Since the premiere of Kristyn Dallmann’s 2024 narrative short, “The Forest of Dreams,” at the Communication Arts showcase, she has taken her work to several film festivals and has even secured some awards. Not every budding filmmaker gets the chance to experience this part of the creative process, and Dallmann is honored to have had her film selected and screened at so many festivals throughout the last year.
Dallmann produced “The Forest of Dreams” as a final senior thesis project prior to graduating from Communication Arts in Spring 2025. After the film premiered, she applied to 17 film festivals across the country and won “Best Fantasy Short Film” at the FantaSci Short Film Festival, “Video & Film and a WAVE award for Student – Audio/Sound Design” at the WAVE Awards, and “Best Scored Film,” “Best Alternate Reality Film,” and “Best Midwest Production” at the MLC Awards of Green Bay. Her film was also selected and screened at the WRPN Women’s International Film Festival, the Her Vision International Film Festival, Sick Chick Flicks Film Festival, and the Midwest Film Festival.
Dallmann also participated in an emerging filmmakers Q&A at the Midwest Film Festival, which was an exciting opportunity to engage with viewers and make connections with other up-and-coming filmmakers.
“It was really cool to be up there talking with these other filmmakers who have put so much work into their films and realize I’m part of this group of people who are working to make new films and bring new creativity into the world,” she said.
Dallmann was a Creative Arts Award winner in Spring 2025 and used some of the funds from this Division of the Arts award to apply for film festivals. “It was a bit of a learning curve deciding which ones to apply to, but without the Creative Arts Award funds, I couldn’t have applied to so many and wouldn’t have won so many awards,” Dallmann said.
As this successful film festival run wraps up, Dallmann is excited to share this project even more as she prepares to publicly release “The Forest of Dreams” on YouTube. We can’t wait to watch this decorated film once again!