The Chauncey Awards

On Friday December 8th, 2023, Champlain students gathered in the Alumni Auditorium for the first-ever Semi-Annual Chauncey Awards. Co-sponsored by the Champlain College Film Society and Women in Film, the event aimed to feature student films created over the previous summer and fall semesters. The event also doubled as an award show where students voted for their favorite film in five categories: Best Picture, Best Performance, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Sound. The two-hour-long award show featured 18 completed student films. 

“We wanted to go out on a bang…so we were like let’s have a screening,” stated one of the Film Society presidents Kaylee Hunt (‘25). “Let’s just show work people have made this semester and let’s see what people have been doing.” 

When Women in Film president, Rosalie Bibona (‘25), was approached by Hunt and the other Film Society leaders [Christian Portugal (‘25) and Rem Valatka (‘26)] they jumped at the chance to co-sponsor the award show. Bibona worked on the marketing and organized the program for the event. 

“It was kind of a rush to organize and promote it, but overall, it was such a fun event to get to do, and I think it turned out better than we could’ve hoped,” said Bibona. 

A Night of Recognition

In addition to helping organize, Hunt and Bibona submitted their own short film, On This Lovely Night, to be screened at the Chauncey Awards. Their film ultimately ended up taking home one award at the event for Best Performance by lead actress, Charlotte Scott (27’).

“We were really pulling for Charlotte for Best Performance and she did, and I’m so proud of her. I absolutely love her in that role,” exclaimed Bibona when asked about Scott’s win.

Amongst the other winners were Ben Fetzner (‘27) for Best Sound in The Last Thing You May Ever See, Olive Dimaggio (‘24) for Best Editing in Re: My Love, and Yassen Zech (‘25) for Best Cinematography in With and Without You. Best Picture went to Ari Esposito (‘24) for her film La Narcissa, which was among Hunt and Bibona’s favorite films of the night. 

“I’ve heard things about Ari’s film…and it was gorgeous and I loved it. It was amazing to see that big like that. It was cool,” Hunt explained of La Narcissa

Both Hunt and Bibona determined the event to be a success considering the large turnout, the lack of technical difficulties, and the positive crowd reaction. The leaders of these two campus organizations look forward to hosting the event in the spring semester and beyond.

“We’ll see you there,” declared Hunt when urging audience members to return for the second Semi-Annual Chauncey Awards in the spring.