U. of U. student's film wins prize at i..

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A University of Utah film student's look at virtual reality has won him a very real prize in this reality.

"Eden," a short by third-year U. of U. film student Luke Hartvigsen, was named best sci-fi film at the International Student Film Festival Hollywood earlier this month.

The 11-minute film is a computer-animated film noir in which a virtual detective is assigned to track down a threat to the existence of a virtual world called Eden. (Click on the image above to watch the film.)

Hartvigsen and a team of a dozen U. of U. students made the film over 12 weeks in an interactive machinima course at the U., according to a campus press release. The course, offered through the U.'s Entertainment Arts and Engineering (EAE) program, instructs students on making movies using video-game technology.

U. of U. student's film wins prize at international festival