Haunted by Desire: Benjamin Vigil’s "Ghosted" Wins Big at CFA Quarterly Film Challenge

, and Liora Pennick

April 15, 2026 . 3:20 PM

4 min read

Three Key Takeaways

Innovative storytelling blends paranormal romance with betrayal, challenging genre norms.
Creative risk in visual effects enhances narrative tension by making the ghost visible only to the audience.
Collaborative teamwork and adaptability were crucial in overcoming production challenges.

Benjamin Vigil, a storyteller passionate about capturing life’s complex dualities, emerges as the visionary writer, director, and actor behind Ghosted, the captivating film that recently won the Spotlight award at the most recent CFA Quarterly Film Challenge. Featuring a talented ensemble including Kennedy Martin, Elizabeth Yamauchi, and Kanwar Singh, Ghosted explores a modern paranormal romance with a twist of betrayal, grounded in character-driven narratives and atmospheric cinematography by Alex Flanagan.

Q&A Interview

Did you write your script during the challenge window or beforehand?

Hybrid (e.g., outline earlier, dialogue during challenge). I began with a script where I wanted to depict a paranormal romance, and what that would look like. I had this idea to create a modern version of *Ghost*, but with a twist of betrayal. I love obsessing over the minute details of what would entail such a spooky love story/tragedy. I went through multiple revisions and cut all pretext and shoved the audience into the climax. I already had a cast in mind and a cinematographer and a location. The rest I had to work with my Producer Kennedy Martin to perfect and finalize the rest of the crew/ costume/ set design.

What was your biggest creative risk or boldest decision — and did it pay off?

Making Isadora the ghost visible for the audience, yet invisible to the characters. There are special effects and gags, and had the actors not acknowledge her which was a challenge but everyone absolutely crushed it.

"The beer pong scene was so confusing we had to cut a part out of the script to make it understandable and shootable."

What surprised you most about the process — either about yourself or your team?

Finding the shots. They were hard to plan out, and deciding how we were to portray certain scenes. Many of the shots were simply too complex to understand without all of the actors on their marks and after rehearsing. I had rough outlines for all the scenes but the beer pong scene was so confusing we had to cut a part out of the script to make it understandable and shootable.

Was there a moment where you thought you wouldn’t finish? How did you push through?

Isadora, the ghost played by Elizabeth Yamauchi, had extensive makeup that took much longer to apply than anticipated. We had to rearrange a few scenes since the makeup wasn't finished in time. And had to be extremely efficient with switching setups to finish on time.

"Making Isadora the ghost visible for the audience, yet invisible to the characters... everyone absolutely crushed it."

What gear did you use (camera, sound, editing software, etc)?

Arri Amira camera, 5 lavs and a boom for sound, DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro and Ableton for editing, lots of gaffer equipment... had a bulb explode after using it for less than a minute... might have been a ghost.

"Had a bulb explode after using it for less than a minute... might have been a ghost"

What was your shooting schedule like? How many hours did you shoot each day?

Shot for 12 hours each day, cast and crew were 100% dedicated.

What would you do differently next time?

Stage out the shots better, be more efficient between setups, more coverage for particular scenes, shoot only 6 pages a day max, more input/blocking on table reads.