The 24th annual Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase, at the Enzian Theater in Maitland, Florida, concluded yesterday, and the winning films have just been announced. See http://www.enzian.org/festivals/brouhaha. Those films will go on to play in the “Best of Brouhaha” block at the 2016 Florida Film Festival.

Brouhaha presents some of the best locally produced student, amateur and low-budget films over a two-day period. Monthly FilmSlam winners are included (if they are less than 10 minutes), along with submissions from Orlando high schools and Florida colleges, and independently juried selections from Florida filmmakers.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to judge in 2012, 2013 and 2014, but I attended this year as just a fan. Judging any film festival is certainly a difficult task, and this year’s panel deserves the thanks of all the participating filmmakers. With that said, I was surprised that my own choices this year differed so dramatically from those of the judges. In fact, it’s those differences that prompted me to compose this short blog in order to call your attention to some solid films that did not make the “Best of Brouhaha.”

My overall best is On the Same Page, a stunning production by Ringling College of Art and Design. My other favorites, in no particular order, are Can I Stay? (also a Ringling pic), Painted Faces (a brave UCF production), Nightfall (an eerie offering from FSU), Electric (a smart sci-fi film by UCF), Canned (YET another Ringling film), Babies (a surreal and visually imaginative film by Benjamin Gill) and None of That (STILL ANOTHER Ringling movie). Astonishingly, not a single one of my top picks made the judges’ list, except for None of That, which had to make the list because it won the audience award.

Admittedly, I did not see all of the first program, which puts me at a distinct disadvantage when comparing my critiques with those of the judges. Nevertheless, I believe it’s important to give a big round of applause to the six aforementioned short films that, unfortunately, won’t be playing next year’s Florida Film Festival. More importantly, all the moviemakers, judges, selection-committee members and Enzian staff deserve our appreciation for putting on another successful event and again drawing our attention to the wealth of filmmaking talent across the Sunshine State.