The College of San Mateo Film and Production club will host its first-ever Summit Short Film Festival on March 24 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at its theatre. 

The club said the event plans to bring people together through art and celebration. Held inside, it will have food, games, drawings, and mingling before the main event starts. Summit Short Film Festival features filmmakers sharing their work. At the end, the best films will receive awards and people can vote for their favorite too.

CSM sophomore film and psychology major Arden Salotti is the festival’s founder and director.

“I created the short film festival to bring people together through art,” Salotti said. “I just don’t see that celebration in this community as much as I would like.”

Film Professor David Lederman, who will help facilitate the festival, said this event will focus on students and their work. 

“The ethnic studies program here has a yearly film festival that … brings professional Bay Area filmmakers to the CSM community,” Laderman said. “That’s not this. This is focusing on students in the district, especially at CSM, who are making their own films.” 

Salotti said seeing free festivals in her hometown inspired her to hold one at CSM. 

“I was walking around London, and there were festivals happening left, right, and center that were free and open to the public,” Salotti said. “You didn’t have to pay anything, … it was the pure epitome of celebrating art and making art accessible for everyone.”

Laderman said he is excited that the Summit Short Film Festival will bring students to focus on student expression instead of academics. 

“This whole thing was generated by students, and it’s going to focus on student work,” Laderman said. “Right where, usually the students are in the classroom, and we’re studying stuff, … this flips the script a little bit and has something social, not necessarily academic.”

Salotti said the festival offers filmmakers a free opportunity to share their work without needing prior experience.

“The film industry, as exciting as it may be, also has quite a few roadblocks,” Salotti said. “Summit has attempted to take down every single possible roadblock there could be. We have given students the opportunity to rent out cameras and things like that, if they don’t have any equipment.”

Laderman said that, even though event planning requires skill and work, Salvadi now has that experience with her forever. 

“Event planning is a skill. It’s an art form, it’s a heavy load,” Laderman said. “It’s not an easy thing. It’s great that Arden (Salotti) has been able to dip her feet into that water … that’s part of her toolkit now.”

Salotti said filmmakers putting their work out there and competing for an award have “already completed half the battle.”

“Give yourself a pat on the back for doing that,” Salotti said. “Everyone is going to see your hard work, that in itself is an achievement.”

Editors Correction: The name of CSM sophomore film and psychology major Arden Salotti’s name was misspelled as Arden Salvadi. 03/24/26