22nd Annual Westflix Film Festival for California Teens
Film Festival / Saturday March 15, 2025 / Paramount Theater at Paramount Studios / 5555 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038 / 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM / Guest Speaker: David Fincher
Filmmakers' Workshop / Sunday March 16, 2025 / Harvard-Westlake Upper School 3700 Coldwater Canyon Studio City, CA 91604 / 12:30 PM -3:30 PM / Workshop Panelists: Kyle Maclachlan, Haidy Mendez, Paul N.J. Ottosson, and Erica Oyama
Read the Program
Westflix is a celebration of the best short films produced by high school students throughout California, curated and organized by student festival directors, board members, club members, and faculty advisors at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, CA.
Watch Westflix
Watch Westflix 2025 on HW Media+
Saturday March 15, 2025
Live from the Paramount Theater in Hollywood, from the comfort of your home!
The program of student short films are showcased in an evening red carpet screening and awards event at a theater in Los Angeles and followed by a day of film workshops with industry professionals at Harvard-Westlake School, the sponsor of Westflix. Previous venues include ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, the TCL Chinese Theater, the historic Million Dollar Theater in downtown LA, and the David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. This year, Westflix is hosted at the Paramount Theater at Paramount Pictures Studios, and will also be live streamed via HWMedia+.
Saturday March 15th, 2025 - Paramount - Festival Schedule:
5:30 pm - Check in begins
5:45pm-6:45 pm - HWTV Red Carpet in the Lobby
6:30 pm - Theater Doors Open and HW Jazz Explorers play live on stage
7:00 pm - Introductions and Keynote Speaker
7:30 pm-9:30 pm - 2 Act Screening of Films (with 15 minute intermission)
9:30 pm-10 pm - Lizzie Awards Ceremony
Westflix 2025 Official Selections and Awards
Where I End and You Begin
By Eli Williams
LACHSA
Los Angeles, CA
Lizzie Award for Best Overall
El Deseo (The Wish)
By Francesca Varese
Harvard-Westlake School
Studio City, CA
Lizzie Award for Cinematography
Audience Choice Award
Knock Knock
By Matt D’Ovidio
Wildwood School
Los Angeles, CA
Lizzie Award for Direction
Square
By Quinten Franks
Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts
Huntington Beach, CA
Lizzie Award for Writing
What is Kuthuli?
By Anvi Dayal & Ryo Kasavan
Orange County School of the Arts
Santa Ana, CA
Lizzie Award for Sound/Music
All Hail the Pumpkin Spice
Anvi Dayal, Deondre Johnson
Orange County School of the Arts
Santa Ana, CA
Lizzie Award for Performances/Acting
THE MECHANIZATION OF MAN
By Eion Nunez
LACHSA
Los Angeles, CA
Sally Menke Award for Editing
Mother Tongue
By Shriya Surana
Irvington High School
Fremont, CA
The Lizzie: Founder's Award
Umbral Cloak
By Cade Savage Schwartz
Marin Academy
San Rafael, CA
Lizzie Award for Originality/Creativity
PEOPLE OF THE SUN
By Andrea Ramirez Romo
LACHSA
Los Angeles, CA
Lizzie Award for Production Design
Nocturne
By Isaac Lee Greenblatt, Daniil Domanin, and Aiden Gao
Canyon Crest Academy
San Diego, CA
Humanitarian Award
Chemtrails
By Kat Dubrow
Windward School
Los Angeles, CA
Cheri Gaulke Award for Visual Storytelling
Seeing Clearly
By Sabrina Simek
Harvard-Westlake School
Studio City, CA
Directors’ Choice Award
Week 6
Ian Porter Sprouls
Urban School of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
The Worst That Could Happen
By Vaughn Eknoyan
Notre Dame High School
Sherman Oaks, CA
It’s Alive! PSA
By Anvi Dayal & Rhys Braunstein
Orange County School of the Arts
Santa Ana, CA
My Dog Did My Homework
By Sabrina Simek
Harvard-Westlake School
Studio City, CA
Tom Colley
LACHSA
Ted Walch Award for Teaching and Mentorship
Westflix is produced by members of the Harvard-Westlake School community and thus holds values of diversity, equity, and inclusion at its core. Each year we work to reach further to include and uplift the voices and stories of a more diverse range of young filmmakers across the state. Westflix is a brave space for creative expression and education that celebrates and recognizes student artists of different identities and backgrounds. In the past, we’ve been proud to showcase films by LGBTQIA+ filmmakers, POC filmmakers, first generation filmmakers, Jewish filmmakers, women filmmakers, first time filmmakers, filmmakers with disabilities, and other students of marginalized communities, who were able to share their own stories via our platform. As arbiters of media, we understand how much representation matters and will continue to expand our scope.