FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) — A group of students at Hamilton Southeastern High School are getting ready for their work to hit the big screen. The Heartland International Film Festival selected the movie titled “11:17” to be shown next month.

According to a spokesperson for Heartland, it’s rare for a group of high schoolers to submit a feature-length film to the festival. It’s almost unheard of for that film to be selected.

“11:17” will go toe to toe against other films produced by professional filmmakers during the film festival in Indianapolis.

There is no high school category, and the crew will be eligible for all the same cash prizes as some films with major budgets.

The cherry on top? Tickets to Heartland went on sale last week. All three screenings for “11:17” are already sold out.

The movie runs 67 minutes. It follows Kai, a high school senior dealing with the aftermath of a tragic accident in her town.

Students took just over a year to write, produce, and direct the film. It was through a club at Hamilton Southeastern called Olio Road Productions.

Behind the self-sustained production company is social studies teacher and filmmaker Jamie Follis. He says it’s the club he wished he had when he was in high school.

“I’m just always amazed at what they get done,” Follis said. “There’s always problems, there’s always issues, but that’s part of life. That’s part of the lessons they learn about setting goals and problem-solving on the fly.”

Olio Road’s Head of Public Relations, Maya Patel, says they already started production on a new movie when they found out “11:17” was selected for this year’s Heartland International Film Festival.

“It was honestly a little bit of whiplash,” Patel said. “It’s a huge step up. Like it was wonderful to see the growth that we had this year. So, I was so excited to see that we had a little bit of payoff on that.”

Since wrapping on the film, Producer Katie Follis and Director AJ Koleszar have graduated. Both now go to Purdue.

Follis is pursuing a degree in PR and communications. She says she’ll always cherish the late night shoots with her friends.

“It’s just funny, because we got home and then you had a couple hours of sleep,” Follis said. “Then you woke up and we had prom. Like that was just kind of like a fun experience that a lot of other filmmakers probably don’t get to experience.”

Koleszar was looking to major in aerospace engineering, but the whole process has him questioning how to make a career out of filmmaking.

He’s now considering electrical engineering as a way to merge both his interests.

“Probably one of — if not my favorite thing that I’ve ever done was making this year’s movie,” Koleszar said. “Just being able to continue that would just be, honestly, a dream.”

The Olio Road Productions crew hopes to host additional screenings for “11:17” at Hamilton Southeastern High School sometime after the festival is over.

The Heartland International Film Festival runs from Oct. 9 – 19.

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