Los Gatos, December 14, 2022: The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District (LGSUHSD) is proud to announce that Saratoga High School junior Rohan Chopra’s film Journey to Mars was selected as the winner of the CineSpace International Short Film Competition in the new category, “Education Film that Inspires the Next Generation to Join the STEM Workforce.” NASA and the Houston Cinema Arts Society announced winners of this competition during the Houston Cinema Arts Festival on November 13, 2022.
With 169 films submitted from 38 participating countries, Rohan began working on his film in the late spring and submitted it for nomination in July 2022. Rohan reveals that the entire process involved planning, researching, storyboarding, scriptwriting, animation, voiceover, filming, and editing in order to create an intriguing and educational film; all skills he refined in his Media Arts Program (MAP) class at Saratoga High School. “MAP has taught me how to manage large projects and endure intensive work,” shared Rohan. “I have made a number of films in MAP, and Journey to Mars had a very similar process.”
Rohan was inspired to make Journey to Mars so he could merge his passions for filmmaking, STEM, and space exploration. His film explores Mars and how the extensive exploration NASA has done for future journeys can become the next giant leap for mankind.
As an award winner, Rohan received a monetary prize and the opportunity to attend the Houston Cinema Arts Festival where his film was screened at the award ceremony presented by NASA. In addition to meeting other accomplished filmmakers and NASA executives and astronauts, Rohan received a private tour of the NASA Johnson Space Center.
CineSpace is a collaboration between NASA and Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) that offers filmmakers around the world a chance to share their works inspired by, and using, actual NASA imagery through “CineSpace”, a short film competition. Winners are announced and screen along with all finalists at the annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival which is held in November. This year was the 8th annual festival.