The fifth of April is a day that will separate the amateurs of film at Ames High from the skillful masters. The Ames High film festival is an annual event that is hosted in the spring and usually has a very large turnout of students and staff that have a shared passion for film. Reigning champion for “best film”, Sam Roberts has been working on his latest film in hopes of winning his second consecutive award. “I’ve spent several days filming and editing my film, and so far I have about 6 minutes done. Seeing as the video will probably end up being around 30 minutes, I have an unfathomable amount of work ahead of me. I’d rather not think about it,” Roberts said. According to Roberts, his feat of winning his second consecutive award will not come easy. Every year, a new filmmaker seems to come out of nowhere to become an everyday name in the Ames High film world. After all, that was Roberts last year. “I think that Danny Schmidt and Kashaan Merchant & Davis Rice’s films will be competition this year. The film fest will certainly be full of great films,” Robert said. Danny Schmidt is a newcomer this year, who’s making a wacky comedy about revenge. Other than that he is reluctant to give too much away about his project. “I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s a comedy about revenge,” Schmidt said. “It’s hard to tell if people will find my comedy funny. They might find it funny, but they also may find it incredibly offensive.” Besides Danny Schmidt, Sam Roberts, Kashaan Merchant & Davis Rice, there will many other films that people have made for their perspectives in media classes so this year will certainly be a great year for film. Regardless, it never fails to draw a large crowd and it never fails to bring fun for all that attend. “ The film festival is some of the most fun Ames High culture I’ve seen here,” Roberts said. “I’m really excited to hear so many films are being made this year. I love filmmaking and I love Ames High School’s generally strange sense of humor, and the film festival is a perfect blend of those two things. Don’t even think about missing it this year.”