Filming in and around 8,000 sheep, directing first-time actors who also happen to be immediate family, and scrambling across badger-ravaged fields on dark December nights—it’s all part of the movie-making process for Javi Zubizarreta.

In 2002, Peter D. Richardson was among the first group of students to make their own documentaries as part of Associate Professional Specialist Ted Mandell’s class in Notre Dame’s Department of Film, Television, and Theatre. “I was hooked,” says the winner of this year's U.S. Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize.

Meet the Press. Steppenwolf Theatre Company. NBCUniversal. MTV. National Geographic. The Jimmy Kimmel Show. CNN. Entertainment One. NFL Films. Television stations from coast to coast. These are just some of the places where FTT students intern as undergraduates.

Raise the curtain, cue the lights, and enter our scene: an actress who discovers a hidden passion for costume design, a dedicated designer who seizes a prime opportunity, and the department where it all happens.