Remarks by the President at White House Student Film Festival

East Room

4:11 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello.  My name is Shelly Ortiz -- oh, wrong page.  (Laughter.)  I was just teasing.  I knew I wasn’t Shelly Ortiz.  (Laughter.)  Everybody give Shelly a big round of applause for the great work.  (Applause.)  Thank you so much.  Thanks for not only the introduction, but for the beautiful video that you made about your dad.  Us dads, we get pretty touched by stuff like that. 

And I am thrilled that all of you are with us for our first-ever White House Student Film Festival.  And I know we're running a little bit late.  It's not because the projector was not working.  It was because of me.  But I appreciate all of you guys being here and your patience. 

The Academy Awards are not until Sunday, but, as you can see, we’ve brought the Oscars to the White House a little bit early.  And I want to thank our partners:  Fox, National Geographic, and the American Film Institute.  We’ve got the red carpet, we've got the big screens, the opening monologue.  The only difference is nobody asks what you’re wearing.  (Laughter.) 

And we've got Bill Nye, the Science Guy -- (applause) -- and Neil deGrasse Tyson from the Hayden Planetarium -- (applause) -- who might even give you a sneak peak of his new show, COSMOS, if everybody behaves themselves.  (Applause.)  I saw the original version -- I'm a little older than all of you -- and it was spectacular and wonderful, and I know this is going to be not just as good but even better.  And so we're thrilled with that.  And we’re putting on a big show here because we’re honoring some remarkable filmmakers.