The Grand Cinema Presents: 253 Second Film Competition

On May 15, 2015, the Grand Cin­ema hosted the 253 Second film fes­tival. This festival featured 30 differ­ent teams competing at the same task: create a film that is 253 seconds long, has the elements of time travel and a children’s toy, and contains the phrase “I’m not saying mine’s better.” Each team had only 72 hours to cre­ate an original film that followed all of these guidelines. The winner among these teams would earn one of two $500 cash prizes.

As I sat in my chair, eating my pizza while watching all of these dif­ferent films, I could see all the hard work that was put into each of these fine movies. I can say this with ut­most confidence that all the films had an original story. I never once felt that I was watching the same film twice. Multiple films caught my eye from their creativity. One was a film revolving around a child that obtains a strange toy that can travel around. Sadly, the film ended with the little boy lost and not knowing how to get home. Another film that was a little more lighthearted revolved around the game Minecraft where two little kids played with their blocks and then built a portal into the Minecraft world. The movie then takes place from within the actual game, with the footage in this part being created by the filmmakers in Minecraft itself.

All the other movies shown were all well done too, but they didn’t quite catch my attention as these movies did. Some of them were good, but some of the movies’ plots just didn’t excite me as much and were some­times confusing. However, as indie film directors, they did a fine job.

For those who do not know, The Grand Cinema is a nonprofit orga­nization that shows all types of mov­ies. In particular, they show well-known classics such as Citizen Kane and The Wizard of Oz. Events like the 253 Second film festival are also events that they periodically put on.

In all honesty, before I heard about the film festival that was hap­pening, I didn’t even know that The Grand Cinema existed. Not a lot of theaters show classic movies any­more or even care about the art of films, so knowing that there are or­ganizations out there that care is amazing. I had an amazing time at the festival and am glad that I went. It was a rare experience that is hard to come by in today’s modern age.

The Grand Cinema is located at 606 South Fawcett Avenue, Tacoma, WA and their website grandcinema.com. I strongly recommend people to check out their website and visit them in person. If you are a film ad­dict or like films in general and have a taste for the classics, then The Grand Cinema is definitely worth a visit.