Centenary grad lands top award for film animation at NJ Young Filmmakers Festival

What a way to wrap up! When Natasha Bonilla enrolled in an elective film class for fun her senior year at Centenary University she never expected to walk away with the Jury’s Citation Award for Animation at the 48th New Jersey Young Filmmakers Festival.

But that’s exactly what happened recently at Edison National Historical Park in West Orange when the Budd Lake resident earned that honor for her original short film: Spanglish As Experienced by a Native Speaker (3:26), a labor of love and pride in her Latina culture.

It was an unexpected dichotomy she never saw coming.     

“I intended to use my creativity and enjoy my time in that class,” says Bonilla. “I did not think much of it, submitted it to do something different and see what the results could be.”

She speaks “Spanglish” with friends and family so the recent graduate knew as soon as the project was assigned that she wanted to produce something that would reflect her own reality.

John Olivares Espinoza’s (esteemed Latino poet/author, and son of Mexican immigrants) poem of the same name spoke to Bonilla, and she makes the story her own. In her film we follow the plight of those who achieve the ‘American dream.’

“Many of us that come here for better opportunities (including Bonilla herself at 16-years-old from Puerto Rico) integrate both cultures — because now, both are part of us,” she says that’s what she wanted to portray and hoped the audience would take away from watching her film. “We never forget where we come from and what it took for us to get here.”

According to Bonilla, the most challenging thing was putting the idea together, and working out the technology.

“I don’t know if it is noticeable in the film but I wanted to separate the English from the Spanish,” the grad says that’s why some cutouts are animated and others are real life images. “It was definitely a fun process.”

But Bonilla had much support at Centenary University — where she says the staff; especially her film teacher, always motivate the undergrads to challenge themselves. 

“Professor (Boris) Gavrilovic takes personal interest in each of his students and sets them up for success,” she recalls how he was there every step of the way and made helpful suggestions. 

“The experience was out of my comfort zone, but I worked hard and it paid off.”

And winning the film award taught Bonilla a valuable lesson. 

In life we have to try new things; one never knows what good can come of it. 

“It happened basically by just taking the class and that risk of submitting my film to the festival,” the graduate says Gavrilovic actually encouraged her to do so.

According to NJYFF, the NJ Young Filmmakers Festival is a project of the Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium. It provides young filmmakers, who either live in or attend school in the state the opportunity to exhibit work and have it evaluated by prominent representatives in the field of media arts. Since its inception (1975), the purpose of the festival has been to recognize, celebrate and encourage emerging young talent in New Jersey, where Thomas Edison first developed the motion picture.

NJYFF is an open-genre festival accepting films in all categories, including Animation/Stop Motion, Documentary/Broadcast, Experimental, Narrative and hybrids.

For those who want to pursue filmmaking, Bonilla suggests you do what you love and film what inspires you, so once it's completed you can be proud of your work.

Next on tap for the award-winner…

“I’m concentrating on my career as a financial analyst,” says Bonilla, who graduated from Centenary last May with a Business Administration degree, and minor in data analytics. “I will let this be my one-hit wonder.”