UFCJC Student and Alumnus’ “A Seat at the Table” Documentary Receives 2024 Awareness Film Festival Grand Jury Award for Student Film

“A Seat at the Table,” a documentary directed and produced by University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Media Production, Management, and Technology (MPMT) senior Sophia Abolfathi and alumnus Robert Bailey, B.S. Telecommunication 2023, has received the Grand Jury Award for Student Film at the 2024 Awareness Film Festival in Los Angeles on Oct. 5.

The film explores how food, health and nutrition divide two sides of the city of Gainesville, Florida, and how the movement to bring Black culture, history and knowledge back to the table is healing the community.

The film, produced in MPMT Senior Lecturer Houston Wells’ undergraduate Documentary Production course in fall 2023, was also named an official selection at the 2024 Better Cities Film Festival in Detroit,  the 2024 Roxbury International Film Festival in Boston and the 2024 Full Bloom Film Festival in Statesville, North Carolina. It won an Award of Excellence for Student Short-Form Documentary at the 2024 Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts competition and was an official selection at the University of Florida’s first Orange and Blue Film Festival.

The Awareness Film Festival, founded by Heal One World, features independent films from around the globe that ignite awareness and inspire change. Their mission is to bring awareness to some of the world’s most pressing issues through film.

Posted: October 14, 2024
Category: Alumni News, College News, Student Awards, Student News
Tagged as: A Seat at the Table, Awarenss Film Festival, Houston Wells, MPMT, Robert Bailey, Sophia Abolfathi