A California State University, Northridge, cinema and arts student was invited to screen his senior film project at the Cannes Film Festival in France. The annual film festival is invitation-only and previews new films of all genres from around the world. It started on May 16 and runs through May 27. Benny Wolde-Yohannes will be presenting his film “Pareto Principle” in the short film exhibition next week. He wrote and directed the film, which tells the tale of two young men who find a bag full of money. The project first generated some buzz after being shown at CSUN’s Senior Film Showcase earlier this month, said cinema and television arts professor Nate Thomas. “As soon as our screening was over, there were industry people waiting to talk to him,” Thomas said. “Benny is a very talented young man who took everything he learned here at CSUN, whether it was in his general education classes or his film classes, and presented it in that film.” Wolde-Yohannes’s work on “Pareto Principle” already has earned him $10,000 to help begin his professional career. He was the first recipient of the Ravi K. and Amalia Sawhney Creative Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding creative achievement by a graduating senior in CSUN’s Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication. Angela Melero
