Baltimore City Public Schools’ annual student film festival is expanding in its third year to include middle school participants, marking a significant step in the district’s commitment to arts education. As more middle schools introduce animation and digital design programs, the expansion creates a natural bridge to high school media career and technical education pathways.
“There were schools starting to get their feet wet in animation and digital design programs,” said Fine Arts Educational Specialist Jessica Chambers. “Extending this experience to middle school seemed like a natural first step and an avenue to grow sequential programming that could feed into our high schools.”
More than just a showcase of creativity, the festival provides students with real-world filmmaking experience.
“The film festival is a powerful platform for student growth and success,” Chambers said. “By showcasing student films and providing exposure, we offer them a unique opportunity to connect with industry professionals, peers, and the broader community.”
Among this year’s middle school participants are students from Baltimore Design School (BDS), who created stop-motion animation films with the help of sixth-grade design teacher Stephanie Cafaro-Edwards.
Cafaro-Edwards, who has been teaching for 17 years—14 of them at BDS—incorporates stop-motion animation as the first unit in her Design Studio I class.
“It’s really fun and exciting, connects to other content areas, and allows students to build a repertoire of art and design skills,” she said. “Most importantly, this unit emphasizes the importance of teamwork.”
Being accepted into the festival was exciting and surprising for Nico, a student participant.
“When I first found out, I was pretty shocked that my film made it into the festival,” he said. “It’s going to be a bit competitive to be with high schoolers.”
Students spent nearly a quarter of the school year working on their projects, mastering everything from storyline development to set design, character creation, lighting, camera angles, timing, sound recording, voice acting, and editing.
“I liked how we worked together,” student participant Tairynn said. She collaborated with classmates Zoey and Camille on a film about baking a cake, which required more than 500 individual photos. Nico’s project used nearly 300.
“It took a really, really long time to make it. And all the small details are hard to do,” Zoey said. She explained how they used an editing technique called “onion skinning” to ensure smooth transitions.
Tairynn agreed. “It takes a long time, but the end result is really nice if you take your time and work on it.”
Cafaro-Edwards credited the support of resident artist Ms. Camille from Wide Angle Youth Media, who helped students with shooting, sound, and editing.
“Students worked really hard, and all of the final animations are well executed with storylines that the viewer can follow,” she said. “There is great variety in the storytelling, and many are charming and humorous.”
Nico’s film follows a seal who loses his mother and has to live with penguins. “But it has a happy ending,” he said, adding that he hopes audiences experience different emotions while watching.
Camille, who enjoyed designing the set and props, said, “I want them to think about a cake, but also, you can do anything with your crafting.”
Cafaro-Edwards emphasized the broader importance of arts education.
“Art helps students develop problem-solving and communication skills, improve focus, make cross-curricular connections, and have a creative outlet,” she said.
Camille agreed about the importance of art in school. “You put your emotions or feelings on art. [Art] helps me calm down.” 
“It helps with daily life and school,” Tairynn added, noting the value of teamwork. “It’s always better to have more people to help because it makes the process much easier.”
City Schools is fostering the next generation of filmmakers by expanding the film festival to include middle schoolers. As students explore animation and digital media, they develop technical skills and gain perseverance, collaboration, and creative expression—lessons that will serve them well beyond the classroom.
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