Film & Friends.
A pipeline for radical, community-powered filmmaking — premiering work from our MAKE SOMETHING students.
✦ Photos & video by Artist Access Program participants Sheridan Rodgers & Minnie Jackson
This isn't your standard screening.
Film is more than content and entertainment. It's culture. It's protest. It's memory. A tool for radical expression and meaningful change.
In a landscape where filmmaking is too often gatekept, commercialized, and stripped of its soul, Film & Friends carves out space for filmmakers who want to make work on their own terms. Process matters here. Experimentation is welcome.
Since inception, the series has welcomed 700+ filmmakers, premiered dozens of Austin-made films, and given countless first-time filmmakers their very first public audience. It's helping fuel Austin's independent-driven media arts movement — one screening at a time.
After the films, the conversation.
Process, unpacked.
Filmmakers walk through what they made and why — the decisions, the pivots, the why-this-shot-not-that-one. The kind of conversation that turns a screening into a master class.
Voices that don't usually get the mic.
Q&As center perspectives that don't typically get the public platform. That's what diversifying the filmmaking landscape actually looks like — not in theory, in practice.
Community in the room.
Audience meets makers. Makers meet each other. The next collaboration often starts in the lobby after the lights come up. That's the real Austin film scene, building itself.
Four short-form forms.
Narrative films
Stories with characters, conflict, and arc — short-form dramas, comedies, and everything in between. The kind of work where writing meets craft.
Experimental analog
Tactile, hand-processed work made with celluloid, found footage, or unconventional techniques. The kind where the medium is the message.
Mini documentaries
True stories, real people, real Austin. Often less than ten minutes — punchy and personal.
Music videos
Original work made with local Austin bands and musicians. The intersection of film and sound, made in our backyard.
Two nights. Both Saturdays.
Made a film with us between Sept 2025 and June 2026?
Documentary Intensive
with Todd Wiseman
Narrative Intensive
with William F. Reed
Digital Filmmaking
Script to Screen · various sessions, various instructors
Submit in two steps.
Submit your film info
Fill out the submission form so we have your details for the event website, promotional materials, and ticketing access. This step also unlocks early ticket access and your custom marketing graphics.
Submit your final film
Once Step 01 is complete, you'll receive a private link to upload your finished film. Only filmmakers who complete Step 01 will receive Step 02 access — no exceptions.
What participating filmmakers receive
Ready? Get your film on the program.
✦ Submit Step 01Captured by Sheridan Rodgers and Minnie Jackson, Artist Access Program participants.