Matt C. Jones (Left) and Joel Nassan (Right) work on their award-winning films.

Matt C. Jones, sophomore film major at Biola, was announced as a winner for the annual Student Film Awards by the Directors Guild of America. The award is designed to honor outstanding minority film students.

Matt was recognized for his film, "Be the Man." Past winners of this award have been from USC, UCLA, NYU, and AFI. The DGA Student Film Award comes with a $2500 cash prize along with a product grant from Kodak for $1000.

The Hollywood Reporter also featured Biola's student win at the DGA Film Festival.

Senior Joel Nassan was also recognized for his student film, "Wednesday" which won the Jimmy Stewart Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival in Indiana. Nassan was mentioned for his win in the Indianapolis Star.

Nassan said, "Through Biola we have such a great film program. The leadership has pushed our students to strive for excellence in their filmmaking but even more than that they've instilled into the hearts of the students a desire to make films for greater reasons than entertainment; they've taught us to strive to create cinema with a deep purpose, telling stories with moving themes that cause people to question how they see the world."

Related Articles: Matt C. Jones in Campus Life's college student profile.