This post was updated Nov. 5 at 7:35 p.m.

UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television screened alumni’s Oscar-qualified short films in honor of their success.

The short films “Picture Day” and “In the Garden of Tulips” were displayed in the James Bridges Theater on Oct. 24. Alumnus Kelly Pike’s drama “Picture Day” intimately depicts a young girl in a military family – while fellow alumni Ava Lalezarzadeh and Aaron Lemle’s “In the Garden of Tulips” delves into the story of an Iranian immigrant’s move amid the Iran-Iraq war. Both qualified to be nominated for the 2025 Oscars. These films have garnered considerable attention at film festivals worldwide in the few years since their releases.

“Receiving the award that qualified us (Pike and me) to do an Oscar campaign was the biggest surprise of all,” Daniel Walter, producer and composer of “Picture Day,” said. “The success on the festival circuit, and, in particular, qualifying for the Oscars, opened my mind to the idea that this (film) could be more.”

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Pike, a film writer and director with a master’s in fine arts from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, has many accolades under her creative belt, such as the “Award of Outstanding Directorial Achievement” from the Directors Guild of America. Released in 2022, Pike’s film tackles complex topics such as social constructs of gender and the domestic sphere of military life.

“I was thinking a lot about everyday messaging to children … (regarding) gender,” Pike said. “It (the military base) made this a real pressure cooker for all things around shaping an identity.”

Having grown up on a military base, Pike said she finds great significance in the amount military families must move, causing family members – especially young children – to constantly reexamine their identities and themselves. She said she hopes her film brings to light the importance of not pushing interconnected narratives of identity and gender to the margins of society. Instead, Pike said she would like to see more films treating the emotions of young girls with dignity. Walter added that the emotion-invoking portrayal of self-identification and finding one’s place through the film likely contributed to much of its success.

Pike said having so many notable festivals wanting to screen her film has been a humbling surprise. In agreement, after submitting “Picture Day” to numerous film festivals, Walter said he was extremely pleased but surprised by the Oscar qualification the film received. Pike added that her educational film background at UCLA allowed her to develop the acclaimed project.

“Everything I knew about film I learned from UCLA,” Pike said. “The things my incredible instructors were teaching me began to soak in more — what makes a good film is the more authentic it is.”

The authentic depiction of military families in a way that doesn’t focus on war or violence is what makes ”Picture Day” special, Walter said. The film highlights the realities of familial military sacrifice and how it affects the protagonist of the film, Casey, a young student who struggles to find her place in the wake of another move to a new school, Walter added.

“What I appreciate about a filmmaker like Kelly is that for every shot, every moment, there is nothing that is … extraneous,” Walter said. “Everything is honed to create those little micro-moments that add up to this big catharsis at the end of the film.”

Lemle, UCLA alumnus and producer for “In the Garden of Tulips,” said he credits much of the 2023 period piece film’s success to its writer, Ava Lalezarzadeh, and her ability to create an immense amount of empathy for the film’s characters in such a short film. Working alongside Lalezarzadeh and having the film screened at UCLA felt like a full-circle moment, Lemle added.

Focusing on the emotional price of war and what happens on the familial level when there are larger geographical conflicts, such as the Iran-Iraq war setting of the film, Lemle said the movie does a powerful job of humanizing immigrants. He added that he ascribes Lalezarzadeh and film director Julia Elihu for the empathy in the film and its subsequent success on the festival circuit.

As a period piece set during the 1980s, “In the Garden of Tulips” hones in on a father-daughter relationship as his 16-year-old daughter flees the war. Lemle said the limited scope of the film keeps the shots of the film intimate, resulting in the emotional richness that draws many viewers in. Themes of rights of passage and stepping into adulthood, Lemle said, put a face on immigration and contributed to the resonance audiences have with the film.

“We had not nearly enough time or money to tell the story, but this team really rallied around the film,” Lemle said. “Ava and Julia put their heart and soul into this, and that really paid off. … Everyone that touches this film in one way or another helped make it what it is now.”

In a field where money is incredibly important in garnering attention for films, Walter said festivals and Oscar qualifications serve as stepping stones for filmmakers of shorts where resources are more scarce. Film festivals are great ways to get recognition for short films, Pike said.

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Walter said reaching immense success at festivals at the same time as other UCLA alumni is a testament to the quality of the people UCLA’s film school attracts. Its curriculum imbues students with the knowledge of not only how to write, produce and direct quality films but also the importance of building positive social change into the ethos of the films, Lemle added.

“I don’t think I would have been equipped to tell a story like this had I not gone to UCLA and gone through the film program,” Lemle said.