Cameron Clay '26 Wins Focus Features Student Short Film Showcase

MFA Film student Cameron Clay was named one of the four winners of the 7th Annual Focus Features Student Short Film Showcase, part of the Gotham Awards. 

Clay’s victorious film is titled Jesus is Coming (to take the church away) and is set in North Carolina, 1971. When a rural town is ravaged by inexplicable disappearances, a devoted minister relies on his faith to buoy the community. But when he and his son discover an extraterrestrial explanation, they face a moral dilemma: reveal the truth or bury their otherworldly secret. The film screened as part of the 2025 Columbia University Film Festival. 

“We filmed Jesus is Coming in Roxboro, North Carolina where my people are from," said Clay. "My family mobilized in every way to support the making of this movie. Nearly every face on screen is related to me, or at least loves someone who is. The final scene was filmed in the church that my great-grandfather James Clay built, on land that my great-great-great grandfather Lee Clay donated. It is filled with background actors who have known me since I was a baby. In that scene, both of my grandmothers can be seen sitting directly beside our young star, Donovan Cornelius.” 

Speaking directly to the award, Clay shared, “It is an honor to have a work that is so personal to me be honored by Focus Features and The Gotham. Led by our producer, Yaél Bermudez '24, our crew moved mountains in the Southern heat, the bugs, the rain, and all other manner of challenges, to capture this story on 16mm.” 

The inspiration for this story came not simply from Clay’s life, but from another project he worked on in the past. “This short was originally based on my feature length project, Wretched, a gothic horror film set in 1970s North Carolina that follows a pastor who becomes convinced that he’s had a direct communion with God...after he is abducted by aliens. Yaél and I hope to hit the ground running developing that film in the coming year. We would like to thank Allen Chapel AME Church, the 100 Men in Black choir, George Fuller, and Pricilla and Maurice Thompson, without their support there would be no film.”

Cameron Clay is a filmmaker and video artist from Prince George’s County, MD. His work is rooted in the complex dynamics between Black men. Drawing from the long tradition of slow cinema, he examines the subtleties of communication, performed masculinity, and fraternal bonds. His work has been featured in Filmmaker Magazine, Blackstar Film Festival, Philadelphia Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, First Take Film Festival, and the Philadelphia Film Showcase. He is a Milos Forman Directing Fellow, Lazaroff Screenwriting Award and Motion Picture Award recipient. Cameron is a Directing MFA candidate and Milos Forman Fellow at Columbia University.