Student filmmaker earning recognition on campus and in the film world

Long before he graduates from Central Washington University next spring, student filmmaker Gurdil Dardi is making quite a name for himself.

The junior Film Production major has already been nominated for a number of competitive film festivals, such as the NanoCon International Film Festival, the Lift-Off Global Network Film Festival, and the Wildcat Film Festival. Dardi was also nominated for a National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) award this spring, along with six of his CWU classmates, for a promotional video they submitted.

He even has his own IMDb page, a rarity for a young filmmaker like himself.

“I started getting attention for my first film, Immiscer, which was a major learning experience for me creatively,” Dardi said of the modern retelling of Emma by Jane Austen. “I was doing a lot of experimenting at the time, and seeing it resonate with festival audiences was incredibly encouraging.”

Immiscer went up against 2,964 short films from contestants from 194 countries around the world, and it received critical acclaim for its story depth and character development. Although he had a “budget of zero” and completed most of his filming on campus, including inside Lind Hall and Davies Hall, Dardi’s storytelling style connected with the judges.

“Despite being a set of four or five continuous shots, it ended up being something more than I thought it would be,” he said. “I ended up submitting it to a number of festivals, and it was pretty awesome that it got recognized.”

More recently, Dardi learned that his 2025 film Moments That Last received a stellar rating from Atlanta Shortsfest, an Academy Award-qualifying festival. The film, which he produced in a single day last fall, scored 7.6-7.9 out of 10 and was in contention for an official selection.

“According to the festival's programming team, the film was ‘taken seriously and part of the conversation during programming,’ and the score places it in a ‘competitive range’ on the festival circuit,” Dardi said, explaining that a score in the competitive range at a festival of this caliber — particularly an undergraduate student filmmaker — is a significant professional milestone.

Also of note, Moments That Last was judged in the professional category, not as a student film, meaning it was evaluated alongside the work of seasoned filmmakers nationwide.

“The fact that a student spec commercial produced under those constraints competed at this level speaks to the caliber of training and mentorship CWU’s Film Production program provides,” Dardi said.

Even though he’s nearing the end of his Film Studies journey at CWU, Dardi is planning to return to Ellensburg for one more year so he can complete a minor in business, which he hopes will help him build a career in the film industry.

“I could have graduated this year, but one of my professors encouraged me to pursue a business minor if I wanted to become a producer or director someday,” Dardi said. “I’m a little bummed that this is my final quarter as a film major, but I will still find time to keep doing what I love to do.”

Even before college, Dardi had already tapped into his entrepreneurial side by running a small production business in his hometown of Kennewick, filming and photographing weddings and other special events.

He had to scale back once he headed off to college, but he’s been fortunate to find ample opportunities at CWU, including a fulfilling student position with Career Services for the past two years.

“Even though I won’t be in any film classes next year, I will get to do a lot of video production in my job,” said Dardi, who received the Most Proud award at Tuesday’s Student Employee Awards ceremony in the SURC. “I have really enjoyed working with Kat (Whitney) and the team over there, and I’m looking forward to staying with them for another year.”

Dardi received more exciting news this week when he learned that he was selected for an internship with Solveig Pictures, an independent production company in Seattle, to work on a feature film this fall.

“The director said they had already been planning to bring me on after seeing my IMDb and body of work, which was incredibly encouraging to hear,” he said.

After spending the past four years following his dream of becoming a filmmaker — one he started pursuing way back in middle school — Dardi can almost see the finish line.

And while he’s excited to head out into the world and prove what he can do on an even larger stage, his heart will always be with his CWU Film Studies classmates and professors.

“I have met so many amazing people here, and the people I have worked with at Central are the ones I trust the most,” Dardi said. “I really hope I get to continue to work with them again someday because they have helped me come so far as a filmmaker and as a person.”