2025 Tensies Winners

Every Spring semester, students can enter their projects in the Tensies Awards, which is the KU Film & Media Studies version of the Oscars. Winners receive Tensie trophies in various categories such as Best Director, Best Drama, Best Cinematography, and more.

Second Skin

A psychological horror film that follows Ethan, a perfectionist psychology student whose life unravels when his roommate, Jacob, mysteriously returns from a camping trip, acting strange.

Director: Andrew Sharkey
Editor: Ryan Moore
Screenwriter: Ryan Moore & Andrew Sharkey
Cinematographer: Ryan Moore, Andrew Sharkey, & Connor Hellwinckel
Sound: Ryan Moore
VFX: Ryan Moore

Produced for FMS 485: Capstone, Durón, Fall 2024

2025 Tensie Winner: Best Editing, Best Sound, Best of Show

2025 Tensie Nominee: Best Cinematography, Best Drama

Remember Seratonin

Stop Motion Animation about forgetting to take medication.

Director: Jess Lange
Editor: Jess Lange
Screenwriter: Jess Lange
Cinematographer: Jess Lange
Sound: Jess Lange
VFX: Jess Lange

Produced for FMS 374: Animation, Mai, Spring 2025

2025 Tensie Winner:
Best Animation

Perfect Machines (work in progress)

In 2037, an android is on the hunt to discover the truth about a missing android, Sparks.

Director: Camryn Caruthers
Editor: Jae Gold
Screenwriter: Camryn Caruthers
Cinematographer: Allison Ruschill
Sound: Matthew Kurniawan

Produced for FMS 485: Capstone, Swanson, Spring 2025

2025 Tensie Winner: Best Cinematography, Best Director

2025 Tensie Nominee: Best Editing, Best Screenplay, Best Sound, Best of Show

Another Presence in the Room

Parody advertisement for an unsettling, human alarm clock. Acting for the Camera Midterm.

Director: Yasmine Ferhat
Editor: Yasmine Ferhat
Screenwriter: Yasmine Ferhat
Cinematographer: Yasmine Ferhat
Sound: Yasmine Ferhat
VFX: Yasmine Ferhat

Produced for FMS 303: Acting for the Camera, Kirk, Fall 2024

2025 Tensie Winner: Best Comedy

2025 Tensie Nominee: Best of Show

What Else Can I Do?

Animated interview about my best friend Gabe Wightman.

Director: Jack Newlin
Editor: Jack Newlin
Sound: Jack Newlin
VFX: Jack Newlin

Produced for FMS 374: Animation, Mai, Spring 2024

2025 Tensie Winner:
Best Documentary

Matchbox

Bea returns home to rural Kansas, confronting memory, family change, and what she left behind.

Director: Audrey Merckling
Editor: Bailey Pendergrass
Screenwriter: Audrey Merckling
Cinematographer: Audrey Merckling
Sound: Zoe English and Easton Lane
VFX: Bailey Pendergrass

Produced for FMS 485: Capstone, Durón, Fall 2024

2025 Tensie Winner: Best Drama, Best Screenplay

2025 Tensie Nominee: Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Sound, Best of Show

Clip of Year of Grief (work in progress)

A visual poetry series exploring the forms of grief that manifest throughout a young woman's life.

Director: Emma Steenhard
Editor: Selah Klayson
Screenwriter: Emma Steenhard
Cinematographer: Emma Steenhard
Sound: Sophia Leis
VFX: Emma Steenhard

Produced for FMS 485: Capstone, Swanson, Spring 2025

2025 Tensie Winner: Best Experimental, Best Visual Effects

2025 Tensie Nominee: Best Director, Best Editing, Best Screenplay, Best of Show

Beneather "Consciously Uncoupling" (work in progress)

A music video for local hardcore-metal band, Beneather.

Director: KJ Lashley
Editor: KJ Lashley
Screenwriter: KJ Lashley
Cinematographer: KJ Lashley
Sound: KJ Lashley
VFX: KJ Lashley

Produced for FMS 485: Capstone, Swanson, Spring 2025

2025 Tensie Winner:
Best Music Video

Bonus Info

The Tensie awards are named for the late Hortense “Tensie” Casady Oldfather, a celebrated local philanthropist whose many contributions to KU and the community include Oldfather Studios, the former home of KU Film & Media Studies.