Women in Film/TV Award Senior Brianna Barros Merit Scholarship at 50th Anniversary Gala
KENNESAW, Ga.
(Dec 12, 2024) —
When talking to senior Brianna Barros, you quickly understand why the professional organization Women in Film/TV (WIFT) recently awarded her a $2500 merit scholarship at their 50th Anniversary Gala held October 26th at the Georgia Aquarium. Barros was nominated by Anna Weinstein, Assistant Professor of Screenwriting in the Department of English, who has had Barros in her class for three consecutive semesters. “She's such a hardworking and prolific writer and filmmaker, and she's really had a huge impact on the screenwriting and filmmaking students here at KSU,” said Weinstein. “I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her these past few semesters and couldn't be more delighted that she's received this prestigious recognition. She's a remarkable talent,” she added.
A Media and Entertainment major in the School of Communication and Media, Barros will tell you that she was an “obsessive planner” and an introvert. While in high school, she took dual enrollment classes and planned her four years of college academics down to the last detail in a spread sheet well before she enrolled at KSU. Her academic path has been one of discovery: externally through extracurricular activities, and internal discovery as she developed skills and interests she didn’t realize she had.
An Emerging Leader
Her film club experience sparked her love for teaching people how to make films and she found her leadership talent. “I was very shy growing up. I’ve become very outgoing, and I would say that the thing I’m probably going to take away the most from KSU is the film club,” she said. “I started doing that freshman year, and then I immediately became after one semester an executive board member, like one of the officers. My first year was the marketing director, my second year I was the secretary and now I’m serving as a student advisor.” Barros said she never aspired to leadership roles but found she was good at it, enjoyed it, and seems to have naturally ended up in those positions. As a shy person, “The film club forced me to interact with people,” she said. She shocked her parents when she served as the MC for the Foscars (Fake Oscars), a film awards event for students and attended by more than 300 people, “I was like Jimmy Fallon of the Oscars!”
Her coursework with Georgia Film Academy was her focus as she wrapped up this past semester. Her hope is to parlay that experience into an internship during her final semester this spring. Her enthusiasm for the industry is both palpable and strategic. Barros recalls that as early as 10 years old she wanted to be in the film industry, creating stop-motion videos featuring her American Girl dolls. She believed editing was her future, until a friend of hers introduced her to KSU’s film club. It was in the film club that she realized the wide range of career paths that are open to her. Contrary to the detailed academic planning she did before entering KSU her inner explorer began to emerge.
Exploring Options
Barros describes her academic journey as being the opposite of what many students experience. “I kind of had a backwards way of it where I feel like people come into college and they’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I have no idea what I want to do.’ And then they figure it out and leave college knowing exactly what they want to do. I came into college being like, I know what I’m going to do, [now that] I’m at the end of it, I want to do so much, and I can’t choose.”
No longer the “obsessive planner,” she is “embracing side quests where it’s like, I’m 21 years old, I can do work on this set and do this position I’ve never done before for six months. Why not? This is the time to do it. I can just explore.”
This isn’t to suggest that Barros has become completely anti-planning. Her goal is to work as much as possible in the industry until she starts her post-graduate pursuit of an MFA. She is in the process now of applying to graduate schools. After that, she says maybe 10-15 years working in the industry and then perhaps teaching film.
Assistant Professor Weinstein hints she would do well as an instructor, saying “…in addition to being a talented and thoughtful screenwriter, she quickly emerged as a leader in every class. She has incredibly smart insights into her classmates' scripts and she's very generous in the way she delivers her critiques and suggestions,” Weinstein said.
Building a Career
The WIFT 50th Anniversary Gala was an opportunity to make new friends and support existing friends. As a scholarship award recipient Barros was able to take a plus one to the event. She chose to bring along a good friend who graduated last May, and who has helped her along the way and wants to go into film. This was Barros’s way of giving back so they were both able to network with film and television professionals. Said Barros, “I was like, oh, I have a plus one. You’re a friend of mine and you’ve done things for me. Now let me do something for you.” This is just the kind of professional generosity that helps one succeed in a career, and the type of character organizations such as WIFT recognize and reward.
Women in Film/TV- (US) Inc., according to their website, “is a nonprofit organization of professionals founded to provide Organizations of Women in Film & Television mutual support. To promote the positive images of women in all media, empowering their members to achieve their highest professional/creative potential, and help create more job opportunities throughout the United States."
