People love movies.

Whether it’s watching them in the comfort of one’s abode, going to a cinema or celebrating the craft of filmmaking at a film festival, people honor filmmaking in many different ways.

 This honor materialized on campus this year at the North by Northeastern Film Festival, whose moniker is a clever play on the title of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock classic, “North By Northwest.” The festival was founded this year by Northeastern student Lauren Walsh and co-founders/lead producers AJ Sacknowitz and Jack Fuchs. All three of them created the festival as a part of their capstone project.

From Friday, March 24 to Sunday, March 26, organizers — from Northeastern and beyond — screened 31 works submitted by 27 artists around the Boston area and beyond with each production screening on designated days depending on genre. There were films screened under three categories: music videos/experimental/faculty showcase, documentaries and animation, and the final category: drama and comedy.  

The festival received strong attendance, with 342 people gathering cumulatively, especially on the final day for the comedy and drama showcase where the venue, a lecture room in International Village, filled up past full capacity with 90 people.

“Everybody’s so interested and engag[ed] in other people’s films,” Walsh said. “All the support over the course of the weekend has been really amazing.”

Friday, the most high-profile night of the festival, featured a screening of Northeastern alum and New York City-based filmmaker Trevor Peckham’s 2022 debut independent film, “DISCONTINUED,” about a depressed millennial named Sarah who discovers she is living in a simulation that is about to be terminated, prompting her to grapple with her personal issues.

“I’m really impressed with what’s going on here in North by Northeastern,” Peckham, 33, said. “I’m very excited to be a part of it. I’m very excited to share this film and talk to everyone to hang out.”

In addition to North by Northeastern, Peckham has been to film festivals including the Coney Island Film Festival and the Cinequest film festival in San Jose, California. “DISCONTINUED” has won two awards for best feature film at the Coney Island Film Festival and best sci-fi, horror, thriller feature at Cinequest.

“Both of those were pretty incredible wins for us … [I] made a lot of friends,” Peckham said. “We had at least one sold out screening of our three. You know, we had a great turnout.”

Peckham wasn’t the only Northeastern alum who returned to Northeastern’s campus for the festival. Graduates Marie Siopy, Vidisha Agarwalla and Cavalry Dominique also submitted some of their work to the festival.

“[It’s] nerve wracking to share artwork with more people.” Dominique said. “I’m definitely excited for more people to see it as well because I think it has a lot of interesting ideas that I put a lot of time into.”

Dominique submitted his short film, “The Writer’s Block” to the festival, which portrays the journey of a young girl attempting to craft a poem but struggling to do so. Her issues then materialize in real life and she learns to overcome her writer’s block through confrontation.

“It kind of takes it in an interesting direction and makes it into like a literal writer’s block where the character gets to travel too,” he said. “It explores a lot of themes that creatives and people who want to create in general experience from an interesting angle.” 

Unlike Peckham, Dominique’s work, along with many others, was not produced with a similarly-sized budget. However, Dominique said an extremely small budget has never stifled his passion for filmmaking.

Feature-length and short films weren’t the only kind of work on display at the festival. Evan Haacke, a second-year media arts major with a concentration in videography, screened his music video for the rap/hip-hop song, “Lover Boy,” by Kuda. “Lover Boy” was the only music video submission.

“I like the transitions between scenes, Haacke said. “I put a lot of thought into it, not only to just look cool, but to have relevance in the story and to act alongside the story.” 

Haacke said he has plans to create something similar to Walsh’s project and build a creator’s collaborative of different filmmakers. He said he feels as though Northeastern film students are too scattered, explaining that these filmmakers don’t have “any kind of central base where we can connect and network and work together.” 

Walsh is ready to pass the torch down to someone else, and someone has already stepped up to carry it. After informing the audience that anyone who would like to run the festival next year should contact her, Sacknowitz or Fuchs, first-year business administration and communication combined major Lucy Perkins stepped up and accepted the offer.

However, this doesn’t mean that no one else can join the North by Northeastern team.

“If anybody reading this wants to get involved, [Lucy] will be the main point of contact going forward,” Walsh said.