![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.jpg)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
Every year in October, film fanatics, movie buffs, famous actors and actresses, and average students from around the country come together in Austin to sit around and watch movies. The inspirational experiences shared during this time leave lasting impressions on the film industry, and motivate aspiring screenwriters and directors to continue working in the art of filmmaking.
The Austin Film Festival has been providing an opportunity for amateur screenwriters and filmmakers to present their creative works to the public since 1994. It was the first organization to focus on writers’ creative contributions to film. For the past 16 years, it has brought producers, screenwriters and agents together to celebrate and recognize the art of screenwriting for one week every year. Included in this seven-day event are showings of animated films, documentaries, advanced screenings, independent films and premieres.
For one week in October, a film pass priced at 42 dollars gets you into opening night, centerpiece and closing night premiers, and 190 films in between. That rounds out to about 22 cents a movie. Movies these days cost around nine dollars each so even if you only see five movies, it’s definitely worth it. The venues for viewing these films are all across town, so wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, it’s easy to take an hour or so to pop into a theatre and experience the event.
Films such as Harmony & Me, a story about the cliché heart-broken friend who always needs a shoulder to cry on, and Calvin Marshall, a humorous tale of a determined boy’s dream to make it into Major League Baseball, are premiering at the Austin Film Festival. Other movies, such as PoliWood, which looks at the Republican and Democratic national conventions from the perspectives of a group of actors and filmmakers, are also playing at the festival. Highly acclaimed film stars such as Steve Zahn (A Perfect Getaway, Sahara), Anne Hathaway (Get Smart, The Devil Wears Prada), Ben Foster (30 Days of Night, 3:10 to Yuma), Kevin Corrigan (Pineapple Express, The Departed), and Benjamin Bratt (Miss Congeniality), among numerous others, allow these movies to seem more appealing to the general public. The combined talent of strong actors, filmmakers, directors and screenwriters cause the entire experience to be that much more enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing.
During the Austin Film Festival & Conference, other prominent figures in the filmmaking industry are decorated for their efforts in raising the filmmaking bar higher and higher each year. This year, Steven Zaillan, Academy Award-winning screenwriter for Schindler’s List, will receive the Distinguished Screenwriter Award and Ron Howard, the director of The Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13, will be presented with the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award. Also, several other hidden gems have been discovered and will be given awards for their significant impact on the industry.
The Austin Film Festival runs from October 22-29, so be sure to buy a pass and check out all the new movies that will be the talk of the town. Also, keep an open mind and watch some of the more eclectic films, they’ll be sure to give you a new perspective on the artistic side of filmmaking.
