The very idea of a “film industry” is absurd. Films are borne of human dreams and stunning feats of human coordination. Yet those who wish to financially exploit film have long sought to replace its slow, chaotic humanity with fast, predictable mechanized systems. Nowhere is this tension on more dissonant display than at SXSW, where one badge gains you admission to both demonstrations of the latest Artificial Intelligence fever dreams and to premieres of films whose writers undertook a five-month strike in 2023 to prevent studios from replacing writers with AI wholesale.
We propose a cinematic counterattack: a film festival with no judges, juries, gatekeepers, badges, wristbands, or lanyards. A film festival that blurs the line between our creative endeavors and our destructive ones and that reveals how our lights, cameras, and actions can humanize and de-mechanize the world around us. This is the 1st Annual SmashxFilm Festival!
Send us your shorts, features, docs, pilots, and video art and we will program as many as we can in familiar and surprising places in Austin, Texas during SmashXSmashWest. We welcome films of all genres and topics with a liberatory, rebellious, or critical spirit or that address our theme of “Screen Against the Machine.”
You do not need to be local to screen! We invite filmmakers from far and wide to join us, make connections, and get up for some Q&A.
You do not need to have a film to get involved! If you’d like to host a screening or partner with us on organizing, we’d love to hear from you!
Submissions close 2/24! Get in touch with us securely at: smashxfilm@proton.me