DLT hosts 2nd annual Winter Sports Film Festival
Adobe Creative Commons in Kahlert Village transformed into a hub of creativity, competition, and connection during the second annual Winter Sports Film Festival on March 27, 2025. The event was hosted by UIT Digital Learning Technologies (DLT).
L-R: Daxton Hunter, Oliver Lane, Canyon Sargent, and Adam Kohlmann. Lane won the Jury Award for his film, “Back to the Top” about the U of U Ski Team; Hunter, Sargent, and Kohlmann are the creative team behind the Audience Award-winning film, “Drop a Knee, Not Me” that showcased flips, cliff drops, and other skiing adventures over the 2024-2025 season. Select the photo to enlarge.
More than 140 attendees watched 10 original student films (access them all on YouTube), each reflecting the filmmaker’s unique take on winter adventure, outdoor culture, and the emotional journeys that come with pushing limits — on and off the mountain.
Students from the Department of Film & Media Arts, Department of Communication, College of Architecture + Planning, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Humanities and Transformative Justice, and School of Computing made the event a truly interdisciplinary experience.
What made this year’s festival so powerful was the depth of student learning and collaboration that led up to the event. Over four months, the DLT Learning Experience team led hands-on workshops to support students in every phase of the creative process. From Adobe Premiere Pro crash courses to in-depth sessions on storyboarding, audio mixing, and filming techniques, U students didn’t just make films, they built professional toolkits.
“Events like the Winter Sports Film Festival show how creativity, when supported with the right tools, can fuel interdisciplinary learning, skill-building, and a sense of belonging,” said Brian Johnsrud, global head of Education Learning and Advocacy at Adobe. “Huge kudos to the student filmmakers, Adobe creative consultants, and all who brought this to
In the spirit of applied learning, each film was a real-world creative artifact developed through planning, revision, collaboration, and critique. Students left the festival with portfolio-ready experience in:
2025 Winter Sports Film Festival winners:
- Jury Award: Oliver Lane for his film “Back to the Top” about the U of U Ski Team
- Audience Award: Canyon Sargent, DLT creative consultant, for his film “Drop a Knee, Not Me” that showcased flips, cliff drops, and other skiing adventures over the 2024-2025 season (with production support from Daxton Hunter and Adam Kohlmann)
- Story development and visual planning
- Shooting and editing on timelines
- Sound design, voiceover, and music integration
- Public screening and audience engagement
- Creative problem-solving in unpredictable winter conditions
“This competition gave me a reason to really push my skills in Premiere Pro and learn some basics of After Effects,” said DLT Creative Consultant Canyon Sargent, whose film “Drop a Knee, Not Me” won the Audience Award. “The film day was super fun, and it was rewarding to see all my hard work on the big screen and share it with my friends and family. Everyone’s films were so unique, and it was awesome seeing the different takes on winter sports people had through their editing and storytelling.”
For many, this was the first time seeing their work on the big screen — and for all, it was a chance to gain confidence in presenting creative work to a public audience.
Thanks to sponsors Ikon Pass, Red Bull, and Level Nine Sports; every student, staff member, and faculty whose support made this event possible; and of course, the amazing student filmmakers.
See you next year. Until then — live creatively and film boldly.
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