As soon-to-be valedictorian Shreya Goswami faces the culmination of her entire academic career, a chance encounter with a perpetually plucky runner-up makes her question if high scores are really all that makes a winner.
Winner was my second narrative film produced during my junior year of college. Winner came from my experience attending high school in a predominately South Asian community. During high school, my peers and I were in constant competition over grades and class rank. Unlike Shreya, I was never the kid who was going to be a future valedictorian, but I still devoted most of my time and effort to maintaining my spot in the 90th percentile. However, upon graduating in the middle of a pandemic and below the top ten percent, I began to question: what were we all really fighting for? We were all racing towards the same finish line, but what was our end goal?
Winner was filmed with a micro-crew for my Advanced Video Production class on the BlackMagic 4k Pocket Cinema Camera. For this project, I took on the role of Director of Photography in addition to being the film’s writer, director, producer, and editor.
Winner stars Deepa Mahesh as Shreya Goswami, Grayson Hawthorn as Delaney, and Sam Hopper as Mr. Brennan. Winner was an Official selection for the 2023 Northeastern Student Film Festival, 2024 Five College Film Festival, 2024 Bifocal Film Festival, and 2024 Rising Tide Film Festival. Additionally, it was awarded Best Overall at the 2024 Northampton Youth Cinema Festival.
