The Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) nominated 18 Ballard High School film students for High School Awards of Excellence. By the end of the ceremony, five awards were presented to Ballard High School students.

Awards included:

Long Form Non-Fiction
“Clipped Wings” : Duncan Gowdy, Producer/Editor/Concept • Leo Pfeifer, Producer/Editor/Director of Photography • Coleman Andersen, Producer/Editor

Photographer/Editor
“Clipped Wings “: Duncan Gowdy, Producer/Editor/Concept • Leo Pfeifer, Director of Photography/Producer/Editor • Coleman Andersen, Producer/Editor

Writer
“Stolen”: Coleman Andersen, Writer/Concept/Director/Editor • Leo Pfeifer, Writer/Director/Editor/Director of Photography

Short Form Non-Fiction
“GeoFORCE: A Journey to Understanding”: Leo Pfeifer, Producer/Cinematographer/Editor • Raven Two Feathers, Producer

Short Form Fiction
“Stolen”: Leo Pfeifer, Director/Writer/Editor/Director of Photography • Coleman Andersen, Director/Writer/Editor/Concept

The awards ceremony was held June 6 at the 52nd Annual Regional Emmy Awards.

NATAS recognizes outstanding filmmakers from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.

Students from the Ballard High School Digital Filmmaking Program earned 11 film nominations total, which is more than any other school or organization in the five-state region.

The night before the event, films from the BHS film program were celebrated at the BHS Film Festival. Students shared with the Ballard News-Tribune their elation and honor for being nominated by the Academy.

Jaya Flanary, Meagen Tajalle and Rachel Eve Cole, were nominated for Best Short Form Non-Fiction for their film, “Raven Rock.” The film tells the story of a nonprofit in Redmond that uses horses as a form of therapy for children who have been through trauma. The film follows the story of a young woman who was the first to be treated in the program. “Raven Rock” recently won 2nd Prize in the Dominique Dunne Film Competition.

“This is my third year in the program, and I had not submitted anything before, so to have my first thing nominated is really excited,” said Cole.

Cole, a senior, will be studying filmmaking next year at Columbia College in Chicago. She received a full scholarship.

Raven Two Feathers and Leo Pfeifer were nominated in the Short Form Non-Fiction category for their film “GeoFORCE: A Journey to Understanding.”

GeoFORCE Alaska is a program run by the University of Alaska Fairbanks that takes rural Alaskan youths across the United States to learn about geology and to inspire potential career options. Designed to excite interest in the field of geology and academia, the program offers four summer trips to geological sites over the span of their high school years. Last summer Pfeifer and Two Feathers interviewed students and documented their six-day journey as they explored Mount St. Helens and coastlines in Oregon and Washington.

“We were trying to communicate the positive impact that the program has on the students, and it talks about the changes they experience as they go on the trips. … We focused on their confidence and what they are able to pursue in the future,” said Pfeifer.

“It’s really exciting and an incredible honor to have your films recognized for all the really hard work you put in and see positive reactions to your films.”

Two Feathers, 19, graduated from BHS last year and has gone on to attend Santa Fe University of Art and Design.

“It’s crazy to think I can say at school that I’ve been nominated for an Emmy. … To me the film meant that I would be able to go off to college and end my high school career with something as fantastic as an Emmy award nominated film. It’s really an honor,” said Two Feathers.

This year is the ninth consecutive year that Ballard High School film students have been nominated by the Academy. In 2014 they also had 11 nominations and won in the Short Form Fiction and Photographer/Editor categories.

Full list of BHS nominations:
Coleman Andersen
Miles Andersen
Ruby Anderson
Duncan Boszko
Rachel Cole
Jasper Cote
Jaya Flanary
Duncan Gowdy
Zach Green
PJ Hase
Cameron Miller
Jack O’Neal
Leo Pfeifer
Piper Phillips
Sho Schrock-Manabe
Meagen Tajalle
Raven Two Feathers
Gideon Wolfe