Recently, Noah Sparkman ’26 won the Best Cinematography award in the high school competition at the 2025 Gasparilla International Film Festival, for his film My God to Thee (2025), which also stars his sister, Zahra ’27!
We spoke with the filmmaker, to find out his inspiration, as well as his reaction to winning this prestigious award.
TP: How did you come up with the concept for your film?
NS: “The film is called Nearer My God to Thee. My classmate, Maya Benitez, gave me the idea for the film. We were talking about this thing called the turner doomsday video and it’s basically this end of the world video that’s going to be broadcast by CNN in the event of a world ending event. So that’s where it came from.”
TP: Is this the first film that you’ve created?
NS: “No I’ve been making movies since I was 10 but this is the main award I’ve won.”
TP: How long was the process?
NS: “It was about a semester-long experience.”
TP: Did your time at Tampa Prep help you at all, in the creation of your film?
NS: “Yes, it helped very much. My Film Teacher, Dr Wille, helped with a lot of the technicality and all the film techniques I’ve been taught as-well helped out.”
TP: How did you feel, when you found out that you won this award?
NS: “I was pretty shocked. The cinematography on this film consisted of 95% handheld shots which is basically just holding the camera and moving it around yourself so. That’s what surprised me the most.”
