The Camp Kuleshov trailer competition for emerging creative artists in post production – a.k.a. Camp K – recognized its winning and honorable mention entries at events in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Trophies were bestowed in recognition of outstanding achievement in the categories of Editing, Sound Design and Graphics, as well as the Music Score category.
Designed to give emerging talent a chance to heighten their creative and craft problem-solving skills while also gaining access to invaluable mentorship opportunities, Camp K challenges entrants to take existing films and re-imagine trailers for them as something new and different. A full listing of this year’s source films for each category, as well as competition rules and objectives, can be found on the Camp K website at www.campkuleshov.org. The 2025 Camp K winners from each region can be found here.
The Lev Award – the grand prize for each category – will be announced at the AICP Awards in Chicago on November 20th. Lev winners are selected from among the first prize winners in each category from each region. It's named for Lev Kuleshov, the noted Russian filmmaker and editor who developed the Kuleshov effect, and is considered a pioneer in the editing craft.
Camp K Los Angeles
The West/Southwest Camp Kuleshov awards presentation and party took place on Wednesday, October 29th at Uppercut+Racket Club. The Halloween-themed event (costumes were encouraged) was emceed by Jay Nelson, Founding Editor at Cut+Run Los Angeles.
In Editing, first Place went to Alexandra Jimenez of Cosmo Street Editorial for her trailer for “Tropic Thunder,” which re-imagined the main character as the Devil; second place went to Luke Strickler of Arcade Edit for his re-working of “Duck Soup” with the devil as the main character; and 3rd place was awarded to Rich Gonzalez of Cosmo Street Editorial for his work mashing up “Multiplicity” and “Looper” into a piece about psychological terror.
Owen Stinsmuelhlen of Racket Club received an Honorable Mention for his music score for “The Birds.”
L to R: Alexandra Jimenez, Luke Strickler, Rich Gonzalez, and Owen Stinsmuelhlen
Camp K Midwest Winners
The Camp K winners were also announced on October 29th at Tunnel, a nightclub in the River North area. Tom Duff, President of Optimus and Craig Duncan, President and Managing Director of Cutters Studios, emceed the event.
For editing, first place went to Brian Naughton of Cutters Studios for re-imaging “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” as a Neo-Noir thriller. Second place was awarded to Kyle Totzke of Cosmo Street Editorial, also for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” but imagined as a tale of psychological terror. Third place went to Isabella Paulitz of Cutters Studios for taking “Singing in the Rain” and turning it on its head as a psychological terror. Two honorable mentions were awarded: Carly Bickett of Optimus was singled out for “The Three Faces of Eve,” in which the Devil is the main character; and Leah Fishwick at Cutters Studios who was recognized for “Batman” tackling cloning and its consequences.
For sound design, Lucas Hansa of Another Country scored first place for his take on “Forbidden Planet,” while Brett Rossiter, also from Another Country, won second place for “Blow Out.” And JoJo Diaz-Orsi at Yessian won first place for music score for her work on “The Birds.” In graphics, first place went to Gage Bowman of Flavor Studios for “Inside Llewyn Davis.”
Top L to R: Brian Naughton, Lucas Hansa, Leah Fishwish, Gage Bowman, and Carly Bickett
Bottom L to R: Brett Rossiter, JoJo Diaz-Orsi, Kyle Totzke, and Isabella Paulitz
Camp K East/Southeast Winners
Winners were presented at a celebration held at Crystal Lake in Williamsburg. Chris Franklin, Owner/Editor of Big Sky Edit, presided over the evening.
Thomas Sheriff of Whitehouse Post won first place for editing for “About Time,” reimagined as a tale of psychological terror. In second place was Amara Lapuz of Cut + Run who took “Batman” and made it a neo-noir thriller. Patrick Fermo of Big Sky Edit came in third place for his mashup of “Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind” and “Batman” as a story of cloning and its consequences.
In Sound Design Pablo Ancalle of Sound Lounge won first place for his take on “The Driver.” Natalie Cordero, also from Sound Lounge came in second place for Sound Design for her work on “Blow Out.” Zoltan Monori of Heard City came in first place for Music Score for “Cloverfield.”
Rounding out the winners was Waner Zhang of Uppercut who won first place for Graphics for “Inside Llewyn Davis.”
Top L to R: Waner Zhang, Patrick Fermo, and Thomas Sheriff
Bottom L to R: Pablo Ancalle, Zoltan Monori, Natalie Cordero, and Amara Lapuz
Judges & Coaches
The tireless Camp K Committee works throughout the year on the competition and events in each city. This year’s Committee included: Justine Cortale of Sonic Union; Tom Duff of Optimus; Chris Franklin of Big Sky Edit; Chris Gipson of Republic; Lauren Hertzberg of Cut+Run; Robby Hurd of Musicbed+Filmsupply; Val Lasser of Big Sky Edit; Susan Munro of Session City; Jay Nelson of Cut+Run; Matt Nelson of Storefront Music; Jaclyn Paris of Cosmo Street; Gloria Pitagorsky of Heard City; Ron Rendon; Lisa Sadek of Uppercut; and Starr Session of Session City.
Each year, artists from AICP member companies serve as Coaches to the Camp K entrants, offering feedback and guidance as they craft their entries. The 2025 Camp K Coaches were: Shaddai Berron of Republic; Lorenzo Bombicci of Cosmo Street Editorial; Chris Franklin of Big Sky Edit; Tyler Horton of Uppercut; Hugo Jordan of Cosmo Street; Val Lasser of Big Sky Edit; Andy McGee of Republic; Jay Nelson of Cut+Run; Joe O'Connell of Sonic Union; David Ruben of Cutters; Katie Theobalds of Storefront Music; and Ben Winter of Optimus.
The judges for the East/Southeast competition were: Lorenzo Bombicci of Cosmo Street; Jen Dean of Cut+Run; Chris Franklin of Big Sky Edit; Alex Hagon of Uppercut; Tom Jucarone of Sound Lounge; Val Lasser of Big Sky Edit; Matt Nelson of Storefront Music; Joe O'Connell of Sonic Union; Rob Ryang of Cut+Run; Micah Scarpelli and Mike Sobo, both of Uppercut; and Katie Theobalds of Storefront Music.
Camp K Midwest judges were: Tim Cahill of Optimus; Mike Ciacciarelli of Optimus; Magdalena Hernandez of Cutters; Brian Hrastar of Optimus; Marly Koven of Flavor; Brian Leitner of Utopic; Kristen MacDonald of Whitehouse Post; Tyler Nelson of Optimus; Deb Shimmel of Whitehouse Post; Drew Weir of Another Country; Ryan Wood of Optimus; and Dan Zabinski of Whitehouse Post.
The judges for the Camp West/Southwest installment were: Jackson Armstrong of Republic; Nick Crane of Racket Club; Ben Ellis of Nomad; Justin Hori of Racket Club; Andrew McGee of Republic; Andrea Mendoza of Cut+Run; Susan Munro of Session City; Jay Nelson of Cut+Run; Fernando Raigoza of Arcade Edit; and Rob Watzke of Wind & Water Creative.