The Longhorn Denius Film Showcase Highlights Student Filmmakers at SXSW

At the AFS Cinema theater on a sunny Friday afternoon, Shianne Salazar sits in the third row of this community theater adorned with classic red seats and curtains lining the walls. Short films from UT Radio-Television-Film (RTF) students play one after the other. Salazar, a first-year Master of Fine Arts student, hears a remote click and feels chills crawl up her spine. Her short film Heated, about a young Black girl’s journey with her hair, is beginning, screening for its biggest audience to date.  

On March 7, 2025, the opening day of South by Southwest, UT’s RTF program continued its partnership with Austin Film Society to put on their annual Longhorn Denius Film Showcase. A free, public screening, the showcase presented a collection of 10 recent fiction, documentary, and experimental films from all types of Longhorns—alumni, current undergraduates, and MFA students. “I’m really proud of these students,” Elana Wakeman, senior programs and communications coordinator for the department, says. “They’re amazing, talented filmmakers [with] all kinds of different voices and stories.”  

Wakeman is responsible for coordinating and facilitating the showcase. Students submit their films from the fall through mid-January. From there, a committee, which changes annually, watches the submissions and curates the program. After three rounds of selecting films and finalizing the program, Wakeman steps in to inform the students about their success and collect their information and films.  

The showcase featured Harrison Chiu, BS ’24, and his short drama film Set Me Free about a grieving Asian American father’s relationship with his musically inclined son. He says he immediately shared the news of his success with his family and close friends. “The goal was never to make the best short film,” he says. “The goal [was and] is always to show what the movie could be and could feel like.”

Wakeman’s colleague Keefe Boerner, the assistant director of production services at the College of Communication, puts together the digital cinema program many Austinites witnessed that Friday afternoon. Wakeman says this public screening at one of Austin’s biggest events provides a singular experience for the students to network and branch out.  

“It's another way of connecting with the larger audience and community,” she says. “It’s very exciting for the students to have a larger audience besides just their fellow students and faculty.”

All the students whose films were showcased at the screening earned SXSW badges. In fact, Salazar spoke to this reporter about her experience as she headed to a midday screening. “It is really awesome ... that we're able to participate in these kinds of things,” Salazar says. “I think [the badge] was not just a great incentive, but a great award for the work that we did.”  

This showcase left a lasting impression on Salazar far before she participated in it. A full-circle moment, she saw the 2024 showcase at an RTF recruitment event and that solidified her decision to come to UT for her MFA.  

“It was a cool collection of films, and I felt that my film was different enough to also highlight some of the things that are going on at RTF,” she says. “I thought maybe it would be a good fit. And it turns out, it was.”

For Chiu, UT's RTF program allowed him to fully indulge in his creative ambitions. “The program pushed me to make stuff,” he said. And make stuff he did. Chiu got into contact with Dana Lee (Mr. Takahashi in Curb Your Enthusiasm) and other folks from the industry to put together a cast and crew for his badge-winning short film.  

A requirement for submission was to submit a film that has been made for an RTF course after December 2023. Salazar made the film in her first semester production class last fall, and Chiu, for his undergraduate thesis. The two say they are full to the brim with gratitude towards this program.  

“Going to this [showcase] was honestly so inspiring for me because it reminded me that I am capable, and that my friends are capable,” Chiu says. “It drives me to see other people make stuff ... because you didn't go to film school and make this short film just to go into advertising. You made it to hopefully impact people.” 

CREDIT: Hermino Mendez