Word Festival

The CITL, along with campus and community partners, will hold the eighth annual Fall 2023 Word Festival vocabulary video competition throughout the month of October 2023. Alumni judging panel TBA.

See below for info about the festival and to check out last year's winning entries.

ABOUT ...

The Word Festival contest involves students making short, live-action videos (20 seconds or less) in which they express the meaning of a particular word to the viewer. Words must be derived from an archived list of the New York Times Word Of The Day (DOWNLOAD archive PDF), and definitions must be derived and cited from Merriam-Webster Online, Cambridge Dictionary Online, or Dictionary.com.

In addition, there is a Foreign Language category as well as dictionaries for Music and Medical fields for classes seeking discipline-specific words. Students participating in those areas will be using one of the resource listed below to derive your word and definition. Rules are the same, see guidelines below for specifics and an example video. Students in both tiers can choose to participate in the main category or the foreign language category:

- Online Spanish Dictionary Word of the Day - peruse their Word of the Day feature to find an interesting word.
- Collins Dictionary - multiple foreign language translation features.
- Word Reference - multiple foreign language translation features.
- Langenscheidt's - online Germany dictionary with translations in 25 languages.
- Merrian Webster Medical - online medical dictionary.
- Oxford Dictionary of Music - users on campus can access online.

Participation guidelines are below, they are short and simple -- READ CAREFULLY!

1. Videos must be no more than 20 seconds
2. Video must be original and live-action (can have additional elements).
3. Each word must be displayed, pronounced and defined, and the part of speech given.
4. For words in a language other than English: the language should be given and the word should be displayed and pronounced in the language. Provide an English translation of the definition (subtitles may be used). 
5. If there are several definitions, the first one is fine (though a second or third definition could be used as well).
6. Use your imagination. You can act the word out, dramatize it, use puppets, draw, sing a song, create a dance, write a skit, incorporate photographs, use claymation, stop-motion, or anything else that will help viewers understand and learn your word. 
7. Commercially produced media and stock footage are not permitted.
8. Videos must be uploaded to YouTube.com to be considered (participants will provide the URL in the submission form, MAKE SURE it is viewable). You can make your upload 'unlisted' so that only those w/ the URL can see it. ALSO: submissions should be regular HD video, NOT a YouTube Short.

Once your video is uploaded to YouTube, fill out one of the online submission forms below by the deadline 11:59pm, 10/31/2023:

ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM (link will go live 10/1/2023).

ELEMENTARY DIVISION

Best Film Award: Venom by Cody Haney
Runner-Up: Random by Ezra Edwards

Best Acting Award: Stodgy by Caroline Gibbs
Runner-Up: Sluggard by Dominic and Colin

HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION - FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Best Film Award: Potato by Khai Lyman
Runner-Up (tie): Whisper by Natalia Higgins
Runner-Up (tie): Car by Alonzo Emmett

RADFORD UNIVERSITY DIVISION

Best Film Award: Macabre by Kaitlyn Stephens
Runner-Up Award: Mutinous by William Tyler Barrett
Third Place Award: Finale by Morgan Oakley, Amaya Freeman, Kyle Carey and Jerrod Traynham

Best Cinematography Award: Macabre by Kaitlyn Stephens
Honorable Mention: Nirvana by Ameek Batth

Best Acting Award (tie): Mutinous by William Tyler Barrett
Best Acting Award (tie): Finale by Morgan Oakley, Amaya Freeman, Kyle Carey and Jerrod Traynham

Best Effects Award: Wizardry by Mack Thomas
Runner-Up Award: Insomnia by Brianna Breeding, Maille Nilsen, Anna Fletcher

Best Creativity Award: Mutinous by William Tyler Barrett
Runner-Up Award: Macabre by Kaitlyn Stephens
Third Place Award: Relic by Kristina Milochova, June Stevens, Aidan Beveridge, Kaia Kelleher and Kristen Edwards
Honorary Mention: Obsession by Brianna Breeding, Maille Nielsen, and Anna Fletcher
Honorary Mention: Revoke by Morgan Oakley, Amaya Freeman, Kyle Carey, and Jerrod Traynham

Best Use Of Humor Award: Finale by Morgan Oakley, Amaya Freeman, Kyle Carey and Jerrod Traynham
Runner-Up Award: Revoke by Morgan Oakley, Amaya Freeman, Kyle Carey and Jerrod Traynham

Best Makeup Award (tie): Macabre by Kaitlyn Stephens
Best Makeup Award (tie): Barefaced by Reese Coppridge, Avery Willie, Alanna Pino, Sofie Hart, and Israel Maldonado

Best 'Straight-to-the-Point' Award: Delete by Makenzie Kimberlin, Gabby Stinson, Sladen Bishop, Elyssia Fisher, and Isaac Morales
Runner-Up: Swerve by Piper Howell, Michaela Dalton, Holden Ayers, Haley Robinson, and Connor McCarthy
Third Place: Yolk by Aidan Beveridge, Kristen Edwards, Kaia Kelleher, Kristiana Milochova, and June Stevens
Honorable Mention: Kleptomaniac by Angela Stefkovich, Ellie Messina, Emily Beaver, Hannah Dye, and Samiya Jone
Honorable Mention: Censor by Jesse Alaribe, Sebastian Maldonado, Bryson Crawford, Chancity Wilson, and Hope Powell