Shoreline resident Rhys Kroehler wins $7500 filmmaking prize from IPOEF

A still from Rhys Kroehler's film

By Luanne Brown

For Shorecrest graduate, Rhys Kroehler, 19, keeping a particular secret was hard.

But that’s just what he was required to do when he found out he won the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation (IPOEF) 2018 Video Contest for his age group.

“They notified me by email about two weeks before the IPOEF officially announced the winners on September 26. 

"I was told not to post the news anywhere until they released the information on their website. It was so hard because I wanted to immediately thank everyone who helped me reach my goal of getting more votes than the other entries in my category,” Kroehler said.

Kroehler currently attends the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts where he majors in Film and Television Production with plans to graduate in 2021. He was in a class when he heard the big news.

“The first thing I did was call my mom to tell her. I was not expecting to win so I was shocked, but mostly I was just grateful for everybody who rallied together and helped me when I asked them to,” Kroehler said. 

Still from Rhys Kroehler's film

His sister, Talis Kroehler, 16 and a sophomore at Shorecrest High School, immediately started ‘lobbying’ to be his plus one at the 11th IPOEF Awards Dinner which takes place in Washington, D.C. on December 11, 2018 at the National Building Museum.

She was convincing enough to win him over and will be going with him to the dinner.

The $7500 prize money will be applied toward his tuition and other educational costs.

“I have been amazingly fortunate to have received numerous scholarships to help me afford USC. The IPOEF foundation has given me the ability to confidently say that I will be financially able to attend all four years.”

More than anything, winning this prize has taught him the value of ‘community’. “I wouldn't have been able to do this without all my friends and family members who worked so hard to get my video out there. My thanks to everyone who helped.”

Kroehler’ s prizewinning film explores what the world would be like without patents and can be viewed at this URL