Schools at the Festival

Part of: 2025 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest

“The more layers you add to something, the more beautiful it gets.” That is what my dad said as he dipped a candle wick into warm wax. It was a hot summer day, and my dad and I were dipping candles in our garage. It was our tradition. Candles are like a person, each with colorful layers and lessons. It makes them beautiful, and eventually, they will burn out too. It was only six months after my last time making candles with my dad that his candle would burn out. I only got seven years with him, but he made every minute special. He always lived life to its fullest. He taught me to be the brightest version of myself. I felt trapped in the chaos of the world that was moving without him; I didn’t know how to grieve.

The powerful documentary, Folktales, is a film that focuses on the transformation of the mind through the experience of integrating nature into daily routines. Pasivik is a high school made for kids to reimagine the world through the lens of a Stone Age human exploring a life lived simply. One student in the film, Hege, particularly resonated with my perspective of the world. After the recent death of her father, she is struggling to grasp the ever-changing reality of being a teenager.

At Pasivik, Hege chooses to care for the oldest of the sled dogs. To her, the very essence of the dog is a reflection of her grandfather and generations of her heritage that came before her. The relationship provides a safe space for her to feel and heal from the loss of her father. Hege’s solo expedition into the Arctic wilderness is the next layer added to her soul. The solitude challenges her to find the resilience that was always there within her.

Just like my dad, Hege’s father was a nature guy, and being in nature helped both of us feel more connected to them. In the beginning, I didn’t understand how to continue living normally while balancing my fear. I was afraid I would forget my dad. The film Folktales reminded me that there is no road map to grief. Six years later, I am in my garage making candles with new people, adding new layers to my life, remembering the more layers you add, the more beautiful life becomes.

Part of: 2025 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest

Pets

There are two things I truly love in this world: short films and pets. So this film truly stood out amongst the eight other films we watched for the SFFILM festival that my class and I watched. I truly felt connected to and touched by the characters. I also loved how it showed how pets can help everyone, anytime. Lastly, I enjoyed that the film showed that you can find your purrfect pet in the most unexpected places.

I personally really connected with this film because I truly love pets, but I’m always afraid that something will happen to them. I felt that I was not alone in my love for pets, so when the interviewed kids started talking about the pets they had lost, I felt seen! Because nobody talks about that kind of thing. Who am I kidding, I may as well say it. I cried. I cried a tiny bit at the end. It was so bittersweet, I couldn’t help it! That’s how much I connected with this film.

Another thing I enjoyed about the film “Pets” was that it demonstrated that you find your soulmate pet in the oddest places. One example is an Italian kayaker, who was featured in Pets. He found a dog in the middle of the street, but he still loved it. They bonded, and inevitably, filled the something that the other was missing. One last example is two farmers.They adopted, not a dog… but a pig! They thought he was going to be a mini pig… but he got big. And even though Ziggy got huge, smelly and chaotic, he was still loved. When Ziggy passed away, the farmers made an animal sanctuary in his honor.

Lastly, I loved that the film “Pets” shows that everyone needs pets. The film featured an elderly japanese woman, she had recently lost her husband, and was having an extremely hard time. And I’ll have you know, that shelters in japan don’t let people over 60 adopt. Except for one. Once she adopted two dogs, she found herself, she…she finally felt like her old self again, in other words. Pets may have saved her life.

So, in conclusion, “Pets” is a wonderful film. I enjoyed it because of how I connected with it (and may or may not have cried), what it taught me, and . If you have not seen “Pets” yet, I highly recommend it.

Part of: 2025 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest

Part of: 2025 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest

Looking at Snow Bears

If I had to pick one short film I saw to talk about it would be Snow Bears by Aaron Blaise. I like this movie because the bear was lonely but tried to find ways to have fun and be happy. I don’t live in the arctic but it reminded me of my first day at Madera because, just like the bear, I was in this big place and I had no friends. All I wanted was someone to have fun with and that’s when I met Maxwell. He was my first buddy at school and everything just got better and better from there. When you see the bear in the movie it looks big and tough because it’s a large polar bear but when they zoom out he seems so small in the place where he is living all alone. Its like being in a big new school.

I liked that this was a movie and not a book because I could see exactly what the creator wanted me to see and what he was thinking the bear should look like. When I read a book I can imagine how something looks but I can’t see exactly how the picture should be. Watching this made me wonder if the maker had something sad happen to him. Maybe he was lonely sometime and making this movie helped him not be lonely anymore. The person who made this movie probably had to get a whole team of other people to help him and maybe he made all new friends. I think the movie was trying to say that you should just stay happy and keep trying and things will get better. At the end of the movie the bear has a whole new family so he isn’t lonely anymore.

It’s super cool that the person who made this movie did all of it by hand. It made me think ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. When I grow up I want to be a video game creator because you can make whole worlds just like the one in this movie. I create things in my Minecraft world and in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom all the time. I even made a snow biome with a whole terrain of ice and snow just like in the movie. Me and my friend Jack are going to create a video game world where Link and Zelda, from Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, have a son and Link gets covered in gloom and their son would be half lite and half-darkness. It’s cool when I can work with other people to create ideas for games. I also like to use Legos and build monsters and weapons in my room when I feel lonely because when I do I feel in charge. Being creative is fun.

I like this movie because I felt lonely like the bear when I started school at Madera. I wanted the bear to have a happy ending and I also have a lot of friends now. It’s kind of cool to be able to make people watching your movie feel a certain way. I want to do that with my video games.

SFFILM Education presents the sixteenth annual Schools at the Festival Student Essay Contest at the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival. This contest is made possible by the generous support of the Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Education Fund, endowed by Tim Kochis and SFFILM board member Penelope Wong to honor the memory of her mother, Nellie Wong (1917–2007), who was an avid filmgoer and cinephile. Developed to support the year-round outreach efforts of SFFILM Education, the Fund aims to cultivate students’ imaginations, enhance their critical thinking and creative writing skills and instill a greater appreciation for the magic of movies in young audiences of the Bay Area.

SFFILM Education is pleased to have teachers and their students join us for this year’s Schools at the Festival program. We like to encourage freedom in student essay responses across K-12 classrooms.

Winning essays will be determined based on creativity, depth, enthusiasm, clarity, and grammar. Essays must be written in response to any of the in-person or online Schools at the Festival screenings. Students may choose one film program or submit separate essays for more than one program. Students need to follow the word count guidelines for their respective grades.

We are excited to read about your students’ experiences in the theaters.

2025 Prize Winners

Elementary School, Grades 1-5
Grand Prize: Tyler McClory
1st Runner-Up: Najwa Fadul
2nd Runner-Up: Dahlia Silva

Middle School, Grades 6-8
Grand Prize: Rachel Malvin
1st Runner-Up: Liliana Inglin
2nd Runner-Up: Sam Mercurio-Corao

High School, Grades 9-12
Grand Prize: Athena Lucero
1st Runner-Up: Alina Wang
2nd Runner-Up: Tanaya Safi

For questions, contact Keith Zwölfer at 415-561-5040 or kzwolfer@sffilm.org.