Princeton Pictures, Princeton’s only filmmaking club, will host its fifth biannual premiere Tuesday night in McCosh 10 to debut three entirely student-made films. The club will host a “Red Carpet” meet-and-greet at 6 p.m. before the 7 p.m. screening of the films. At 8 p.m., the film directors will host a Q&A, followed by a later screening at 9 p.m.
Joe McLean ’27, writer and director of “Momo-Chan,” one of the films debuting tomorrow, first joined Princeton Pictures as an actor during his first year. His film explores the story of a man who attempts to become a dog, played by Connor Roeser ’28.
“I had brunch with my friends, and I pitched them the whole thing, and then worked on the script all summer. It’s awesome to have a group like this,” McLean told The Daily Princetonian. “All in all, we have over 50 people working on this project. To have everyone bank their very precious time on this idea that I had one night, over the period of five or six months, is pretty cool.”
Connor Odom ’27, the current president, co-founded the club in the fall of 2023 with Hailey Mead ’24 and Kate Stewart ’25. Another student film club, Princeton Film Productions, had petered out during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Odom noted that many of the University’s Visual Arts film classes do not have enough space for the number of students who want to take them. For Odom, Princeton Pictures satisfies students’ filmmaking demand while providing the flexibility to pursue their own projects outside of the classroom.
He added that the club has garnered more interest and applications every semester.
“We usually get about 15 or so scripts a cycle. We got 25 this cycle,” Odom said. “For our crew, we were not able to get everyone that applied onto a set for the first time. It was selective this time, which is really awesome for the growth of the club.”
“Some of [the selection process] is just what scripts we like, what scripts speak to certain board members. But a lot of it is trying to curate the slate that we want: if we want a comedy, if we want a drama, what sort of messages we want to put out,” said vice president Tess Hubbard ’28.
However, Hubbard emphasized that “there’s an element of feasibility. We’ve definitely said no to awesome scripts because they have stunts or they have crazy things that are just going to be very, very difficult to execute.”
Hubbard noted that the Princeton Pictures premieres serve multiple purposes, including generating interest among prospective members and providing an opportunity for directors to receive feedback on their work.
“The more people that come to Princeton Pictures, the more [legitimate] it feels, and I think the more exciting it is for the people who worked on films,” she said. “When your film shows and gets such a nice reaction, it’s always so gratifying.”
Regarding the future of the club, Odom hopes that it will continue to grow in membership, increase its number of films, and adapt to the ever-changing media landscape.
“In terms of what 2026 is going to be, we’ll keep doing some short films, as we’ve been doing, but we’re going to be doing short form content for social media,” Odom said. “They’re called micro-dramas, essentially like short films, but cut into chapters that are told day-by-day on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube.”
Odom added that much of the film industry aims to produce content geared toward a Generation Z audience. “They want to watch movies and high-brow things, but they want to watch it on their phones. So, we’re trying to figure out how we can bring cinematic storytelling to a phone.”
Emily Murphy is a News contributor from New York. She can be reached at emily.murphy[at]princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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