APEX - Building buzz around the town's first film festival, the juried entries for the Peak City Film Festival were announced last week.

They span five family-friendly categories: features, short films, "mobisodes," animation and North Carolina commercial and come from as far as Europe and South America.

The festival, running this weekend at Salem Street venues, will kick off Friday night with a special appearance by "Leave it to Beaver's" Jerry Mathers and the premiere of "The Rusty Bucket Kids Club," which was mostly filmed in Wake County.

Submissions were accepted through Oct. 1 and winners will be awarded a trophy, cash and merchandise from sponsors.

To learn about finalists in all categories, visit peakcityfilmfestival.org.

The nominees for feature films are:

"All They Knew Were Apples," a Laryn Christley film by Shawn Ishihara.

Pete Christley, the 91-year-old family patriarch shows the iPod generation how to make apple butter.

While the fleeting family tradition is forgotten in favor of vacations and technology, Pete brings the family together with bushels of apples, copper kettles, and crackling wood fires.

"Barnstorming," a Barnstorming Productions film by Paul Glenshaw and Bryan Reichhardt.

This is the true story of an unexpected friendship between a farm family and two pilots who literally dropped out of the sky. The friendship has created a new tradition out of an old one long gone: barnstorming.

The film captures their annual gathering, the visceral exhilaration of flight, the anticipation of their arrival and the celebration of the reunion.

"Broken Hill," an Audience Alliance MPS film by Chris Wyatt.

Set in the Australian outback, this film is the story of an aspiring high school music composer, Tommy McAlpine, struggling against his father's expectations, cultural stereotypes and the lack of musicians in his small town.

Given a chance at admission to a prestigious music conservatory, Tommy swallows his pride and enlists the aid of his intimidating unrequited crush, Katherine Rogers, a tough but attractive outsider from the U.S., to help him organize the unruly inmates at a nearby federal prison into the kind of choir that can bring his music to life.

"Christmas Memories," an Uptone Pictures by Michael Davis.

This production is an assortment of vintage 8mm and 16mm films, uniquely woven together. Join in as storytellers whisk you away to yesteryear and take you behind the film to their favorite Christmas memories.

You'll cry, you'll laugh, but most of all, as you are transported to childhood, to grandma's, to all of these favorite places you'll say, "I remember when..."

"The Secret of Oz," a Still Productions by Bill Still.

The symbols of the monetary reform movement are embedded in the most beloved children's story of all time, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

These symbols point the way out of our current economic problems.

A nation's money should be issued and controlled by the Congress, not by big banks.