Student filmmakers rarely get a chance to show their work on the big screen, so this weekend’s Film and Media Festival provided them a good opportunity to have their work seen.

The University Film Organization and BG Reel hosted its annual Film and Media Festival in the Gish Theater.

More than 50 short films were submitted in a variety of categories and were judged by four professional filmmakers.

Friday night the festival began with screenings of Narrative Drama and Narrative Horror films.

The next day the films shown were under the categories of Comedy, Drama, Documentary, Experimental, Music Video and Animation.

Sunday night marked the end of the festival with an awards ceremony, where the Narrative Drama “Lost in the Brush,” directed by junior Tim Leifheit, won both Best Narrative Drama and Best in Show.

Leifheit said he was not expecting to win such a big award at this year’s festival.

It felt “like lightning,” he said. “This was 100 percent unexpected.”

He said the film, which was a World War II action film, was something he has wanted to make since high school when he first saw “Saving Private Ryan.”

Leifheit filmed the movie on 16mm film and said he made it up as he went along.

“A documentarian doesn’t know what is going to happen next and not knowing what was going to happen made it feel more like real combat,” he said.

Junior Desiree Holton, president of BG Reel, said the judges were very impressed by the work they saw.

“They said that these films could stand next to the Cleveland International Film Festival selections,” she said during the awards presentation.

Freshman Nicholas Redding attended the festival and was very impressed by the films he saw.

“It is great to see the films getting more technically brilliant,” he said.

Junior Nicholas Puhala, director of “Chess Mates” was glad to have his work seen by so many people.

“It felt good that people saw it and seeing people’s reactions,” he said. “When you put a video online you don’t get to see and talk to people who watched it.”

The festival was one of the biggest BG Reel and UFO have seen and they hope to see the theater and film program grow even more in the coming years.

Junior Joey Rosace, treasurer of UFO, said he was glad to be a part of this year’s festival.

“This was another great festival,” he said.