The annual Columbia University National Undergraduate Film Festival kicked off last night with Gossip Girl actor Connor Paolo hosting the sold-out event. After a few technical difficulties that no campus event can seem to ever avoid, Paolo’s small stature and 1990 birth-year became irrelevant as he came out with some rather smooth hosting skills. (Did he get trained to do that?) Although, sometimes acting (pun intended) a little too old for his age, his jokes came across as a little too Billy-Crystal-hosting-the-Academy-Awards-esque for my liking.

As for the films, there was a good variety, although Harvard-Westlake entry Ticklish was somewhat questionable. Awards were given out rather liberally (and diplomatically) in the end and it seemed like “everyone’s a winner“ was the rule of the night. The coveted Best Picture Award went to Sweet Jesus, which I thought was the meatiest of the 10 films shown. Set at a Catholic school, the film dealt with different cultures in a rather cutesy way and the risk of using child actors was proven well worthwhile: the two lead actresses performed remarkably well. Sweet Jesus also took Best Directed and the audience-selected Concord Award–all of which were the only cash prizes given out.

In one of the films, Three Syllables, a certain Alex Mack (aka Larisa Oleynik) surprisingly starred as a behind-the-counter smoke shop lady who is regularly approached by a young guy who was a little too good-looking compared to Oleynik (who doesn’t really look like her prime anymore, but I still love her for inviting me to her Secret World every day after school).

The festival ended with an almost empty room (nobody cares about the winners these days) and a rather flustered host, trying to control the restless audience (who, come to think of it, probably wished they had left with the others). I later saw young Paolo at a fraternity-hosted party that night with his little entourage. I was generally impressed with his demeanour and I think he handled himself nicely at both the event and at the lackluster party last night. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Paolo himself plans to go to NYU.