The Monterey County Film Commission is pleased to announce that Brianna Beavers and Rose Mercurio, students at CSUMB, were named the 2016 winners of the MCFC's Film Student Scholarship & Awards Program. Both students received a $1,500 check and a framed certificate presented by Jeff Clark, Monterey County Film Commission president and film scholarship chairperson.

Beavers, who is from Modesto, will use the award to financially back and help gain exposure for her senior thesis film, “The Call,” in film festivals. She also is working on a new film, “When It Rains,” which she plans to shoot in Monterey County with funds helping ensure enhanced film gear, software, and hard drives.

Mercurio, who grew up in Salinas, has a thesis film called “Grandma’s Card Night,” an animated narrative fiction about the loving relationship between two children and their beloved grandmother. The scholarship will help her better equip her workspace, making it possible for her to create more animated work of even higher quality.