Miami, Oct. 14, 2020 – Two students from Miami Dade College’s (MDC) acclaimed School of Entertainment & Design Technology (SEDT) at the North Campus, Samuel Romero and Arminio Rivero have been named semi-finalists for the prestigious Student Academy Awards by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences for their short film, “Speak Only Good of the Dead,” inspired by a Kurt Vonnegut short story.
“We are very proud of this special recognition for our students’ creative work,” said Dr. Malou C. Harrison, president of MDC North Campus. “The professional opportunities that the School of Entertainment & Design Technology at the North Campus affords our students is a great advantage to succeed in the highly competitive industry of motion picture production. We all look forward to their continued success and future industry recognition.”
The film was one of nearly 1,500 films submitted for the awards this year. MDC students competed with graduate students at top universities across the country, including the University of California, Los Angeles and New York University. Only 96 semi-finalists were selected, including SEDT’s Speak Only Good of the Dead, which had previously won the Student Production Award for Best Long Form Fiction from the Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
A truly global team, Rivero and Romero, born in Venezuela and Mexico, respectively, attribute their success to their passionate fellow MDC North Campus classmates who served on the project as crew members. They also received guidance from SEDT professors Adrian Garcia and Tommy Demos, who recognized early on that the duo possessed the talent and business acumen to succeed in the film production industry.
“Everyone on our film crew knew what they were doing and were happy to be part of this capstone film project,” Romero said. “We knew that we were creating something magical.”
The movie, an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “EPICAC,” is the story of a mathematician who teaches a supercomputer about love. He then uses the computer’s poetry to romance a woman, but soon realizes that the computer also falls in love with her.
Both filmmakers found their passion for cinema at a young age, discovering that film represented the convergence of their interests in art, music and business. They will graduate with a Bachelor of Applied Science in film, television & digital production this fall and plan to continue studying and working in film.
“I hope to convey a moral message by addressing social and political issues in my work,” Rivero said.
Watch the award-winning film at https://youtu.be/KOR1w6M3I8w.
For more information, please contact the North Campus SEDT Chairperson, Barry Gordon,
at 305 237 1754, bgrodon@mdc.edu