This year marks the first year that UIL has included film as one of its competitions. Students had the opportunity to enter short films under the categories of narrative, documentary, or animated short films. Four Argyle students created, filmed and submitted short films to the contest, including seniors Kirsten Couch and William Miracle in the narrative category and juniors Matt Garnett and Ryan Murphy in the documentary category.

The students submitted their films for judging on March 3 and received results this past Friday, March 21, as to who would be advancing to State Semi-Finals. Garnett and Murphy both advanced with their documentaries A Game for the Ages (Garnett) and The Art of an Aprentice (Murphy). Garnett’s documentary follows the Argyle Eagle football team on their way to their state championship in November at AT&T Stadium. The film also follows the difficult times the team faced with the passing of head coach Todd Rodgers’ father, as well as the injury senior Sam Sizelove suffered in the game against Aubrey High School. Murphy’s film follows a young apprentice who works with an artist as he creates art on pieces of 2×4 wood.

Both students spent many hours creating, filming, and editing their films for submission to the contest.

“I probably worked 100 plus hours on the documentary,” said Garnett. “We had the idea for the film going into the summer last year when we found out there was going to be a UIL film category.”

The results for the films going to State in May will be announced on Friday March 28.