March 13th-22nd, 2026 – Austin, TX
Everyone knows it – something’s deeply wrong in the film world.
Netflix is cranking out “second screen” movies aimed at people looking down at other devices. Hollywood studios are locked in bidding wars over imaginary actors no one’s heard of. And striving directors are attending hard-earned festival premieres to find they share their honors with vapid, uncanny flops made by sitting back while a bot pukes up a series of plagiarized images and sounds
Big Tech has spent decades tempting us with speed, comfort, and convenience at the cost of our peace and privacy. Today, Big Tech offers filmmakers a Faustian fast-track to career success. Artists outside the system are being coerced into betraying their craft and integrity, afraid they can’t keep up in a landscape where even “Indie” has come to imply six figure budgets.
WE PROPOSE A CINEMATIC COUNTERATTACK: a film fest that says fuck shiny, fuck perfect, fuck paletable. A week of screenings that run the gamut of every mistake you can make in a film, from the inadvisably ambitious to the impenetrably idiosyncratic, to the grainy, blurry, fuzzy, and unfinished. A collection of films that reminds us that the path of the artist isn’t safe, smart, or profitable and that zero intelligence is required to create something that changes the world.
SEND US YOUR SHORTS, FEATURES, DOCS, PILOTS, AND MUSIC VIDEOS and we’ll program as many as we can in Austin, TX during SmashXSmashwest!
We welcome films of all genres and topics with a liberatory, rebellious, and critical spirit or that address our theme of “Zero Intelligence.”
YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE LOCAL! We invite filmmakers from far and wide to come join, make connections, and get up for some Q&A.
ANYONE CAN JUMP IN! If you’d like to host or organize a screening, let us know how we can help!
SUBMISSIONS CLOSE 2/20/2026! Get in touch with us securely at: smashxfilm@proton.me