Pens to Lens

a project of Champaign Movie Makers

Press

Pens to Lens Gala 2025

Thank you to all of the students who submitted scripts for this year’s Pens to Lens! Our filmmakers are hard at work bringing select stories to life, and we hope you will join us for this year’s gala.

The 2025 Pens to Lens Gala is Saturday, August 16 at 3:00 pm. Come early to get your picture taken on the red carpet!

For more information and to purchase your tickets, please visit The Virginia Theater.

Buy Gala Tickets!

Pens to Lens 2025

The Pens to Lens Student Screenwriting and Filmmaking Competitions are returning for a new season in 2025! Kids write scripts which are then submitted to Champaign area filmmakers who pick their favorites to produce as actual short films. The films are presented to the community in a red carpet event to honor the young writers. Students may also submit their own films to be considered for screening at the event!

Screenplay Submission Guide

Student Film Submission Guide

Educational Resources

Announcing the Fourth Annual Pens to Lens Screening & Awards Gala

Tickets for the 4th Annual Pens to Lens Gala are now on sale! This year’s Gala features 18 films based on scripts written by K-12 students from all across East Central Illinois. The red carpet event begins at 1 p.m. on Saturday, August 13 at the historic Virginia Theater in downtown Champaign, with movies aimed at younger viewers beginning at 2pm and movies for older students beginning at 6pm. More information is available on the Facebook Event here.

The Pens to Lens Gala is FREE for children under 18. Tickets can be purchased at The Virginia Theater website here.

Lineup
While films in the 2 p.m. show are appropriate for all ages, some films in the later block may be intense for kids under 13.

2 p.m.:

“The Search for Pizza” by Evan Unzicker, 4th Grade
“Burrito as a Pet” by Devante Derrickson, 8th Grade
“The Cody Chronicles: Murphy’s Law” by John Nicol, 9th Grade
“Horrors” by Fred Scher, 5th Grade
“Wanda and Pickles Discover the Earth”, Ella Kirwan, 8th Grade
“The Runaway Toilet” by Adrian Blume, 3rd Grade
“Bananas and Mr Snake’s Big Adventure” by Caleb Wolters, 3rd Grade
“The Alarm Clock” by Nathan Lee, 2nd Grade
“Listen” by Ethan Grinberg, 8th Grade
“The End of the World” by Caleb Pyrz, Chase Vickers, Nik Johnson, and Brett Barcus, 8th Grade

6 p.m.:

“Bumps in the Night” by Madeline De Coste, 8th Grade
“The Goldfish” by Katarina Blakeslee, 11th Grade
“Love and Death” by Cameron Johnson, 11th Grade
“Fast Rodney, Who Was On His Way Out”, by Gabriela DeLisle Diaz, 11th Grade
“The Potato Boy” by Shardale Negre and Kayla Gardner, 8th Grade
“The Star Prince” by Parker Evans, 10th Grade
“Lance Lawson: The Case of the of the Misplaced Politician” by Mitchell Flanagin, 12th Grade
“Hello Fear” by Autumn Ellis, 10th Grade

The winners of the Student Film Festival will also be shown.

2pm show:
“The Weirder it Gets” by Rowan Fisher
“Flying Jedi” by Florence Lin

6pm show:
“Summer Daze” by Sarah Stelzer

Pens to Lens is a screenwriting competition that invites K-12 students in East Central Illinois to submit original screenplays. If their screenplay is chosen, a member of the local filmmaking group Champaign Movie Makers (CMM) will turn that script into a short film. Additional scripts will be adapted as movie posters by designers from the Champaign-Urbana Design Organization (CUDO).

Fourth Annual Pens to Lens Gala

Mark your calendars! The Fourth Annual Pens to Lens Screening & Awards Gala returns to the Virginia Theatre on Saturday, August 13th! You can find more information by checking out our Facebook event here, and you can purchase your tickets and festival passes here.

Kids 18 and under are FREE!

See you there!

Pens To Lens 2014 Press Release

For immediate release

Second Annual Pens To Lens Student Screenwriting Competition Launches Feb 1st

The second annual Pens To Lens student screenwriting competition hosted by the Champaign-Urbana Film Society (CUFS) will launch this February 1st. The student writing portion will run through February 28th, and filmmakers will produce films for an August 2014 red carpet gala. All students in East Central Illinois are invited to participate and all teachers are encouraged to share the opportunity with their classes.

The Pens To Lens Screenwriting Competition was established with the goal of creating an opportunity for K-12 Students to participate in the local filmmaking community by writing original screenplays for short films. Without knowing what to expect, the CUFS received over 120 screenplay submissions from students aged 5 to 18.

Members of Champaign Movie Makers (CMM) produced NINE original films based on chosen submissions. Many other submissions were chosen by members of the Champaign-Urbana Design Organization (CUDO) to be adapted as movie posters. The films and posters premiered to a standing-room only crowd at a red carpet gala at the Art Theater in downtown Champaign.

This year, the Pens To Lens Committee is welcoming participation in film production from K-12 students. The Pens to Lens Committee is also sending professional filmmakers and designers to visit classrooms and after-school programs.

Additionally, the Film Society is putting out a call to community filmmakers, actors, and designers who are interested in participating in bringing student scripts to life.

The website PensToLens.com currently has submission guidelines and educational materials available. Once the competition starts, the site will allow students to indicate they would like to help on the filmmaking sets and teachers to request a filmmaker class visit. Any additional information can be found on the website or by contacting info@PensToLens.com.