It's been a long road.

The hours of shooting turned into days, the days of editing turned into weeks, the production spanned two semesters, but for several Penn State film majors, their hard work has finally paid off and landed them a spot in the annual Student Film Festival.

The Festival's Director and Emcee Lucas Buck, who also worked on one of the festival's entries, said students who come to the festival can expect to be entertained.

"There are a lot of good films," Buck said. "Out of 55 entries, it's been narrowed down to 13, so you're gonna get the cream of the crop."

The official selections were made by a panel of six Penn State instructors from departments such as philosophy, media studies and English.

Pam Monk, a communications lecturer serving on the festival's "jury" for the second time, said she was impressed with this year's pool of films.

"I thought this year, [students] made an attempt to tell different stories," Monk said. "The narratives were experimental more so than other years."

Monk and the other instructors embanked themselves in Carnegie Cinema for a nine and a half hour marathon viewing last Saturday to view all of the films and whittle them down to the 13 that were selected.

Of those, seven were made as "senior film" projects -- large-scale productions that span the students' entire senior year. Additionally, four of the remaining six entries were made by seniors for other classes.

Attendees of the festival will see trailers for senior films that did not make the festival, films that will be shown along with all the senior films at 6 p.m. Saturday in 113 Carnegie.

Kyle Repka, a senior whose film Hard to Get made the festival, said he is honored by his film's inclusion in what is a great forum for student films.

"This is a culmination of the learning experience that was our time here," Repka said. "We had to really put everything we had into this project. The fact our parents and friends will be seeing it on a big screen is exciting."

All in all, the free event will run about three hours with a 15-minute intermission.