During the Central Coast Film Society’s 2024 Student Film and Digital Media Competition in mid-May, six film students from Ernest Righetti High School in Orcutt were honored with two of the competition’s top three awards, according to the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District.
Righetti senior Rafael Atilano-Bautista won Best Screenplay for the film Indifference, while seniors Adan Garcia and Andres Cornejo and juniors Samuel Cornejo, Nathan Freeland, and Ethan Guy shared the award for Best Technical Achievement for the film Five Nights at Righetti 2.
“[I] want to thank my crew,” Samuel Cornejo (pictured), the director behind Five Nights at Righetti 2, said in a statement, “if it weren’t for them … I wouldn’t have been able to win this award.”
According to the district, schools from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Monterey counties were eligible to participate in the competition.
