film students Leah Bennett, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Blake Bodlak, Ponca, both received awards recently at two film festivals.
Bennett won a Gold Eddy Award at the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival for her film “This is He.” The festival was held April 5-7 in Marion, Iowa. She won the category for Best Student Narrative Long-Form Film.
The Eddy Awards are named after Thomas Edison who, among many other pursuits, was a pioneer in motion picture technology. The term “eddy” is also defined as “a current moving contrary to the direction of the main current,” which is a suitable description for independent filmmakers, who often go against the current trends in mainstream cinema, according to the festival’s website.
Bennett also received an Honorable Mention Award for the film during the BisonBison Film Festival held April 5-6 in Arkansas City, Kan.
Bodlak won the Audience Favorite Award during the BisonBison Film Festival for his film “Mollie’s Goodbye.”
The BisonBison Film Festival recognizes, promotes, and showcases the work of emerging filmmakers enrolled in colleges, universities, and trade schools in mid-America: Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, and Arkansas, according to the festival’s website.
Bennett, who is also a member of the Wildcat soccer team, will deliver the invocation during the baccalaureate graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 4. She is graduating Summa cum Laude with a bachelor of arts degree in mass communication/digital film production and theory.
Both Bennett and Bodlak are majoring in digital film production and theory at Wayne State.