USM Student Wins Multiple Awards for Short Film

Shrijal Thapa, a Southern Miss senior majoring in Theatre, has won multiple awards and nominations for major film festivals in Los Angeles for his short film, Sonder. In the Independent Shorts awards, he won a gold award for the best original score, a bronze award for best student short and the best student director award. At the Hollywood Discovery Awards, he won best short narrative. In Indie Short Fest, the movie was nominated for best editing, best student short film and best original score.

Sonder is a romantic drama about a hopeless romantic who must conquer his deepest fears to achieve his romantic hopes. The movie features Shrijal Thapa and MaKenna Berka, and was written and directed by Thapa.

“This movie came from my observation that even though everyone might be going through the same situation, we all see it differently,” Thapa said. “I was very interested in people’s perspectives, and that is how the movie was born.”

Thapa grew up surrounded by people who appreciated performing arts, with his father in the Nepali film and television industry and his mother used to be an actress. Although Thapa had had some experience with the Nepali film industry before he came to the United States, he considers joining the Southern Miss Theatre program as his step toward an acting career.

“Professionally, I did my first radio play in the fifth grade, but it was on and off,” Thapa explained. “When I came here was when I marked my official start to my acting career.”

While Thapa acted, directed and wrote the movie, he considers himself an actor first and foremost. Thapa explained that although he enjoys all parts of filmmaking and being able to tell a story, he prefers acting the most.

“If I were a computer software, I would have been programmed to act,” Thapa stated. “I will always primarily be an actor by heart.”

Thapa did not just impress people at the film festivals. He has been impressing his professors and his classmates with his talent in the theatre program at Southern Miss.

“I think he is an exceptional student,” Matthew Earnest, one of his professors and mentors, said. “I don't just think that; everyone thinks he is an exceptional student, very hardworking, very creative. “

He started working on the movie in Spring 2023 and finally finished the movie last semester. He has now started working on another movie called ‘The Proposal,” which will be a romantic comedy. He also plans to finish four more movies in 2026.

USM Student Wins Multiple Awards for Short Film

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