THE WORK OF three subfreshman artists caught the eyes of judges in this year's Insect Fear Film Festival Art Contest.

Annie Rong, “May I Have This Dance?,” most thematic category, 1st place (Click to create a slideshow)

Joe Easley, “Bug in a Bar,” grades 6-8 category, 2nd place (Click to create a slideshow)

Maia Gersten, “Murder in the Kitchen,” most frightening category, 2nd place (Click to create a slideshow)

The Uni winners were:

• Annie Rong, “May I Have This Dance?,” most thematic category, 1st place
• Joe Easley, “Bug in a Bar,” grades 6-8 category, 2nd place
• Maia Gersten, “Murder in the Kitchen,” most frightening category, 2nd place

The entries were on display during the festival Saturday night at Foellinger Auditorium.

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the event, which departed from its usual emphasis on scary and over-the-top films by having as its theme “Animated Social Insects.”

A ceremony for the art contest winners began at 7 p.m., followed by the festival's cinematic events: a showing of the 2007 film “Bee Movie”; a Q&A with the movie's director, Simon J. Smith; and a showing of the 1998 film “Antz.”

Additional coverage of the art contest can be found at The Scientist Magazine.

The Entomology Graduate Student Association, or EGSA, has been holding the festival annually since 1984, when it was founded by May Berenbaum, then an assistant professor of entomology and now head of the department. (She is also mother of Uni junior Hannah Leskosky.)

Uni students usually place high in the art contest on a consistent basis.

Last year, Wynee Bao placed second in the grades 6-8 division, while Adam Joseph won most frightening for his entry and Lily Smith's work won best technical. All three students are now freshmen.

In 2006, current sophomore Michelle Wong placed first in the grades 6-8 category.

In 2005, Rachel Skoza won first place and Alan Liang second place in the grades 6-8 category. Both students are now juniors.

That same year, Yuzi Nakamura won first prize in the high school category, and Betsy Dorner won first prize in the technical category. Both students have since graduated from Uni.

Any student between kindergarten and 12th grade can enter the contest, and all entries must feature insects. Lisa Evans is Uni's art teacher.

As for the film festival itself, Berenbaum gave this account of the motivations behind it:

“[I]nsects remain the one familiar and conspicuous group which is politically correct to hate. Probably for this reason, Hollywood has shown no inclination to stop producing bad insect science fiction films either; while the effects certainly are getting better, the biology is not.

“As long as they keep disseminating disinformation about the most misunderstood taxon on the planet, we have an obligation to counter with the truth about insects. So it's my fervent hope that the festival will continue — and if we manage to have fun in spreading the gospel, as it were, so much the better!”