Skip to main content

Highland’s Film Class Wins Big Again

Jun 14, 2016 08:39AM ● By Natalie Mollinet

Highland’s film class at the UHSFF – Jenny Hardy

Natalie Mollinet | [email protected] 


Highland High’s film class is no stranger to winning awards, in fact their classroom has awards dating back over 16 years. But with a new teacher at the reigns and young classmen doing well, Highland has a lot of promising up and coming film makers. Two of Hardy’s young film makers won third place in their categories at the Utah High School Film Festival (UHSFF) this year, and both Hardy and her students are elated about their success. 

“I fortunately inherited a very successful program from the previous teacher,” Jenny Hardy the film teacher said, “my goal has been to continue the tradition of success and help my students compete in their ever-changing world of film.” 

Two students Grace Ferguson (sophomore) and Lucia Miramontes (senior), both won third place in their categories. Grace won third in the Short Film Category for her film called “Shoestrings and Heartstrings.” 

“It’s a film that tells a love story, but without words and only through shots of the characters feet,” Grace said, “I wanted to investigate body language and see if I could create a narrative about it.” 

For Lucia, she won third place in the Music Video category, but said that having her video played at a festival in front of other students and film makers was even better than winning. 

“I actually made this video last year for the film festival we were hosting at Highland,” Lucia said, “but it wasn’t uploaded in time so I thought I’d revise it and enter it into the UHSFF this year.” 

Hardy said that during her time as their teacher, she has tried hard to keep up with the latest in film making, and believes that has really been a benefit to her students. The class is getting more computers in their classroom, so that each student can have the access and experience that they need to be successful in the field of film making. 

“We are also adding an IB Film course to our program, which includes a historical and theoretical study of film,” Hardy said, “that will hopefully improve the content of our work as well.” 

Lucia said that her goal was to make it onto Jenny’s wall, that’s full of certificates that have been won by Highland students over the years, and wanted to do it before she graduated. Little did she know that she would be earning her spot on the wall. 

“I entered all of my best work and hoped for the best and finally achieved my goal,” Lucia said, “it only makes me want to work harder and create more goals for myself.” 

For her video, Lucia said she had to run around Highland after school, in the hopes of finding people who would want to be in her video. She was nervous she wouldn’t get enough people, but is happy that it worked out and is pleased with her reward. 

“The categories my students placed in are very competitive,” Hardy said, “the Music Video category alone can receive upwards of 50 entries from schools all over the state. I am very proud of them, as well as my other students who entered – it takes a lot of guts to put your work out there.” 

Besides winning third place in the short film category, Grace has been the first place winner of Best Female Anchor at the Utah High School Broadcast Awards. She said that while she would like to have anchoring as an option for a future job, she sees herself more behind the camera as a director, but is really interested in broadcast news. 

Lucia wants to continue to direct music videos and hopes to work her way up to getting signed with a video production company like Somesuch &Co. 

“I am very impressed with the drive and passion of this group of students,” Hardy said, “many of them stay after school for hours every day to perfect their projects. I am excited to see them continue to grow.”