‘Seven-Ten Split’ wins 2016 Fort Myers Film Festival Best Student Film award
NYU film grad Jordan Axelrod received Best Student Film honors last night at the Sixth Annual Fort Myers Film Festival for his 20-minute short, Seven-Ten Split. The film presents two parallel stories taking place within a small town bowling alley. One features a shy college grad whose anxiety about his impending blind date overwhelms him prior to the girl’s arrival. The other follows a young teen named Annie, who is 
also waiting for a date – and possibly her first kiss – and the deep, but short-lived connection she forms with Paula, a lonely employee of the bowling alley.
“Jordan Axelrod is going to be making big films in the next few years, you’ll see it happen,” FMff Director Eric Raddatz predicted in announcing the award. “I think he was in junior high when we started the film festival, so he didn’t even know how to talk to girls at that time. He’s still there,” quipped Raddatz, teasing that there could be 
something of an autobiographical connection to the college grad depicted in the film’s first storyline.
“Since I came from here, it’s very special to show the film here first,” said Axelrod, who used to volunteer at the Fort Myers Film Festival. But turning serious, Jordan was quick to recognize the influence that his uncle exercised on every aspect of his life outside of Seven-Ten Split. “He passed away a week before we shot,” Jordan noted, caressing the award in his right hand. “The film is in memorial for him.”
During his time at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Axelrod has written and directed numerous short films while developing and writing a feature screenplay. He has also worked in the camera department of Jason Bateman’s upcoming film, The Family Fang, and is currently shooting and editing behind the scenes material for the upcoming Broadway musical incarnation of School of Rock with music by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. Inspired by the work of Alexander Payne, Richard Linklater, and Mike Nichols amongst many others, he hopes to continue the legacy of filmmakers who create work that both entertains and moves audiences.
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About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.