A City College student won the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s 10th annual 10-10-10 Student Screenwriting Competition with her dark comedy script, “Paradise Cafe.”

Gabriella Guillen earned her award after the 10-minute films were aired and judged at 1 p.m. on Sunday, February 3 at the Lobero Theatre. The competition’s assigned genre was comedy, but each screenplay had an entirely different approach to the prompt, resulting in a dramatic win.

“I didn’t think I had a chance at all,” Guillen said. “I was thinking ‘This is so dark, no one is going to laugh, no one is going to like it.’ I was so nervous. I was sure I wasn’t going to win.”

The 10-10-10 Student Filmmaking and Screenwriting Competition brings together student writers, filmmakers and industry professionals that mentor the students throughout the competition.

The screenwriters have 10 days to complete a 10-minute screenplay, which is then assigned a student director who has 10 days to film, direct and edit the short film. Guillen worked closely with her director, Benjamin Goalabre.

“My director was great. He was very accepting and every draft I turned in, he loved, so it was really nice to work with him,” Guillen said.

Her screenplay, “Paradise Cafe” distorts the stereotypical genie-in-a-bottle fairytale with its bar setting and reluctant protagonist. Though it provided laughter throughout, its haunting finale left audience members with hairs raised.

“I originally wanted it to be a dark comedy because I was afraid of comedy. I’m much better at darker things, honestly, so going into it I knew what I wanted to do,” Guillen said.

This is her third year as a City College student. Beginning as a film production major, she has experienced a change of interest.

“I’m a film production student, but the past couple semesters I’ve been taking writing classes so I’m actually leaning more towards writing now,” Guillen said. “Last semester I took a writing for television class with Ed Caplan and he pushed me towards entering [the competition].”

Outside of the Lobero, high school and college students congregated with other contestants, press and Santa Barbara Film Festival workers. The theater quickly filled to maximum capacity speckled with parents, press and judges, but mostly young, eager faces.

“Paradise Cafe” director and City College student, Benjamin Goalabre, explained that filmmakers had to draw screenplays at random.

“I picked the best script, obviously,” Goalabre said. “We worked together and it went really well. She won because she had the best story.”

Guillen and Goalabre competed with other City College students. Student director Johan Bodell led his team in creating “Killer Raise,” a horror comedy that was one of five college-level finalists in the competition.

“Even if we don’t win, it’s a good experience,” Bodell said. “We can submit the film to other contests and see what happens.

The winning film will be shown at the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s closing night festivities in the Arlington Theatre.