Bucknell to showcase Pennsylvania student films at Lewisburg festival

Bucknell brought its student film festival into the heart of downtown Lewisburg, turning the Campus Theatre on Market Street into a free public showcase for 13 short films made by Pennsylvania college students from nine campuses.

The Bucknell Intercollegiate Film Festival drew 82 submissions from 19 colleges and universities, a pool large enough to show the event has grown well beyond a classroom screening. Films were eligible only if they were made while the filmmaker was enrolled at a Pennsylvania school, and each entry had to run 15 minutes or less.

The festival was programmed by students in Bucknell’s Film Programming and Exhibition course, part of the Film/Media Studies Program. This year’s class included seven students, who served as pre-screeners, programmers, publicists and event planners, while also handling festival logistics.

That student-run structure gave the event a local feel that reached past the campus gates. By placing the festival at the Campus Theatre, Bucknell linked the university’s film program to a downtown venue that residents already know, rather than keeping the screening in an academic space. The free admission also lowered the barrier for local audiences, making the evening accessible to Union County families, students and film fans alike.

The post-screening program added to that public-facing tone. Filmmakers were in attendance for a question-and-answer session, followed by an awards ceremony and reception with food and drink. The Campus Theatre also listed an Audience Choice award among the honors.

The venue itself gave the night extra weight. The Campus Theatre, at 413 Market Street, opened on Jan. 17, 1941, and is one of the few remaining single-screen Art Deco movie houses in the country. For Lewisburg, hosting BIFF there reinforced the downtown theater’s role as more than a cinema, it served as a civic gathering place where Bucknell and the borough met in the same room.

BIFF, formerly known as Reel Bucknell, has also shown it can adapt. A virtual edition during the COVID-19 era kept the festival alive, and its 2026 return to a public theater setting suggested a program with staying power, not just a one-off student exercise.