Lights, camera, action! The talent of Marquette filmmakers is going to be a must-see as a host of student-made films hits campus Thursday night.

MUTV is sponsoring the 2006 Marquette University Film Festival, which is running from 7 to 11 p.m. in the Weasler Auditorium. Admission to the student-run event is free.

"It's going to be fun," said MUTV Promotions Director Mike Lloyd, a junior broadcasting student and one of the organizers of the festival. "Movies are meant to be entertaining and hopefully that's what they'll do. I would encourage people to come and check it out."

Lloyd said that he hoped a variety of people would come to the event. The Marquette Journal sponsored the event the two previous years, and Lloyd expects to draw a larger turnout this time around. He even created a Facebook group for the event which has, thus far, shown a promising crowd size.

Lloyd cites the desire for filmmakers to get their work shown as another important reason to check out the fun.

"Everybody who has their work in there has it there so other people can see it," Lloyd said. "It would be great if they were given that opportunity."

Filmmakers were given until Tuesday to submit their work, which could be no more than 15 minutes in length. Lloyd didn't have a specific number of official entries, but said that he knew of at least 10 that would be making an appearance. He estimated that 15 were shown last year.

The variety of films to be shown should appeal to any taste. Lloyd said he was submitting three entries to the festival: a slapstick animated comedy, a comedy/social commentary called "All for the Girl" and a documentary about underage drinking called "Thirsty."

"Austin Vitt and I made 'All for the Girl,' which is a slapstick comedy and a social commentary about when people get mad at each other because of outside sources," Lloyd said. "Both characters are interested in one girl, and they get in each other's way in trying to get a date with her. They view each other through stereotypes. Every time they get angry it switches to an old, Charlie Chaplin-style film."

Lloyd said he had been making the animated film for almost a year, and that the other two films were made last semester for BREC 150, an advanced production class.

Dan Banda, associate director of the New Media Center, taught the class last semester and said he was excited by the hard work and talent he had seen from his students.

"I was impressed with their projects," Banda said. "Students do two projects, one with a group and one on their own. The idea is to infuse more research and a more cultural climate. Many of the films were documentary-style. We had a small screening at the end of the semester and a lot of people showed up. I know that my students were very interested in contributing things that would take the film festival in a new direction."

Banda said that he believes the film festival was very successful in years past, a trend he sees as likely to continue.

"They've made a couple of great years (of films) and I think its only going to grow," Banda said. "I'd like to see people of all different disciplines working on this. Students need to be exposed to as many different disciplines as possible. This film festival is one way to do that."