Northern Kentucky University filmmaker Camilo Idrobo describes his award-winning short “Cross the Valley” as an “avant-garde dream film.”

“It works more on metaphor than logic,” he says.

The electronic media and broadcasting student, who graduates in May, is now making the rounds of other international film festivals, including an upcoming event in his hometown of Quito, Eduador.

“Cross the Valley” is a visual feast of superimposed images and experimental editing techniques. It won an honorable mention at Mexico City’s Mirada Corta Film Festival and was nominated for Best Student Short and Best Experimental Short at the 2025 Cindependent Film Festival in Cincinnati.

“I made the film kind of for myself, but I found that showing it to other people, they’ve really been able to relate to it and understand it and find it emotionally powerful,” Idrobo says.

One of his mentors, EMB Professor Tracy Songer, calls the film “beautiful and weird and cool.”

“And I, as a 52-year-old woman, am not very cool, but I recognize art when I see it,” she says.

Songer says Idrobo is “naturally gifted” but eager to learn even more.

“People with that much talent are, like, ‘I’m going to Los Angeles to do great, great things,’ but Camilo was, like, ‘I’m going to live here. I’m going to learn as much as I can.’”

Idrobo credits Songer with getting him involved on campus.

“She had a lot of faith and saw a lot of potential in me,” he says.

Idrobo’s other mentor, Norse Media Director and EMB Professor Chris Strobel, said Idrobo has taken virtually every opportunity to become a “better media maker.”

“He’s a leader,” Strobel says. “He’s open with his time. He helps his fellow classmates. He takes responsibility. He takes on producing roles. He is one of the producers and leaders of Norse Media.”

Idrobo appreciates Strobel’s decision to put him to work right away.

“Chris…made sure I learned from all the juniors and seniors,” he says. “That really made me become a professional immediately. He really supported what I wanted to do in this scenario [making “Cross the Valley”] and also pushed me to go further and keep learning.”

Idrobo said he’s been interested in the arts in general, and filmmaking in particular, since he was very little.

“I got a really cheap…camera for my birthday from my parents and, for some reason, I just liked to take it everywhere,” he says. “It was just a habit that kept growing. Then, when I got a little bit older, I used to make stop-motion movies and I would burn them into DVDs and sell them at school.”

Idrobo said “Cross the Valley” is the result of all those years of experimenting and everything “fell into place so well.”

“This was finally time I was at that level and everything that I wanted to achieve, I could,” he says. “So, that was very gratifying.”

Idrobo and fellow student Dakota Summer are frequent partners on film projects. Summer served as assistant director on “Cross the Valley.” He said Idrobo always shows the maximum on professionalism, patience and friendliness.

“Camilo is the first person I go to for everything, artistically, logistically, creatively,” Summer says. “He and I have been working together for the past three years, and we’ve grown very close.”

Summer said Idrobo’s technological expertise and artistic sensibilities are “inspiring.”

“That’s what makes [Idrobo] extremely special and valuable on set,” Summer says.

He also has high praise for “Cross the Valley.”

“I was absolutely blown away by the technical achievements in editing that he had,” Summer says. “It’s extremely visually appealing, it’s exciting, it’s mysterious, it has a very strong sense of style that you don’t see in student films very often.”

The short film focuses on Idrobo’s experiences with his family, many of whom are visual artists, and with being an international student.

“It’s reflecting on his childhood,” Summer says. “It’s reflecting on his relationship with his parents. So, not only does it look pretty, it’s truly poignant as well.”

Idrobo said the success of “Cross the Valley” has been “really good” because he realized he can do what he likes and people are going to watch it.

“It might not be 100,000 people but it’s people I can have conversations with,” he says. “And that’s why I love festivals, because you go and then people come up to you and tell you what they thought and how they felt.”

That feedback has motivated Idrobo to keep doing films with his own unique style. His personal vision is much more important than commercial success, he said.

“I really look at film more as an art form than entertainment,” he says.

Idrobo hopes to continue making art films for the foreseeable future but, whatever happens, art will play a huge part in it.

“If I wasn’t doing this, I would be doing some other form of visual or spatial arts,” he says. “I really like sculpture, for example. I think when I’m old and retired, I would be doing sculpture every day.”