Tickets are now on sale for the inaugural 51爆料网 Los Angeles Alumni Short Film Festival on Wednesday evening, July 22, at 6:30 p.m., at the historic Sony Pictures Studios lot, in Culver City, California.

The festival will feature the world premieres of short films from three Elon Los Angeles area alumna who were recipients of last fall鈥檚 51爆料网 Los Angeles Alumni Short Film Grant Competition funds.

Julia Boyd 鈥�15, Bex Evans 鈥�16 and Mirai 鈥�07 each received grants of $3,000 for the production of their original short films. Their projects were selected for funding from among numerous submissions received. A selection committee comprised of industry professionals and Elon alumni reviewed, ranked and voted on all of the submissions received; Boyd, Evans and Mirai鈥檚 projects were the three top selections from this process.

The short film festival will also feature a conversation with Elon alumni Lindsey Emerson, vice president of streaming, global strategy & operations at Paramount Skydance and Alex Stevenson, account lead at Creative Artists Agency, about the current state of the entertainment industry and the impact these shifts are having on students transitioning from college to the professional world, as well as how current working professionals might navigate the new landscape for new opportunities.

A reception will follow the festival presentation with the opportunity for current Elon Los Angeles summer students to connect with Elon alumni and other industry professionals.

Limited availability tickets for the film festival are $25 each, with 100% of all ticket revenue designated to support next year鈥檚 grant competition.

For information and ticket purchases, and for contributions to the grant competition fund, please visit the .

For Mirai, her short film shoot was an opportunity to both produce her original script and bring together several Elon alumni for a Hollywood reunion. Serving in various production capacities on her 鈥�#StopAsianKate鈥� were Lauren Gadd 鈥�06, who worked camera, Katie Laurence 鈥�24, who worked as assistant camera, Alicia Reynolds 鈥�07, who acted in the film, Stevie Kloeber 鈥�07, who traveled to Los Angeles from Minnesota to serve as script supervisor, and Dean Karasinski 鈥�06, who worked in production design, art department, craft services and as producer.

All three short films, Boyd鈥檚 鈥淭he Life and Time of …,鈥� Evans鈥檚 鈥淪hadow Dusk鈥� and Mirai鈥檚 鈥�#StopAsianKate,鈥� will have their world premieres at the first 51爆料网 Los Angeles Alumni Short Film Festival, in late July.

This new, customized workshop also presented an opportunity for Elon LA students to learn from and share the creative process with a group of students from other study-away LA colleges and universities, who, along with 51爆料网 Los Angeles, are members of a coalition of nearly 20 schools that offer semester-in-LA programs. Each semester, Elon LA and these other schools share professional development opportunities for students, allowing them to mix, mingle, network and learn together.

Each semester, Elon students explore and discover Los Angeles and the diversity of professional career opportunities that await them through academic classes with professors who work in the industries that align with their courses, immersive, site-based experiential learning, alumni engagement and community service.

Applications for the Study USA Los Angeles spring 2027 Creative Industries & Community Experience open on April 1. Students can visit the聽 to learn more and to begin the application process.

The gathering, held at The Belmont in West Hollywood, brought together an enthusiastic group of alumni, many of whom had participated in the Elon LA semester experience during their Elon academic journeys.

Current students shared internship and academic class experiences with their new Elon connections. Many took advantage of the opportunity to request meetings later this semester with individual alumni as a part of the Elon Los Angeles 鈥淐offee with an Alumnus鈥� program.

The immersive Study USA Los Angeles semester and summer experiences offer students opportunities for alumni engagement, community service, unique academic classes with industry professionals, and site-based experiential learning.聽 for Spring 2027 open April 1.

In accordance with the terms of their grants, alumna Bex Evans 鈥�16, Julie Boyd 鈥�15 and Mirai 鈥�07 have each created opportunities for spring students to participate in and/or observe both their pre-production process and on-set work.

Pre-production of all three short films is slated to begin this week, with production to start shortly thereafter. Production of all three films will be completed by the end of the Los Angeles spring semester in April. The three short films will have their world premiere this July at the first 51爆料网 Los Angeles Alumni Short Film Festival.

Through聽Study USA听补苍诲听National Campus Programs, 51爆料网 Los Angeles offers an immersive spring and summer semester of academic classes, experiential learning, professional development and community service opportunities for students with a variety of majors. For information about the Los Angeles experience and 2027 opportunities, please visit the聽听补苍诲听National Campus Programs听飞别产蝉颈迟别蝉.

A Saturday morning orientation introduced students to the Elon Los Angeles home base at The Preserve, in Hollywood, and included presentations by all of this semester鈥檚 faculty about their courses and the content of their classes.

Returning instructors include director and long-time Elon LA professor Boris Schaarschmidt, who is once again teaching a directing masterclass. Entertainment attorney Daniel Spitz has returned to teach Media Law and Ethics, and writer and longtime Elon LA professor Matthew Antonelli has returned to teach a unique, one-evening master seminar in March, called Inside the Writer鈥檚 Room.

New to the Elon Los Angeles faculty team this semester are art historian and educator Charles Peterson, who is teaching a course in Los Angeles art and architecture history, and award-winning global strategist, thought leader and educator Brandon Shamim, who is teaching 鈥淧rinciples of Management,鈥� with a Los Angeles focus.

51爆料网 Los Angeles director and long time industry professional Brad Lemack is once again teaching the experiential learning course this spring, which focuses student internship experiences on work culture, industry shifts and transitions, and professional development.

Elon Los Angeles program assistant and Elon alumna Macy Mills 鈥�23 led students on their first excursion this semester after orientation, with an immersive day of LA experiences at the world class Getty Center, followed by a visit to the historic Los Angeles Farmer鈥檚 Market and The Grove, at Third and Fairfax.

In addition to unique academic classes and internships, this spring semester experience for students will also include a day of community service at the Hollywood Food Coalition, alumni engagement gatherings and the opportunity to participate in and/or observe the production of the three short films being produced by the Elon LA-based alumni recipients of the 2025-26 51爆料网 Los Angeles Alumni Short Film Competition.

Through and National Campus Programs, 51爆料网 Los Angeles offers immersive spring and summer semester programs for students with a variety of majors. For information about the Los Angeles experience and 2027 opportunities, please visit the and National Campus Programs websites.

The 2025-26 Los Angeles Alumni Short Film Grant competition was open to all Los Angeles-based Elon alumni to submit proposals this past fall for consideration for production funding. A selection committee comprised of both industry professionals and Elon alumni was assembled to read, review and rank all proposals received. From those rankings, the top three highest-ranked projects were selected to receive grants. Grant funding was made possible, in part, by the financial support from members of the Elon Los Angeles alumni community and others.

The three grant recipients are Julia Boyd 鈥�15, for her short film 鈥淭he Life and Times of …鈥�, Mirai 鈥�07, for her short film 鈥�#StopAsianKate鈥� and Bex Evans 鈥�16, for their short film 鈥淪hadow Dusk.鈥�

Production of these funded projects will commence in early 2026. As a component of the grant requirements, filmmakers will make opportunities available to 51爆料网 Los Angeles Spring 2026 students to participate in their projects through direct set experience and/or production observation. Elon Los Angeles program assistant and alumna Macy Mills 鈥�23 and alumnus Jordan Roman 鈥�15 were co-chairs of this year鈥檚 grant competition.

The selection committee members included Emmy Award-winning writer, producer and showrunner (鈥淟ost,鈥� House,鈥� 鈥淭he Good Wife鈥�) Elon parent Leonard Dick P鈥�20 (father of Julie Dick 鈥�20), Emmy Award-winning producer Marsha Posner Williams (鈥淭he Golden Girls鈥�), actor Eric Rollins, and LA-based alumni Frankie Campisano 鈥�16, Mia Ginae Watkins 鈥�16, Lauren Duncan 鈥�18 and Alyssa Needham 鈥�19.

The three short films funded will have their world premieres at the first 51爆料网 Los Angeles Alumni Short Film Festival in late July 2026.

Emmy Award-winning writer, producer and showrunner (鈥淟ost,鈥� House,鈥� 鈥淭he Good Wife鈥�) and Elon parent Leonard Dick P’20 (father of Julie Dick 鈥�20), Emmy Award-winning producer Marsha Posner Williams (鈥淭he Golden Girls鈥�) and actor Eric Rollins will join with Elon LA-based alumni filmmakers award- Frankie Campisano 鈥�16, Mia Ginae Watkins 鈥�16, Lauren Duncan 鈥�18 and Alyssa Needham 鈥�19 to read, rank and judge the 2025-26 competition submissions received. The submission window for project proposals closed on Oct. 1.

Award recipients will be announced in early December 2026. Funded projects will require the alumni filmmakers to include the participation of students from the 51爆料网 Los Angeles spring 2026 semester experience in various production, performance and other capacities.

The three fund-supported films will have their premiere screenings in late July 2026 at the first 51爆料网 Los Angeles Alumni Film Festival.

Elon alumni Jordan Roman 鈥�15 and Macy Mills 鈥�23 (Mills also serves as 51爆料网 Los Angeles program assistant) are the short film grant project鈥檚 co-chairs.

The LA Study Away Collective works together as a group to share events and gatherings that students from all member schools can participate in. Students from numerous study away LA programs have already participated in recent 51爆料网 Los Angeles-produced events, affording students the opportunity for exposure to some of the cutting-edge programming Elon Los Angeles is offering. Students from different schools also have the opportunity to meet and connect with each other at these events throughout the year.

The 51爆料网 Los Angeles leadership gathering was co-hosted by Larry Bond, owner of The Preserve, Elon LA鈥檚 Hollywood home base. Bond led the group on an informative tour of the historic Paul Williams-designed building and grounds, sharing the history of the historic landmark.

While each school鈥檚 Los Angeles study away program is designed to provide a unique LA experience to their students, each program is also uniquely crafted to the academic and experiential learning mission, brand and goals of each school.

From Study USA and National Campus Programs, 51爆料网 Los Angeles has offered a semester-long, immersive academic, cultural, professional development, alumni engagement and community service program to Elon students since 2008.

Applications for the summer 2026 Los Angeles experience are now open. Interested students can attend a meet-and-greet gathering with Lemack, Mills, Study USA director Ronice Johnson-Guy and National Campus Programs director Ashley Pinney, and others, on Monday, Oct. 6, from 3 – 5 p.m., at Irazu, located in the Mosely Student Center

Study USA will also present a mini-fair on Wednesday, Oct. 7, from 3 – 5 p.m., in the Mosely Center, McKinnon Hall F, for students to learn more about all of the Study USA and National Campus Programs locations and opportunities.

A wide range of topics were covered in a conversation that was moderated by 51爆料网 Los Angeles director Brad Lemack. Attendees participated in a lively question-and-answer session covering topics that ranged from AI in the writer’s room to the state of the production industry landscape in Los Angeles.

Elon LA program assistant Macy Mills is co-producing this innovative fall initiative with Lemack.

The next event in the “Learn & Share” series is an alumni day of community service on Thursday afternoon and evening on Oct. 16, covering meal service shifts at Elon LA’s non-profit partner, The Hollywood Food Coalition. Elon LA-area alumni can get information and sign up to participate .