Loyola University’s Filmmaking Program Earns Strong Showing at New Orleans Film Festival

A remarkable eight short films with ties to Loyola University’s Filmmaking program will premiere this weekend at the New Orleans Film Festival, an annual celebration of independent filmmaking that serves as a qualifier for the Academy Awards.

The festival, which is in its 37th year, takes place at theaters throughout the city from Oct. 22-27, with more than 250 filmmakers from around the world in attendance at more than 150 films. The event is a platform for emerging and established filmmakers to showcase their work to global audiences.

Three of this year’s senior thesis films will screen at the festival, and one 2025 grad will screen a film at the festival for the second year in a row. In addition, four films produced or shot by Loyola faculty members will screen at the festival, and Loyola students worked on all four of those films, said Miles Doleac, associate professor and chair of the Filmmaking program at Loyola.

"Loyola Filmmaking’s significant presence at this year’s New Orleans Film Festival is a testament to the quality and competitiveness of our students’ work and our faculty's status as active practitioners of the craft,” Doleac said. “Having three of last year’s Senior Capstone films selected, alongside a film by another recent graduate, speaks to the talent, creativity and dedication of these young filmmakers.”

Both Doleac and Nathan Tape, professor of practice in Filmmaking at Loyola, are working to ensure students are getting real-world, hands-on experience in the film industry – and not just fetching coffee and picking up trash around film sites. In the four festival entries the professors produced and shot, Loyola students worked in key roles, serving as prop masters, and camera and boom operators, for example.

“The inclusion of films on which our faculty played key creative roles and students participated as crew members is equally gratifying,” said Doleac, whose professional film credits include a sizable body of work as an actor, writer, producer and director.

“We pride ourselves on being a faculty of working filmmakers. That professional experience directly enriches our teaching and the student experience at Loyola.”

Like Doleac, Tape has significant experience in the industry, most notably as a cinematographer, writer, producer and director, and as a gaffer in major studio film and television productions. He is also well-versed in the world of film festivals, with his films having received significant juried festival recognition.

Doleac noted that students at other film schools rarely get the opportunities to work on professional film sets that Loyola students do. And it’s especially tough to find work on films in Louisiana these days, as a loss of tax credits for out-of-state filmmakers has brought film production here to an all-time low, he said.

“We have Loyola faculty members providing all of these opportunities for students in key roles on professional sets,” Tape said. “It’s kind of unheard of that you would graduate from a film program and have two or three professional credits. And now, when there is a dearth of jobs here, it’s remarkable that we’re still finding and creating those opportunities for kids. It’s amazing that Loyola is associated with eight out of 80 films at the New Orleans Film Fest. You just don’t see that anywhere else.”

Of the Loyola-affiliated films at the festival, all are narrative shorts, with the exception of Jonathan Presson’s “Stories from a One-Room School,” which is a documentary short. This is Presson’s second year in a row to screen a film at the festival. These are the films by Loyola students, alumni and faculty:

• “We Were Girls Together,” written and directed by Cameron Adams
• “New Red 40,” written and directed by Miles Caradine
• “Aya,” written and directed by Maxii Ayala
• “Stories from a One-Room School,” written and directed by Jonathan Presson
• ‘Hustlevania,” produced by Miles Doleac and Nathan Tape, shot by Nathan Tape
• “A Paradox of Quantum Superposition,” produced by Miles Doleac, shot by Nathan Tape
• “On the Seventh Day,” shot by Nathan Tape
• “The Worst Thing,” shot by Nathan Tape

For more information, screening schedules or to purchase tickets to the New Orleans Film Festival, visit https://neworleansfilmsociety.org/.

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The College of Music and Media is comprised of two schools — the School of Music and Theatre Professions and the School of Communication and Design. Students who choose to study in the college prepare for careers in music, theatre, music industry, graphic design, motion design, UX design, filmmaking, strategy, mass media and more.