Danville Student's Film Screened In Times Square

DANVILLE, CA — Her artistic creation may have been crying alone in a prom dress, but Patricia Liu was all smiles as she put on her own prom dress and attended a Times Square film festival.

Liu, a senior at San Ramon Valley High School, created a music video that was nominated for the Teen Indie Awards. Liu’s 3.5-minute music video was one of just eight percent of submissions to be nominated for the awards, and she got to travel to New York City to see it screened at the American High School Film Festival.

“It felt really amazing to see everyone watching my movie on a big screen,” Liu said. “It was also really inspiring to see other peoples’ work, because they’re so good, even if they’re just my age…it made it more special that I was there alongside them, and I made the film all by myself.”

Liu began animating during her freshman year of high school, when she was inside her room a lot during the pandemic. It “entranced” her, and she began doing it whenever she could. In September 2022, her artwork of a benevolent ghost rising from a phone to help a crying boy won the regional 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline art contest to publicize the new suicide and depression hotline.

Liu’s newest work also centers on themes of tears and isolation. To the background of “prom dress” by mxmtoon, a high school girl attends prom alone, and cries as everyone around her has a great time. She sees two former friends, who scowl at her and ignore her. At the end, she meets a new friend, and they stare at the night sky together.

“I feel like a lot of high schoolers feel that way, especially at school dances,” she said. “They’re meant to have fun, but sometimes they can have really rough periods. I felt like it was a relatable song.”

Even though the video is just over three minutes, it took several months to animate. Liu would sometimes wake up at 7 a.m. and spend the entire day working on it. But her hard work paid off when she learned that it had been nominated, and she would get to walk a red carpet and see it screened. With that success, she’s submitted it to other festivals, including the YoungArts Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival. She’s also using it in her college application portfolios, where she plans to study animation and film.

See here to watch her video.