64th Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival Features Stamps Student Work
From screening new films by faculty, alums, and students to creating opportunities for students to be involved, the Stamps School of Art & Design and the Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) have long shared a collaborative partnership — and this tradition continues with the 64th annual festival, which takes place March 24 – 29 at the Michigan Theater.
Trailers created by Stamps students Adam Hirose, Joyce Liu, Nathan Romero, and Oliver St Cyr have been selected to be shown at the Michigan Theater throughout the festival. The students produced their short video projects in Experimental Animation class, where — other than the requrement to include the festival and sponsors’ logos in their projects — they were given complete artistic freedom to design the 30 second spots.
Stamps Professor Heidi Kumao, who led the Fall 2025 Experimental Animation class, notes “They did fantastic work creating trailers with hand drawn, hand painted, and stop motion animation techniques that reflect the experimental, artist-focused work that is featured in the festival. I’m always so impressed with the student work and how inventive the student approaches are each year.”
As an award for having their trailers selected by the festival’s staff, each student receives a festival pass and will have their trailer played on the Michigan Theater screens before featured film programs.
Additionally, several video projects by Stamps students were selected for AAFF curated showcases that feature film and animation work from students at schools around the region. These films will screen in the festival’s New Voices program, on view in the Screening Room of the Michigan Theater. The events are free and open to the public.
New Voices: Program 1
Wednesday, March 25 at 1 p.m.; Screening Room of the Michigan Theater
- Sonya Barnes, Rose Baker, Caitlin Cherry — “Strange Magic”
- Janet Shasha — “Shrub”
- Haiden Choi — “A Woman and Her Lost Inner Sheep”
- Kyler Luna — “Fallout”
New Voices: Program 2
Thursday, March 26 at 1 p.m.; Screening Room of the Michigan Theater
- Nadav Havillo — “Bufo”
- Alex Nguyen — “Forgotten Taste”
- Jaden Serafin — “Untitled”
The Ann Arbor Film Festival is the oldest avant-garde and experimental film festival in North America, founded in 1963 by George Manupelli, who served as associate professor of art at the University of Michigan’s School of Art (now Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design) from 1962 – 1972. Internationally recognized as a première forum for independent filmmakers, each year’s festival engages audiences with films from around the world in all lengths and genres, including experimental, animation, documentary, fiction, and performance-based works. Through its history, the festival has presented early work by many influential artists, including Kenneth Anger, Brian De Palma, Agnes Varda, Andy Warhol, Gus Van Sant, Barbara Hammer, George Lucas, Les Blank, Matthew Buckingham, and James Benning.
Learn more about the 64th Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival and view the full schedule of events: aafilmfest.org