Canyon Crest Academy student Callum Lonergan won Best Editing at the All American High School Film Festival, the world's largest high school film competition, held Oct. 17-18 in New York City.
Lonergan, a Cinema Conservatory student, took home the Tindie award for his action short "Violent Bastards," along with a $136,000 scholarship from Huntington University, the San Diego Union-Tribune first reported. He traveled to New York to accept his trophy in person.
"It felt very cathartic winning that award," Lonergan told the Union-Tribune. "I spent several months screenwriting, 24 grueling days of production, and countless and complicated hours editing the whole film."
Lonergan was a three-time nominee. His action short also earned a Best Sound Design nomination. A documentary he co-created with CCA students Daniil Domanin and Alexander Ikizyan, "Get Busy Living," was nominated for the Spark Award. That film focuses on suicide prevention and tells the story of Anthony "Ant" Tricarico, a San Dieguito Academy student who was 16 years old when he died in May 2024, according to the Union-Tribune.
He was also part of the team behind a third festival selection, "The Checkmate Affair," alongside CCA students Reego-Darian Rivera and Asher Swazey.
In all, 11 CCA films screened as official selections at the festival's AMC Empire 25 Theaters in Times Square. Festival organizer Tom Oliva said the competition drew more than 2,500 submissions from 42 states and over 50 countries, according to the Union-Tribune. The CCA selections came from roughly 800 official picks.
CCA student Yaeji Kim earned a Maverick Award nomination for her short "The Things We Lose on Our Way to the Sky," about her grandmother. Other CCA filmmakers with official selections included Emilie Berkowitz, Daisy Chen, Emma Lu, Emma Lamoureux, Maya Grover, Jayden J. Zhang, Riley Card, Mason Gargaro and Adarsh Sabat.
Gargaro, a martial artist, directed the documentary "Be Water" about Bruce Lee as a Cinema Conservatory project. The film features an interview with Peter Lee Thomas, a Hollywood stuntman who has trained Gargaro in mixed martial arts.
CCA has a track record at the festival. In October 2025, CCA graduate Patrick Jang won Best Comedy and made the top 10 nominees for Best Overall, the Union-Tribune reported in July.
The festival distributed nearly $1 million in prizes and scholarships to young filmmakers in 2026, according to the festival's Instagram account.
If you are having suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
