Hualalai Academy students win state video award

Students at Hualalai Academy in Kona have won the best short film award in the middle school division at the statewide Ninth Annual ‘Olelo Youth Xchange Video Competition presented by Sony.

“K.O. Soda, Drink Water” was one of the 32 top videos announced Friday in Honolulu at the Youth Xchange Awards banquet, the conclusion of the competition which drew 619 entries from public and private schools all across Oahu, the Big Island, Kauai and Maui.

For the second year in a row, Moanalua High School was named the winner of the expert category.

Nearly 600 educators, student-producers, guests and Gov. Neil Abercrombie celebrated at the event at Ko Olina Resort highlighting the 90 finalist videos. Many traveled from the Neighbor Islands to attend and be honored.

High-definition Sony video cameras were awarded to the winning schools in each of the 32 divisional categories. A number of schools — including Webling and Kainalu Elementary Schools, Roosevelt, Waianae Intermediate, Washington Middle and Chiefess Kamakahelei — won in more than one category.

Awards were determined based on subject impact and technical production. Panels of local news media and filmmaking professionals, as well as subject experts, selected the 2012 Youth Xchange winners from a record 619 entries statewide. In 2011, 585 entries were received.

All winning entries will be shown on ‘Olelo Channel 49. They are also available for online viewing through ‘OleloNet On Demand by visiting www.olelo.org/yxc.

Established in 2003, Youth Xchange is Hawaii’s largest and first issues-oriented statewide student video competition. It was developed to help give island keiki a voice to tell stories in a variety of video formats and in subjects that are meaningful to them.