Austin Film Festival

About the Austin Film Festival

The Austin Film Festival was founded in 1994 by Barbara Morgan with a premise that no other major American film festival has made its organizing principle: the screenplay is the foundation of cinema, and the people who write screenplays deserve a festival built around them. AFF runs every October in Austin, Texas, and every year it operates in two inseparable halves. The film festival programs features, documentaries, and shorts across ten days of screenings. Alongside it, the AFF Screenwriters Conference convenes for four days of panels, workshops, and keynote conversations with working writers, directors, and producers. The two components are not merely scheduled in parallel. They are architecturally connected in a way that shapes everything about how the festival functions and who attends.

Austin is already on the film industry calendar through SXSW, which runs in March and draws technology, music, and film audiences simultaneously. The Austin Film Festival operates as a genuinely distinct event with no organizational connection to SXSW, a different season, a different audience, and a different institutional identity. Where SXSW has grown into a multi-industry convergence event, AFF remains focused on a specific problem: how does the industry find, develop, and celebrate the writers whose work makes films possible? The festival has operated from that premise for thirty years, and the result is an event that attracts a professional community you will not find gathered in the same place anywhere else.

The alumni record of AFF's screenplay competition includes writers who went on to significant careers in both film and television. Craig Mazin, who wrote Chernobyl and co-created The Last of Us, participated in the AFF community. Etan Cohen, who wrote Tropic Thunder, was an AFF participant. The festival's conference has drawn speakers including Billy Bob Thornton, who wrote and directed Sling Blade; James L. Brooks, the writer-director behind Broadcast News and As Good as It Gets; and Craig Borten, who co-wrote Dallas Buyers Club. These are not honorific appearances. The AFF conference has consistently attracted working writers who came to speak seriously about their craft with an audience of other writers.

Competition Sections and Screenplay Competition

Narrative Feature Competition is the festival's primary film competition strand, open to fiction features at any budget level. Jury prizes are awarded for Best Narrative Feature alongside acting and directing awards. AFF's narrative competition has historically been receptive to character-driven work, films with strong structural craft, and debuts that show the influence of a writer-director who brought a genuine screenplay sensibility to the project. The competition does not privilege genre over drama or vice versa; what the jury evaluates is the quality of the underlying work as a film.

Documentary Feature Competition is one of the genuinely strong documentary competitions in the American festival circuit. AFF has programmed and awarded documentaries with serious editorial architecture, films that demonstrate the same attention to story structure and character development that the festival values in its narrative competition. The documentary jury prizes include Best Documentary Feature and a documentary audience award. Documentary filmmakers who are thinking carefully about how their film is structured rather than simply what it is about will find AFF receptive.

Short Film Competition runs alongside the feature competitions with its own jury and awards. AFF's shorts programming reflects the festival's story-first editorial philosophy: shorts that demonstrate screenwriting craft, clear narrative intention, and character work tend to fare better in the selection process than those that prioritize visual style over structure. The short competition is a legitimate entry point for early-career filmmakers whose work reflects the sensibility the festival values.

Screenplay Competition is the most important screenwriting competition in the United States, and it is the element of AFF that most directly defines the festival's identity in the industry. The competition accepts thousands of submissions annually across multiple categories: Feature Film, Short Film, Television Pilot (one-hour and half-hour), and Television Spec Script. Winners and finalists receive cash prizes, one-on-one meetings with producers and development executives, and significant industry visibility. The AFF Screenplay Competition quarterfinalists, semifinalists, finalists, and winners are tracked by agents, managers, and producers looking for emerging writers. Placement in the competition is a career credential that carries real weight during query and pitch processes. It is not a participation award; the competition is competitive, and placement at any level above the general submission pool is meaningful.

Teleplay Competition reflects AFF's recognition that the contemporary writing industry operates equally across film and television. The competition accepts original pilot scripts in both one-hour and half-hour formats, as well as spec scripts for existing series. Television writers who attend the conference find programming specifically relevant to their work: showrunners, staffing agents, and network and streaming executives participate in panels and workshops alongside film-focused writers. AFF is unusual among film festivals in treating the television pilot as a legitimate competition category rather than an afterthought.

The Screenwriting Conference

The AFF Screenwriters Conference runs for four days concurrent with the film screenings, and it is the element that makes Austin Film Festival genuinely unlike any other major film festival. The conference is not a series of promotional panels or marketing appearances. It is a working professional gathering organized around craft. Panels cover structural approaches to specific genres, the practical mechanics of breaking into television staffing, the collaborative dynamics between writers and directors, adaptation challenges, the current state of development at streaming platforms, and the specific demands of the spec market. These conversations happen at a level of specificity that presupposes an audience of working or aspiring professionals rather than general enthusiasts.

The conference draws speakers who have credits across the full range of film and television. Past participants have included Paul Haggis, who wrote and directed Crash; John Lee Hancock, who wrote and directed The Blind Side and The Founder; Pamela Gray, who wrote A Walk on the Moon; and writers from series including Breaking Bad, Succession, and The Bear. The conference does not organize itself around stars or celebrity; it organizes itself around craft, and the speakers who come are the ones who are willing to talk seriously about how they work. The result is a conversation that writers find more useful than almost any other professional gathering in the industry.

For a screenwriter who does not yet have a produced credit, AFF is one of the few places in the industry where you can be in the same room as working writers and development executives in a context organized around your work rather than around networking protocol. The conference badge gives access to all panels and workshops. The combination of the screenplay competition and the conference means that a writer can have their script evaluated by the competition, attend four days of craft-focused programming, and make professional connections in a context where the other participants are specifically interested in writers. That combination does not exist anywhere else on the American festival calendar.

What Makes a Film Right for AFF

AFF programs films where the story is the primary engine. That does not mean films need to be dialogue-heavy or conventionally structured, but it does mean that the festival's programming team is evaluating films with an attention to how the screenplay functions as the basis for what is on screen. Films with well-constructed characters, a clear sense of dramatic intention, and a narrative architecture that holds up to scrutiny tend to do well in AFF's selection process. Films that are primarily visual or experiential, where the screenplay is a pretext for something else, are less likely to be prioritized.

Genre films are welcome and competitive at AFF. The festival has programmed horror, science fiction, thriller, and dark comedy alongside prestige drama and documentary work. The genre distinction that matters to AFF's programming philosophy is not between genre and non-genre but between films where the writer made intentional decisions at the story level and films where genre conventions were deployed as a default. A horror film with a precisely constructed three-act structure and a clear thematic argument will get more serious consideration than a prestige drama that coasts on its subject matter.

AFF screens for a mixed audience of Austin locals and industry visitors who attend specifically for the conference and competition. That dual audience shapes programming in a practical way: films that work for both a general Texas audience and a professional writer-focused crowd are well-positioned. The festival is not insular or exclusively industry-facing, and films that have genuine popular appeal alongside craft credentials are a good fit. Texas-connected stories and subjects have historically received some attention from the programming team, though connection to the state is not a prerequisite for selection.

Submission Guide

Film submissions for AFF open on FilmFreeway in May for the October festival. Early deadlines typically fall in June, regular deadlines in July, and late deadlines in August. The exact dates shift year to year and should be confirmed directly on the FilmFreeway listing for the current cycle. Feature films submitting for competition consideration are generally expected to hold US or world premiere status at the time of the festival. The programming team has some flexibility on premiere status for exceptional films, but competition-eligible entries should approach the submission assuming premiere requirements apply.

The Screenplay Competition has a submission timeline that runs separately from film submissions and generally closes earlier, with most deadlines falling between May and July depending on the category. Writers should check the AFF website directly for screenplay submission deadlines because they do not always align with film submission deadlines. The competition accepts feature screenplays, short screenplays, one-hour television pilots, half-hour television pilots, and television spec scripts. Each category is evaluated by a separate reading panel. Submitting to multiple categories requires a separate submission and fee for each.

Fee structure for both film and screenplay submissions follows standard tiered pricing: earlier submission deadlines carry lower fees, and costs increase incrementally at each deadline threshold. Fee waiver requests are available through FilmFreeway's standard process for student filmmakers and writers facing financial hardship. The submission form for films asks for genre classification and a brief content description; specificity in both fields is useful to the programming team. The submission form for screenplays asks for logline, genre, and a brief synopsis.

The conference badge is a separate credential from the film festival badge and is available for purchase through the AFF website. Conference badge holders get access to all panels, workshops, and keynote sessions over the four-day conference period. Combining a conference badge with a screenplay competition submission is the most complete way to engage with what AFF offers. Film programmers and conference organizers operate separately, and submitting a film does not affect conference badge availability or vice versa.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes the Austin Film Festival different from SXSW?

SXSW is a multi-industry convergence event that runs in March and draws audiences across music, technology, and film. AFF runs in October and is organized entirely around a single question: what do writers and filmmakers who care about the screenplay need from a festival? The two events have no organizational connection, occupy different seasons, and serve different professional purposes. SXSW's film programming is broad and industry-facing in the general sense. AFF's programming is specifically built around the screenwriting community and the professional infrastructure around writers: competitions, conferences, development conversations, and craft-focused panels. A writer attending AFF will encounter a professional environment that SXSW does not offer because AFF was built specifically for it.

Is the Screenplay Competition as important as the film competition?

For many people in the industry, the Screenplay Competition is more important than the film competition. AFF is the only major American film festival where the screenplay competition is a co-equal organizing principle rather than an ancillary program. Placement at the quarterfinalist level or above is tracked by agents, managers, and producers. Winners and finalists receive cash prizes and one-on-one meetings with industry professionals. The competition has a documented track record of identifying writers who go on to working careers, and it is taken seriously as a talent discovery mechanism in a way that few other screenplay competitions match. If you are a writer with a script and no produced credit, the AFF competition is the first major competition worth entering.

Can I submit a screenplay without having a produced film?

Yes. The Screenplay Competition is entirely separate from the film competition and has no prerequisite film credit. Writers at any stage of their career can submit. The competition evaluates the screenplay on its merits as a written work: story structure, character, dialogue, genre command, and overall craft. Having a produced film is neither an advantage nor a disadvantage in the competition. Many of the writers who have placed in or won the AFF Screenplay Competition over the years were unproduced at the time of submission. The competition is explicitly designed to identify writers before they have produced credits, not after.

What is the conference component and should I attend?

The AFF Screenwriters Conference runs for four days during the festival and is one of the most useful professional gatherings for writers in the American industry. It consists of panels, workshops, and keynote conversations organized around craft and career. Speakers are working writers, directors, showrunners, agents, managers, and development executives. The programming covers structural approaches to genre, the mechanics of television staffing, adaptation challenges, the development process at streaming platforms, and the practical realities of building a writing career. If you are a working or aspiring screenwriter, the conference is worth attending independently of whether you have submitted a screenplay or a film. It is the part of AFF that most directly addresses the professional questions writers face.

Does AFF require a world premiere?

AFF prefers US premiere or world premiere status for films competing in the feature competitions. The programming team has some discretion on premiere requirements for films that are exceptional fits for the programming, but competition-eligible submissions should be approached with the expectation that premiere status applies. Films that have already screened in the United States can still be submitted and may be considered for non-competition programming, but they are generally not eligible for jury prizes. Short films competing in the short competition have similar premiere expectations. The AFF FilmFreeway listing specifies current premiere requirements for each submission category, and those specifications should be treated as authoritative.

What does winning the AFF Screenplay Competition lead to?

Winners and finalists in the AFF Screenplay Competition receive cash prizes, one-on-one meetings with producers and development executives who attend the conference specifically to meet competition placements, and meaningful industry visibility. The practical outcome depends on the quality of the script and the writer's ability to leverage the placement into further conversations, but the competition provides a legitimizing credential that makes those conversations easier to initiate. Agents and managers actively follow AFF competition results. Managers in particular use the quarterfinalist and above lists as a sourcing tool for emerging clients. The AFF placement does not guarantee representation or a sale, but it is a signal that the industry has learned to take seriously over thirty years, and it opens doors that are otherwise harder to open without a produced credit.

Submit Your Film

The Austin Film Festival accepts film submissions through FilmFreeway from May through August for the October festival. Screenplay and teleplay competition submissions run on a separate timeline that generally closes earlier in the summer. Whether you are submitting a feature, documentary, short, or screenplay, AFF is worth prioritizing in your festival and competition strategy if your work reflects a genuine investment in story craft. The festival has operated at the intersection of film and writing for thirty years, and the professional community it convenes every October in Austin is unlike anything else on the American calendar. Submit early to secure the lowest fee tier and give your work the fullest consideration window from the programming team.