This semester’s student film festival “Eastern’s Night at the Oscars” is anything but ordinary.

Romance, comedy, action and drama are four genres of movies in which contestants could submit.

The criteria for the films are a maximum of 15 minutes long and had to be submitted by e-mail by Wednesday.

Along with e-mailing their submissions, participants also had to upload the videos to their personal YouTube accounts.

The first prize winner of this year’s University Board student film festival will receive a Flip Video camera.

When attending the film festival students have the option of dressing up in their formal wear to go along with the festival’s Oscars theme.

“Students are encouraged to dress up, but they don’t have to,” said Ash Elkins, the UB movie coordinator.

Today the submitted films will be shown and judged for the first time.

The judges consist of faculty members and students.

Films will be shown again on Saturday and awards will be presented that night.

Danny Bojko, a junior business major, has submitted four films.

Three of Bojko’s films were made with two of his friends, Kyle Bakke, a sophomore education major with a earth science certification and Jim Campian, a sophomore art education major.

One film Bojko, Bakke and Campian submitted is titled, “Chili.”

“‘Chili’ is a comedy based off of a friend’s experience while buying a hamburger at the MLK Union,” Bojko said.

Campian said the film is animated and he drew most of it by hand.

Their second submitted movie is titled “Goat Meal,” which is a drama.

“Basically, ‘Goat Meal’ was made on a Monday night in a dorm room and it’s about what we thought would be funny,” Bakke said.

Their third submission is titled, “Spokez” and it is an action film.

“‘Spokez’ is about an extreme BMX rider who doesn’t like to play by the rules,” Bojko said.

Bojko also said that “Spokez” is meant to be a spin-off of popular television shows on the Spike TV network.

“We wanted to show how ridiculous Spike’s shows are,” Bakke said.

Bojko made his fourth film, a romance titled “Absolum’s Death (Sunset),” in high school with his friend.

“I still had ‘Absolum’s Death (Sunset)’ from high school and just wanted to submit it,” Bojko said.

Bojko said he is confident that they have the best submissions.

“We have around 200 views on YouTube, so there is really no competition,” Bojko said.

Five students have submitted a total of 13 films.

The student film festival will take place at 7 p.m. today and Saturday in Buzzard Auditorium.

Erin Riedl can be reached at 581-2812 or edriedl@eiu.edu.