The Reel Loud Film Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary tonight at 8 in Campbell Hall with a combination of silent films accompanied by live background music.

The student-run festival includes short films that are produced by students and are entirely silent. A faculty selection committee picks the films that are shown.

Originally put on by the UCSB Filmmakers Co-op, the film festival is now organized by the Reel Loud Exhibition Committee.

“The films this year are of very high quality,” said senior film studies and history major Conor A. Copeland, who is directing this year’s event.

Eight films will be shown, including “A Biography,” “As Good As Gold,” “Never Her,” “Melancholy Mechanics,” “Fight Night,” “Damsel in Distress” and “Rejected and Changing Chaplin.”

Southern California band Blazing Haley will open the event.

The first annual Inspirational Alumni Award will be awarded to Don Hertzfeldt, who was recently nominated for an Academy Award for his animated short film “Rejected,” which will also be shown.

Gabrielle Winicki, a 21-year-old film studies major and promotions director for this year’s festival, said she chose to get involved because of the fun she had at last year’s event.

“The energy level was so high,” she said, “and everyone was so into it.”

Winicki said she believes Reel Loud is one of the main opportunities for students to showcase their films outside of class.

“It’s a celebration of filmmakers and their work,” she said.

Ian McAvoy, the filmmaker of “Fight Night,” a seven-minute version of a documentary he made last year, agreed.

“It’s really great because it gives us a chance to showcase our stuff,” he said.

“As Good As Gold,” a film about an eccentric young man and his journey to find happiness, took filmmaker Penny G. Krauss around four months to make.

“Melancholy Mechanics,” a film by Ryan Crego, is a stop-motion animation about a human character in a mechanical world who finds a purpose to his life by accident. Crego said “Melancholy Mechanics,” his first attempt at directing, took him about 10 weeks to make.

“It’s cool because the film’s been sitting on my shelf for awhile,” Crego said. “It’s nice to finally get it out and show it to people.”

Tickets are $6 pre-sale and $8 at the door. They can be purchased at Morninglory Music in Isla Vista.