A West Virginia University senior will be following his dream to Hollywood – again.
Kevin Langue, a marketing student in the WVU College of Business & Economics, and two fellow WVU students produced a movie for this year’s Campus MovieFest competition – and won.
Campus MovieFest is the world’s largest student film festival. Langue made a movie last year that won the competition. That film also got him invited to the Cannes Film Festival in France this past spring.
Students Lauren Schiefelbein and Victoria Licata worked with Langue on the production. Schiefelbein, a graduate student in the College of Creative Arts who earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic design and electronic media in 2012, won the award for Best Drama in last year’s competition. The award earned her a trip to Hollywood in June. Licata, a senior television journalism student in the Reed College of Media, was offered the part of the female lead Langue’s film, because he thought she would be perfect for the part. She took the part and ended up winning Best Actress in this year’s competition.
Schiefelbein and Langue, who worked on separate films during last year’s competition and won in separate categories, will be making repeat trips to Los Angeles. This year’s collaborative project earned the three students a week full of workshops and meetings at Universal Studios in June 2015.
“I got caught up in it, like I do with everything,” Langue said. “Of course I’m glad I did it. Victoria and I were the actors and Lauren directed it.”
Langue’s 18-credit-hour fall course schedule nearly deterred him from even participating in Campus MovieFest, but Licata and Schiefelbein persuaded him. Langue and Schiefelbein spent time together in the U.S. movie-making capitol this past June. Langue said both of his partners are highly talented.
Campus MovieFest has a different format this year, Langue said. This year, the top four entries were selected as winners and those four teams will go to Hollywood. The experience will be yet another highlight in his whirlwind life of the past 14 months, and has only solidified his future plans.
“I’m writing a lot,” he said. “I’m working on a script as we speak. I’ve made friends in Los Angeles who have production companies, and I’m going to pitch this script and other ideas to them.”
The balance between his senior year at WVU and a movie industry career requires focus, but Langue said he is dedicated to earning his degree.
“I’m graduating in May and will immediately move to Los Angeles,” he said. “The Campus MovieFest week in Hollywood is the next month.”
Langue, who was born in Paris, is the firstborn child to parents who hail from Senegal in western Africa. His parents moved back and still live in Senegal, but they know all about their son’s plans.
“I filled them in on everything. My parents are very calm around me. But when I hear them talking to other people about what I’m doing, they’re very excited. That makes me happy,” he said.
He saw his parents in Maryland this summer when they visited family. His father dropped him off in Morgantown prior to his first semester in the summer of 2011 and has not returned to campus. He said his father would be at graduation ceremonies in May, but because he has younger siblings at home in Senegal, he is still hopeful, but unsure, his mother can make it.
Langue’s talent, charisma and drive keep him active in an industry where many have tried and failed to make their dreams come true. He remains grounded and works hard on scripts, expanding movie ideas, widening his industry network and exceling as a marketing student.
“I’ve learned a lot about myself during my time at WVU,” he said. “I’m going to come back. I think of the things I’ve experienced here and I’m eager to go. But I’m eager to come back after graduation to share what I’ve learned out there in the real world.”
Since age 9 he has known that this is what he wanted to do with his life. Langue said he has high hopes for his future after graduation.
“If I’m able to do it, I want to come back to WVU one day and donate a movie studio. I have this vision that one day I win an Oscar. Every day, everything I experience, everything I do is helping me write that acceptance speech.”
-WVU-
pg/11/17/14
CONTACT: Patrick Gregg, WVU College of Business and Economics
patrick.gregg@mail.wvu.edu; 304.293.5131
Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.