A screening of Cinema Arts students’ capstone films, which they create for their final project, took place Wednesday night in the J. Scheidegger Center.

Cinema Arts Professor Andrew Millians said nearly 100 people came to the Lindenwood Theater to see the short films.

Joyce Techa’s capstone, “Nights Without Stars,” won awards for best film, best director, best actress (Zoe Gudehus), best cinematography, and best editing.

The awards were given out based on an audience vote after the screening.

She described her film as a pseudo-documentary about a documentary filmmaker following the path of multiple young artists.

“Some people last night didn’t know what to expect watching the film, and I didn’t really want posters or anything,” she said. “It’s better to watch it not knowing anything about me or the direction the film was going,”

Techa knew how to create a plot for the film, but she said it took a while for the rest of the elements of the film to develop.

Despite the awards she won, Techa said the process was not easy.

“Scheduling all the characters to film was the hardest part,” she said. “It took me about seven days, two to three hours a day to shoot all the scenes for the film.”

She mentioned she worked on the film mostly on weekdays and between classes.   A total of seven students were involved in the film, and the cast consisted of Lindenwood theatre students. Techa said she hopes to enter her “Nights Without Stars” in upcoming film festivals.