The Crescent City Film Festival has once again offered an opportunity for theater and film students to collaborate and network alongside others in the industry.

The Crescent City Film Festival, a student-run event, returned to Loyola for its fifth year from April 21 to 23. The festival receives and displays both international and local submissions, with the goal of elevating and making visible the work done by marginalized filmmakers both at Loyola and around the world.

Film Festival Programming is the elective course film students take to manage or contribute to the production process of the Crescent City Film Festival. This year, the course was jointly taught by the Loyola music and media dean’s assistant Caleigh Flynn and​​ theater arts professor Ann Mahoney.

Being versed in the film industry and working at the Maryland International Film Festival for five years, Mahoney expressed the importance that Crescent City Film Festival plays in terms of cross-pollinating departments that don’t always work together.

“To me, it’s a natural partnership, and this is the essence of networking,” Mahoney said. “These film students are the producers, writers, filmmakers, and directors of tomorrow and these acting students are the actors of tomorrow. I want to foster a community where they go on to do bigger and better things, and know who their best teammates can be in that process.”

This was the first time Flynn has taught the class despite being an attendee in the past.

“I love seeing what the students do with an event as film festivals can be tricky to plan,” Flynn said.

Flynn has had her fair share of managing and working film festivals. Outside of her position at Loyola, Flynn stands as the current community director for Overlook Film Festival and has previously worked for the New Orleans Film Festival.

This year, the festival’s executive director was digital filmmaking sophomore Oliver Parker. This position granted him the opportunity to set the festival’s objective, as well as collaborate with peers. As stated by Parker, film festivals are the bread-and butter for independent indie filmmakers.

“It’s a low-risk, high-reward way to get your work screened in a cinema-grade setting and a great place to start in getting familiar with how festivals operate,” Parker said. “You also get to meet super cool people making super cool work.”

The Crescent City Film Festival commenced with an art market put on by the student staff, along with a screening of New Orleans native and queer filmmaker Lynn Sylvan’s “If You Need Directions Maybe Don’t Go”.

Saturday consisted of submission screenings ranging from comedy and drama to experimental and documentary.

To conclude the weekend, the senior showcase was held at the Broad Theater.

“We’re all really excited to have so much great work to show off and to be able to enrich the community with some incredible low-budget independent cinema,” Parker said.