Each year, the Destination Imagination Team Film Challenge invites students around the world to step into the role of filmmakers—dreaming, designing, and producing an original short film in just eight weeks. The experience blends creativity, collaboration, and hands-on problem solving, all guided by the Destination Imagination Creative Process that helps students turn their ideas into action.
This season’s Challenge, Against All Odds, asked teams to dive into the world of fantasy filmmaking and explore what happens when rival groups face a danger so great that they must set aside their differences to survive.
The results were imaginative, heartfelt, funny, dramatic, and visually ambitious… and we’re thrilled to share the accomplishments of these remarkable teams!
About This Year’s Challenge: Against All Odds
For this season’s Team Film Challenge, students were challenged to create an original fantasy short film that included:
- An epic fantasy story featuring at least two opposing factions in conflict
- A powerful shared threat that forces these factions to unite
- At least one example of color symbolism to deepen the film’s meaning
- A sweeping shot and a close-up shot to enhance cinematic storytelling
- One unique element showcasing the team’s strengths—such as original music, animation, costuming, technical effects, or performance
- An 8-week creative timeframe, requiring teamwork, time management, experimentation, and reflection
Through brainstorming, costume and prop design, filming, and editing, teams not only brought their stories to life but also practiced critical 21st-century skills while crafting worlds entirely their own.
Tournament Results
We had such a remarkable group of students from around the world participate in this season’s Team Film Challenge, and we are excited to announce the Top 3 teams in each level!
Elementary Level
- 1st Place: D Icecream – Saint Michaels Elementary, Saint Michaels, MD
- 2nd Place: The Enchanted Alliance – Nyack, NY
- 3rd Place: The Jellyfish – Primary Campus, An Phu Ward, Vietnam
Middle Level
- 1st Place (Tie): Stuart Island School – Friday Harbor, WA and Sparkle Poof – Longfellow Middle School, Wauwatosa, WI
- 2nd Place: House of Cards – East Windsor Middle School, Broad Brook, CT
- 3rd Place: Bodacious Sango – East Windsor Middle School, Broad Brook, CT
Secondary Level
- 1st Place: Messengers of Athena – Knightdale High School, Knightdale, NC
- 2nd Place: The Fantastic Four – Interlake High School, Bellevue, WA
- 3rd Place: Maryland Destination Imagination – Reisterstown, MD
Special Award Winners
In addition to film scores, Appraisers also honored several teams with Special Awards for exceptional storytelling, cinematography, and more.
🎥 Best Storytelling: Messengers of Athena
Knightdale High School – Knightdale, NC
From beginning to end, this team told a cohesive story filled with humor, drama, and memorable characters. The team’s use of dramatic dialogue brought their story to life as the fate of the characters hung in the balance. We loved their story about two enemies teaming up to prove one character’s innocence.
👗 Best Costume/Makeup:
The Enchanted Alliance – Nyack, NY
This team used costuming to bring their enchanting story to life! From their three adventurers, to a pair of puppeted mushrooms, to a dragon transformation, the costume design was magical!
✨ Best Special/Visual Effects:
Sparkle Poof – Longfellow Middle School, Wauwatosa, WI
This team’s visual effects brought a trio of water bottles to life as characters with animated features. The Appraisers really enjoyed seeing the way this team integrated their animations with real-life action scenes as the water bottles fought to show who was the best water bottle at the skate park!
🎬 Best Cinematography:
D Icecream – Saint Michaels Elementary, Saint Michaels, MD
With their amazing cinematography and shot composition, this team made the Appraisers feel like they were part of the action when characters are teleported around a school by an angry medusa. Their use of dramatic lighting and camera angles added to the drama of the conflict between the characters as they attempted to escape the terrible fate of…DETENTION!
To every student who participated in this year’s Team Film Challenge: Congratulations on everything you created and accomplished! Creating a film from scratch with peers in just eight weeks is no small feat. We hope you had fun, learned a new skill or two, and discovered new ways to work together.
Thank you for sharing your creativity with us, and we can’t wait to see what stories you bring to life next year!
