This Christmas movie, made by Capital Arts Entertainment and The Film Studio at Shenandoah, is a family-friendly romantic comedy about Santa’s daughter leaving the north pole for the first time to attend college.

 

“This production took a village,” said director/producer Blayne Weaver. “Paul DiFranco and I built a team of professionals and then integrated students into it. It worked really well.”

Santa Girl is being shown in 10 different cities theatrically such as Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, and locally in Winchester at the Alamo Drafthouse.

“We wanted to make something enjoyable for family and friends to come see,” said actor Joshua Cody.

 

Mr. Cody, who portrays Jack Frost Jr. in the film, is now a senior musical theatre major at Shenandoah University. After asking what his favorite part was he said,” Connecting with the cast and crew. You’re spending such long days with these few people and you just start to form this close bond with everybody. That’s what I loved.”

 

Paul DiFranco, who serves as director of the Film Studio at Shenandoah, was able to see his students learn and flourish as young filmmakers. “Students partook in every job. From cinematography, costume, hair and make-up, set design, casting. You name it, they did it.”

 

Santa Girl turned out to be a huge hit on the open market. The film was able to be bought for three times its production cost and distributed by Gravitas Ventures. “I’m very proud of it,” said Weaver. “ It wasn’t something that I thought that I would like, and by the end of it I loved it.”

 

With Santa Girl becoming such a hit to the public, what does this mean for the future of Film Studio at Shenandoah?