FESTIVAL AND CONFERENCE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
Austin Film Festival’s Young Filmmakers Scholarship Program grants access to over 450 scholarships for students and teachers in middle and high school. Participants are given the opportunity to attend the 31st Annual Austin Film Festival & Conference, October 26-November 2, 2024, to learn more about the art and business of filmmaking and screenwriting. Specifically designed student panels are held Friday, October 27, and Saturday, October 28, and teacher panels are held Sunday, October 30.
Schools are eligible for up to 15 student scholarships and 2 teacher/chaperone scholarships. Scholarships are limited to one (1) Conference Badge per participant. This badge grants access to the following:
- All four days of conference panels
- All eight days of film screenings with priority entry
- Meet and Greets
- Exhibit Hall
*No one under 21 is admitted to any AFF party.
If you have any questions regarding the Festival and Conference Scholarship Program, please contact Young Filmmakers Program Director at yfpdirector@austinfilmfestival.com or call 512-478-4795.
PREVIOUS CONFERENCE PROGRAMMING
In addition to all of the fun, we also have curated student programming specifically for these young creatives! Check out what we did in 2022!
Young Filmmakers Panel
Taking a Stab at the Horror Genre
From Nosferatu (1922) to Nope (2022), we can’t deny the horror genre has vastly evolved over this past century. Rather than falling for fake blood or gimmicky jump-scares, a new generation of horror film fans demands deep-meaning ideas and desires to explore the perspective of morally ambiguous characters. In this panel, we’ll discuss the influence of Gen Z over the horror genre and how they’ve helped horror make a comeback in film. Students will leave with invaluable insights on how to write horror for the modern audience.
Panelists: Tonia Ransom (creator/executive producer Nightlight: The Black Horror Podcast, Afflicted: A Horror Thriller Podcast), Justin Boyd (Writer/Producer Fear the Walking Dead, Sweet Tooth, Reprisal, Channel Zero), Kara Lee Corthron (Writer/Supervising producer You; writer/co-executive producer Servant; Writer Survive the Night)
Young Filmmakers Roundtable
The YFP Shorts Filmmaker Roundtable Session offers students the opportunity to meet and learn from selected shorts filmmakers in a casual setting among a small group of peers. Students are encouraged to ask specific questions about the creative and business aspects of filmmaking.
Panelists: Quinlan Orear, Michele Jourdan, Michael Jann, Tomson Tee, Katie Sicking, João Thomaz Londres, Alex Bendo, Nirav Bhakta, Trevor Williams, Mischa Webley
Young Filmmakers Pitch
The student pitch sessions give high school students the opportunity to pitch their best ideas to industry professionals and receive feedback in an encouraging setting, while learning more about the art of the pitch.
Pitch Judges:
James V. Hart – creator/executive producer The Hot Zone; writer Hook, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Contact, Tuck Everlasting, Muppet Treasure Island, August Rush, Epic, Crossbones; Creator, HartChart
JAMES V. HART (J.V.) was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and grew up in Ft. Worth Texas on Drive-In Movies and Saturday Matinees.
His writing/producing credits include; Hook, directed by Steven Spielberg based on an idea by Hart’s then 6 year old son, Jake, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Muppet Treasure Island, directed by Brian Henson, and Contact, directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Cindy McCreery – writer The Honey Girls, Something in the Water, Haven, Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove; Disney Feature Fellow, Associate Professor/Screenwriting Area Head, UT Austin
Cindy McCreery is an Associate Professor of Screenwriting in the Department of Radio-TV-Film at The University of Texas at Austin where she teaches television and feature film writing in the undergraduate, graduate and Michener Center for Writing programs. Previously she taught screenwriting at UC Santa Barbara and The UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting. She is a graduate of the Walt Disney/ABC Feature Writing Fellowship program and has sold feature projects to New Line Cinema, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, National Geographic Films, Warner Brothers, MGM, Lionsgate and Branded Entertainment. She has also written for television and has sold projects to SyFy Channel, Disney Channel, NBC Universal, TNT, Televisa USA and AMC. Her comedy feature, The Honey Girls will be released by Sony & Foundation Media in the fall of 2021.
SPONSORSHIPS
“The festival did inspire me to continue on with my passions for writing and filmmaking. It definitely did boost my morale a bit about how I could really turn a simple idea into something very good and enjoyable to the public eye.” – Daylynn Overton, Senior, Austin High School 2020 Festival Scholarship Recipient
“I learned that it’s important to find a screenwriting process that works for you, and you need to be endlessly patient. It can help to collaborate with others and pick topics of personal significance to you.” – Alex Watson, Junior, Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy 2020 Festival Scholarship Recipient