Essi A. Virtanen | News Editor
Oct. 26, 2016; 7 a.m.
Lindenwood graduate Julius Damenz got third place with his capstone film “Infinite” in the variety category during the 37th College Emmy Awards that took place in Los Angeles last spring, according to Lindenwood University press release.
Damenz attended the ceremony on May 25 at Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center with her girlfriend Alejandra Soto, who was assistant director for “Infinite”, and friend Chris Odeniyi, who was the cinematographer.
“Attending the ceremony was unreal,” Damenz said. “We got to meet a lot of the other nominees from the prestigious film schools around the country, such as University of Southern California, Chapman University, and New York University. Being from Lindenwood felt like being the underdog, but I think it shows that these awards aren’t limited to the top film schools.”
Damenz said that Infinite has been screened at over 10 film festivals around the country and has won more than 10 awards two of them being nationally recognized prices. The film was also screened in his home country Germany and at the “prestigious” Burbank International Film Festival in September, where the film was nominated for Best Student Film.
Another screening will happen at the St. Louis International Film Festival that takes place on Nov. 3-15, according to their website.
“It still feels like a dream to me winning these awards and all of the positive feedback to ‘Infinite,’” Damenz said. “To me, the most special thing is that when we were making the film, it was just a small, little school project.”
He said it was just him, his good friends and fellow film students who worked on the film: Odeniyi, Soto, Morgan Findlay, Yoshikazu Ysa, Spencer Elmore, Luiz Costa Cruz and non-LU actors Dan Irwin, Ted Joerding, and composer Alvin Zamudio.
“I hadn’t even planned on submitting it to film festivals, but it really took off around spring this year, and now we are in the festival run until the end of the year, which is crazy!” Damenz said.
[su_divider top=”no” size=”4″]Emily Miller[/su_divider]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udlCKWEOosI
[su_divider top=”no” size=”4″]Emily Miller[/su_divider]
Damenz graduated in May 2016 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in digital cinema arts and a Bachelor of Arts degree in advertising and public relations: corporate communications. He also minored in chemistry. At Lindenwood’s Lindy Awards, he won six trophies with “Infinity,” which was his capstone project.
“The project shows what they learned,” professor Peter Carlos, Damenz’s former instructor, said. “Julius is a very talented filmmaker. He did something different, more artful, and he was successful.”
Earlier this year Damenz was in Hollywood working as an intern at the 20th Century Fox TV show “Scream Queens”. He worked closely with cinematographer Joaquin Sedillo. He said he would like to enter the film industry and become a successful filmmaker.
Damenz said in a Lindenlink article posted in Feb. 2016 that “I came to the United States because I saw that all of my favorite movies and songs were made here,” he said. he accredits much of his success from his short film to his Lindenwood professors.
“I attended my first film festival, won my first award, and went to Hollywood, all due to this film,” Damenz said. “And I am glad I was also able to promote Lindenwood’s film program. In the four years at Lindenwood, I was able to grow as a filmmaker and storyteller, and I don’t think I would be where I am without this experience.”
To find out more about Damenz’s work, including “Infinite”, go to his website at www.juliusdamenz.com.
