225BatonRouge.com

After partnering with the Red Stick International Animation Festival to offer youth movie workshops last year, the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Baton Rouge hosts its first-annual Aspiring Filmmakers Festival this month.

The competition is for would-be Spielbergs 21 years old and younger, with short films running fewer than 10 minutes.

“This is really to get our young people excited about movies and thinking about job opportunities because the film industry in this state is booming,” says Brooke Wood, a festival organizer.

The work of amateur filmmakers will be screened and judged in four categories: documentary, narrative, experimental and animation. Drawn to the latter category, Stephen Pfeil of Hammond will premiere his Star Wars LEGO-inspired film A 360º on Tanvar at AFF later this month.

“A lot of the humor comes out of the fact that these are LEGOs trying to be serious,” the 18-year-old Hammond High senior says of his stop-motion animation film. “Trying to get a serious note out of LEGOs is a bit of a challenge.”

Admission to the Aspiring Filmmakers Festival is free and runs from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 20 at the Manship Theatre. bgcaff.org