President Obama to host White House Student Film Festival

Not many first-time filmmakers get invited to the White House to show their work, but on Friday a group of K-12 auteurs will do just that at the inaugural White House Student Film Festival.

Hosted by President Obama, the festival will showcase student-created films about how technology is used in their classrooms and what role technology will play in education in the future. More than 2,000 videos were submitted after the festival was announced in November, and the finalists, as well as their parents and teachers, have been invited to have their movies screened in the White House’s East Room.

As part of the event, a collaboration with the American Film Institute, the president will speak about his ConnectED goal of connecting 99% of American students to next-generation broadband and wireless technology within five years.

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The festival will also include a sneak peek of the first episode of “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” the upcoming Fox television series that “celebrates the scientific perspective and the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math education.” A sequel to Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,” “Spacetime Odyssey” premieres in March and will be hosted by It is a follow-up to Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” and will be hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The White House Student Film Festival will be streamed live on www.whitehouse.gov/live beginning at 12:30 p.m. (Pacific).

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