JUPITER, Fla. — Friday at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, awards and scholarships were handed out to students from Florida at the 28th Annual Palm Beaches Student Showcase of Films.
The Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission hosted the ceremony and said their goal is to draw in TV and film professionals to produce their work in the Palm Beaches.
"We had a record breaking number of productions in 2022, over $128 million is being spent here in the county as a result of [film and TV production] being done here," said the new Palm Beach County Film Commissioner Michelle Hillery.
"Florida is one of the only states that does not have a film and television incentive to try to retain talent here. There's a lot of competition out there," said Hillery. "And so what we really want to do is keep the [students] here in the state, keep them working here in Palm Beach County, showing them that we do have an industry here, we have over 150 production companies that call Palm Beach County home."
The nominees are high school and college film and television students. Friday, they walked the red carpet, got their photos professionally taken. $20,000 in scholarships and awards were presented. The $5,000 Burt Reynolds Scholarship was awarded to Tynndall Dickerson, a student from G-Star School of the Arts in West Palm Beach.
"The area I'm from, no one really actually gets these opportunities,"
said high school student Moses Lauriston, who lives in Haines City. "So, just being able to be here at all. It's just really great for me."
Lauriston was a nominee in the Vanilla Ice music video category.
WPTV's Jay Cashmere, Theo Dorsey and T.A. Walker were all award presenters.
