Five College of Southern Nevada film program students win awards

When Raul Saldivar, 25, graduated from Liberty High School over five years ago, he had no idea what he wanted to do next, he said.

“I’ve always liked movies, though, so I started searching for stuff to do,” Saldivar said. “I saw that CSN had a film program and decided to take it, and it paid off.”

Saldivar and classmate Leo Saucedo, 28, were among five students in the College of Southern Nevada’s film program who were award winners at the 2019 National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Pacific Southwest Chapter’s Emmy Awards, held June 15 at the M Resort. Saldivar and Leo’s submission was a commercial with a compilation of closeups and various angles of food dishes being made, Saldivar said.

“It was focusing more on the journey of cooking,” Saucedo said. “Making pancakes, a burger. The goal was to show the beauty of food — not just for eating but also how it’s used for art. We won in two categories: one was best commercial and the other was best cinematography.”

The students in the program have only competed in the competition for the last five years, according to John Aliano, program director for videography and film program at CSN.

“To date, we’ve had 73 student nominations and 38 student production wins,” Aliano said. “Raul and Leo’s commercial was short but very polished. It’s nice to know they are going above and beyond.”

Randy Sly, 26, received the student craft long-form award for his 20-minute film about an awkward pop culture enthusiast who is hoplessly in love with his neighbor of five years.

“We used a lot of pieces from the studio at CSN,” Sly said. “The idea for the film came from my two friends I’ve known since middle school. They recently started dating, and we’ve all been in theater since we were young. The chemistry and acting training was there.”

Contact Mia Sims at msims@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0298. Follow @miasims___ on Twitter.