Fan Film Factor – Exploring the world of Star Trek fan films.

AXANAR: THE GATHERING STORM will premiere in SAN DIEGO during COMIC-CON weekend! (interview with ALEC PETERS)

It was during San Diego Comic-Con back in 2014 when Star Trek fans first got to see PRELUDE TO AXANAR. Now in 2026, twelve years later(!!!), the first of the two Axanar sequels, THE GATHERING STORM, will make its debut with a special press screening in San Diego on July 26, the Sunday of this year’s Comic-Con!

The venue will be the Digital Gym Cinema—one of the only nearby theaters available for rental—which is located less than a mile from the San Diego Convention Center where Comic-Con happens. The first press screening will start around 2pm (and yes, I plan to be there!) with additional screenings taking place afterwards to allow more people into the 54-seat auditorium. Showings of Prelude to Axanar and The Gathering Storm will run continuously between 2pm and 6pm and will be free for anyone who shows up. Members of the cast and production crew will be in attendance, as well, hanging out to talk with donors, supporters, fans, or anyone who decides to show up.

Back in January of this year, after attending a sound-mixing session for The Gathering Storm in Encino, CA (northwest of L.A.), I confidently blogged that the first of the completed Axanar sequels would finally be released before springtime. The observant amongst you may have realized that July 26 is not the beginning of spring. So what the heck happened?

I decided to ask Alec Peters directly…

JONATHAN – Alec, you told me that the release of The Gathering Storm would happen in early March. I saw the entire fan film completed during the audio mixing session. It was frickin’ DONE, Alec! Why the extra four-month delay?

ALEC – We had some delays in the color correction process, which should have been two weeks, and it turned into three months! Our post-production pipeline wasn’t really efficient, and so we basically started over. And thankfully, DANA WAGNER once again came through for us and took over the color correction, and it worked out great in the end.

JONATHAN: And it’s really, really done, right? It’s a two-hour drive from L.A. down to San Diego—and there’s gonna be ridiculous traffic because of Comic-Con. Each way! This could be 6-7 hours in my car that day! Please tell me I’m not gonna make that drive just to be disappointed…

ALEC – Oh, trust me, you will NOT be disappointed. Yes, The Gathering Storm is completely done. And yes, the theater has been rented and the contracts signed.

JONATHAN – Yay…finally!!! But I heard there might be some issues with releasing The Gathering Storm onto YouTube. I thought you had a legal settlement with CBS and Paramount. What’s the issue?

ALEC – I don’t want to go into too much detail because there are lawyers involved, but those lawyers are being a-holes. And yes, we have a settlement agreement. And it looks like Paramount is happy to honor that agreement, but certain people on the CBS side are deciding to be pricks.

JONATHAN – Are you trying to resolve it?

ALEC – Yes, but I can’t go into specifics just yet.

JONATHAN – What if you can’t get permission to post The Gathering Storm on YouTube or Vimeo or the other online video platforms by July 26? How will fans and supporters and donors be able to finally see it?

ALEC – We will be uploading The Gathering Storm and give it away as a free download to EVERYONE. We are starting to do that with the two other films CBS illegally had taken down last year: THE ICARUS MANEUVER and DAEDALUS. CBS can’t remove it from a site that we ourselves own.

Don’t worry, fans will be able to see this amazing film online. It just might take a little extra time for it to get to YouTube.

JONATHAN – Speaking of time, what about the second of the two sequels? What’s that one going to be called, and when will fans have an opportunity to see it?

ALEC – The final installment in the Axanar trilogy will be calle CRUCIBLE. Prelude to Axanar was episode 3 of “The Four Years War”; The Gathering Storm is episode 4; and this final one will be episode 5. And before anyone asks, there is no episode 1 or 2. When we made Prelude, it was supposed to be a proof-of-concept one-off. So we pretended it was one of a series of documentaries detailing the events of the Four Years War between the Federation and the Klingons, which culminated with the Battle of Axanar. But since we’re only allowed to make two more Axanar fan films, we decided that episodes 1 and 2 will just have to be left to people’s imaginations.

As for a date of release, we’re hoping for December of this year. But nothing is set in stone yet. I will say that all of the actor footage for that film is in the can, but we’re still working on compositing and the VFX shots. That finale is going to blow people away with how much VFX is in it!

JONATHAN – Will you be having a special theatrical premiere for that release, as well?

ALEC – Yes, but we’re not sure where yet. It’s possible it won’t even be in the U.S. As you know, Axanar fans are international. But we’ll see.

JONATHAN – You mentioned in a recent podcast that the incredible USS Ares bridge set will finally be coming down after nearly a decade. Why now?

ALEC – Over the last twelve years, I’ve put hundreds of thousands of dollars of my own money into this project on top of what we raised from fans. And we’ve had our amazing angel producers, DAVE LANYON and GUDNI GUDNASON generously helping Axanar get over the finish line. But the studio itself still has monthly rent in the thousands that I have to pay out of pocket, and with the project finally completed, I just can’t justify the ongoing expense of keeping Ares Studios open.

JONATHAN – So what will happen to these awesome set pieces? Is there any way to save them? Or are they all going into the dumpster or some big bonfire?

ALEC – I’m not sure yet, honestly. Maybe someone wants to take them off my hands and will pay to transport them somewhere they can store them. Maybe I’ll try to keep just a small portion of the set pieces so fans can film the helm, captain’s chair, and a few of the back consoles and turbolift. But we won’t have space to keep an entire 360-degree bridge set intact, I’m sorry to say. All good things…

JONATHAN – Okay, to finish up, from inception in 2010 until now, this project has has taken up nearly one-quarter of your 65-year life, Alec. With all of the emotions that I’m sure you’ve felt over these past dozen years, how does it feel to finally be able to say to everyone, “Yeah, it’s finally done…”?

ALEC – Short answer: it feels great. As you said, this has been like a mythical quest for the last twelve years, with mountains to climb, dragons to slay, and two Fortune 500 corporations suing us for a full year trying to kill our production. We had to deal with a move across the country, finishing construction on the bridge set, a COVID shutdown, two fired directors, and more obstacles than I can count. But through it all, I never gave up on the dream, and neither did you or thousands of fans and supporters all over the world. And now, all of that patience and dedication and hard work is coming to a completion.

Prelude to Axanar set the Star Trek world on fire in 2014 when there was no official Star Trek on TV anymore. With the end of the divisive ALEX KURTZMAN era at hand, I think the next two installments of Axanar are coming out at the perfect time. I truly believe that people will watch these two sequel films and be reminded of how good Star Trek can be.

And that, to me, is the thing that matters the most at the end of this long journey.

You’ll go APE for CAPTAIN SIMIAN’S FIRST COMMAND from NATURE’s HUNGER! (video interview with JOSE CEPEDA and a whole bunch of people!)

The Star Trek fan film guidelines specify the maximum length of a Star Trek fan film to be at most two 15-minute shorts. Oh, yeah, Paramount and CBS??? Well, you’ve never dealt with a talking monkey sitting the center seat of a starship!

CAPTAIN SIMIAN’S FIRST COMMAND from the fine and friendly folks at NATURE’S HUNGER is a whopping two hours and fifteen minutes long! That’s an even higher run time than their two hour and five minute release BOMBER GIRL from last year. But while that previous fan film crossed over Star Trek with a World War II storyline, Captain Simian goes in an entirely different direction taking Star Trek on a collision course with The Planet of the Apes franchise.

I know…it’s bananas!!!

But that’s just how showrunner JOSE CEPEDA and his gang roll. Nature’s Hunger has always been a quirky fan series, having previously mashed up Star Trek and The Wizard of Oz, of all things (Dorothy joins Starfleet!). But throughout it all, Jose and his team bring passion, dedication, and love of both Star Trek and filmmaking to each of their productions.

This latest release breaks new ground not only in terms of make-up (the ape masks are really well done) but also for bringing in an extensive amount of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to generate footage that would have been impractical or even impossible to create on a humble fan film budget. Granted, the AI is animated while the rest of the film is live-action, so you kinda have to adjust your brain when you watch those parts. But it’s still a very ambitious fan film project to undertake. My congratulations to the entire team.

Take a look at what they produced…

And speaking of the entire team, I had the opportunity to interview a full gaggle of them recently, and it was a lot of fun. These folks from Atlanta, GA are some of the nicest people in our community and have a bunch of really great stories to tell. After you watch the two-plus hours of Captain Simian (above), take another 90 minutes out of your life to watch this great interview. You’ve got four hours of your life to spare, right…?

The 2026 SHOWRUNNER AWARDS now have their final 23 entries!

Submissions for the 2026 Star Trek Fan Film SHOWRUNNER AWARDS are now complete. The window of eligibility to enter this year was any Trek fan film released between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2025—although the majority of our submissions were released last year. The longer window allows fan films that didn’t win previously due to stiff competition a “second chance” and even a third one to take home an award—although once an entry wins in a category, it is no longer eligible to earn an additional award in that same category.

This year, we have 23 entries combining for a total of just under 10 hours of viewing for our 12 showrunner judges. For comparison, last year we had 24 entries and the year before there were 27 entires, each with a combined runtime of just under 9 hours. So we decreased by one submission but increased by an entire hour! If you’re curious as to why, spoiler alert: one of our submissions has a run time of 2 hours and 15 minutes just by itself!)

As we’ve done for the previous two years, the winners will be announced on Star Trek‘s anniversary of September 8, 2026. There are 22 categories with three winners in each category: Admiral, Captain, and Commander level. I salute all of our 23 entrants for 2026, and I wish each of them the best of luck. (Honestly, I wish they ALL could win!)

I realize that I say this every year, but once again, we have some really amazing Star Trek fan films this time—of all different runtimes—that cover the gamut from comedic to dramatic to suspenseful to thoughtful to parody/farce. Some are episodes of ongoing fan or fanthology series, others are stand-alone releases. There are fan films shot on sets, on location, on green screens, some with heavy VFX, some light on VFX, a few with elaborate make-up and costuming, cool props, and several really standout acting performances and even original music. We truly have some of the best of the best that the world of Star Trek fan films has to offer this year!

So I strongly encourage you to watch as many of these marvelous productions as you can. Here are all of our entries for 2026 alphabetically by title (with the fan series indicated where applicable)…

Meet this year’s JUDGES for the 2026 Star Trek Fan Film SHOWRUNNER AWARDS…

The submission window for the 2026 Star Trek Fan Film SHOWRUNNER AWARDS is now open and will remain so until midnight Pacific Time on May 31, 2025. Any Star Trek fan film released publicly between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2025 is eligible for entry regardless of the person or team producing it.

The online entry form is located here…

https://www.cognitoforms.com/JonathanLane1/_2026StarTrekFanFilmSHOWRUNNERAWARDS

As usual, our judging panel remains at twelve, made up of people who have, themselves, served as showrunners on one or more fan films or series. This provides each judge a unique and personal perspective on what goes into making a fan production in our nearly two-dozen categories. In other words, our judges are knowledgeable and experienced in filmmaking which, I truly believe, brings a high level of expertise to our competition—along with our sister contest, the DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS, which just wrapped up earlier this month.

And it is for this reason that, each year, I publish a blog spotlighting our judging panel and what they have accomplished in the world of Star Trek fan films specifically. We’ve got two new judges this year plus one “swap.” The swap is GLEN L. WOLFE for DAN REYNOLDS. They are the co-owners of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas and the co-showrunners of THE FEDERATION FILES fanthology series. Each year, one of the two of them “tags out” to give the other a turn. So in 20256, Glen will be taking over Dan’s spot, who in turn took over Glen’s spot in last year’s competition.

Our two new judges are both from “across the pond” in Europe. One is relatively new to being a showrunner, although he’s already had a multi-year career in Star Trek fan films. The other is a bit of a legend and someone whom I’ve been trying to talk into being a Showrunner Awards judge since we first launched this endeavor five years ago…

The Star Trek Fan Film SHOWRUNNER AWARDS return for 2026…submissions are now OPEN through MAY 31!

Earlier this month, the winners of this year’s DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS were announced. Now it’s time for fan filmmakers to submit their work for the other major award competition dedicated exclusively to productions judged by their peers—the annual SHOWRUNNER AWARDS.

Unlike the Directors Choice Awards, which are open to fan films from any genre, the Showrunner Awards focus EXCLUSIVELY on Star Trek fan films…allowing our little niche of a niche of a niche to shine as well as providing a friendly venue for Star Trek fan filmmakers to compete directly against each other.

As the name implies, the judging panel for the Showrunner Awards is made up of a dozen volunteer fan film showrunners, and I’ll spotlight them in an upcoming blog. Another unique aspect of the Showrunner Awards is that each of our nearly two-dozen categories recognizes THREE winners, with the top film in that category earning an Admiral Award, the second-place finisher receiving a Captain Award, and the third highest judged film winning a Commander Award. Each award is personalized for that fan film and sent to the entrant as a digital printable certificate.

A final element that distinguishes the Showrunner Awards is that the eligibility window for submission is more than just a single year. Last go-around, we reduced that window from five years down to three. So this time, any Star Trek fan film released between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2025 is eligible to be entered. This allows for a fan film that may not have won in a previous year (because of strong competition) additional chances to earn an award—although no film is allowed to win twice in the same category. Also, the multi-year window allows a fan filmmaker who wasn’t previously aware of the Showrunner Awards to enter a slightly older project rather than missing out completely.

As always, the cost is $10 per entry plus $1 for each category beyond Best Fan Film that the submitter wishes to enter—things like Best Director, Best Actor/Actress, Best VFX, Best Music, etc.

The submission period is open from today through May 31, 2025. After that, judges will have until the middle of August to view and vote for their top five fan films in each category, with the most points going to each judge’s top choices. (A showrunner judge is not allowed to vote for any of their own fan films in any of their top three slots.) Winners will be announced, as usual, on September 8, the anniversary of the first airing of Star Trek on NBC back in 1966.

Anyone can submit a nomination using the following form page:

https://www.cognitoforms.com/JonathanLane1/_2026StarTrekFanFilmSHOWRUNNERAWARDS

Good luck!

Announcing the WINNERS of the 5th annual DIRECTORS CHOICE fan film awards for 2025!

The annual DIRECTORS CHOICE AWARDS have returned for a fifth year to announce their winners for fan films released during calendar year 2025. If you’re a fan filmmaker and want your production judged by a jury of your peers, there are currently two options. One is the Directors Choice Awards, and the other show, the SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, is limited exclusively to Star Trek fan films.

However, the Directors Choice Awards, hosted and organized by GLEN L. WOLFE and DAN REYNOLDS, co-owners of WARP 66 STUDIOS in northern Arkansas, are open to fan films from all genres of sci-fi, fantasy, superhero, and horror. And that makes for a pretty extensive list of entries.

This year, the competition had 40 fan film submissions from around the world, a slight drop from last year’s 55 entries. As usual, the judges for the Directors Choice Awards were the directors of the fan films that were entered. All judges were expected to watch each of the submitted fan films before voting, which—I can tell you from personal experience as a judge myself last year—can be a commitment of many, many hours of viewing!

Genres this year included the old familiar standards like Star Trek, Star Wars, superhero, horror, Indiana Jones, Alien, and the original Battlestar Galactica…plus some newcomers we haven’t seen before like Logan’s Run, Blade Runner, Transformers, Max Payne, Jaws, and The Hunger Games. For a list of all the fan films that were entered, all of the nominees in each category, and all the winners, you can watch their presentation video.

Below is a list that was announced yesterday of all the winners and runners up in each of the categories, along with YouTube links to those specific fan films…

First of the two AXANAR sequels has FINAL SOUND MIX session in Los Angeles!

It was nearly twelve years ago when ALEC PETERS, MARK EDWARD LEWIS, and a bunch of members of the production team of PRELUDE TO AXANAR sat together inside a the SOL 7 sound studio in Encino, CA while the sound levels of that groundbreaking fan film were mixed together and equalized.

It is now 2026, and the sequel that fans have been waiting a dozen years to see is now mere weeks from release! Oh, I know what some of yoou are thinking: We’ve heard THAT one before! “Thirty days out…yeah, right!” was the frequent taunt from detractors as the release date of the two AXANAR sequels (permitted by the 2017 legal settlement with CBS and Paramount) slipped later and later and later still—years later, in fact!

So what makes this time different? Why am I confident enough to state on this blog that I firmly believe that AXANAR: THE GATHERING STORM (the first of the two sequels) will be released to fans before the seasons change from winter to spring in 2026?

Because I’ve just watched the entire thing!!!

With the exception of a handful of shots of two of the actors that haven’t been composited yet to replace the green screen with a CGI-generated digital background (maybe a total of less than 3% of entire film), it’s done. All of the incredible VFX shots, every sound effect, all of the digital readout display animations, the opening credits, the closing credits, the voice-over narration of John Gil, and most of all, the sumptuous musical score composed by the identical twin LIVESAY brothers, JASON and NOLAN. (These guys have worked on and orchestrated multiple big-name Hollywood film, TV, and video projects—including STAR TREK: PICARD, DISCOVERY, STRANGE NEW WORLDS, THE ORVILLE, DAREDEVIL, X-MEN, and a host of others. And now they’ve given Axanar one of the greatest soundtracks in fan film history, at least in my opinion.)

I’ll be honest with you, when I first saw a rough cut of Axanar: The Gathering Storm last year, I wasn’t nearly as impressed as I’d hoped to be. The acting was certainly quite decent, and those VFX shots that had been completed looked spectacular. But it all felt kinda flat and exposition-heavy. I feared that, once the long-anticipated sequels were finally released, fans (especially the more cynical and negative ones) would complain, “We waited twelve years and donated a million and a half dollars for this????”

Oh, me of little faith!

Now that I’ve had a chance to hear the sound mix—a combination of dialog, music, and sound effects—I can truthfully say I was absolutely bowled over! This fan film now feels so ALIVE! Now, granted, I was seeing this on a big screen with 35,000 watts playing through 11 cinema-quality speakers! It felt very much like watching a movie in a theater. And indeed, Mark Lewis (who co-directed, edited, and is doing the sound design) told me he would be creating three different soundtracks for this fan film.

2025 Star Trek Fan Film YEAR IN REVIEW (part 2)

Yesterday, we began looking back at many of the major (and not-so-major) Star Trek fan films released in 2025—and there were a LOT! So many, if fact, that I felt I needed to divide this Year in Review blog into two parts. Part 1 covered January through June. Now, let’s finish out the final six months and see what Trekkie fan filmmakers had to offer us. There’s some really great stuff on this list…

2025 Star Trek Fan Film YEAR IN REVIEW (part 1)

It’s the end of another year, and I’m still here, you’re still here, and so are Star Trek fan films! Admittedly, I’ve been less prolific in 2025 than I have in past years because I’ve gotten involved with mentoring my sons Jayden’s high school robotics team, The Bagel Bytes (named after their first sponsor back in 2001, Noah’s Bagels). And I’ve kinda gone all-in, assisting the team with marketing materials and e-mail communication, finding sponsors (including RODDENBERRY ENTERTAINMENT!), filming and editing team videos, helping them set up a Patreon campaign, and a whole lot more. I’m with the team 2-3 times a week, helping out the coach, and just marveling at these amazingly talented teens! But putting in all of those free volunteer hours is leaving me with much less time and energy for this blog.

That being said, I’m still organizing the annual SHOWRUNNER AWARDS, interviewing many Star Trek fan filmmakers, and even assisting some of them with their fan films (as I did twice this past year!). And of course, my regular YEAR IN REVIEW blogs have been an annual tradition since my first one back in 2017. And each year, I remind my readers who predicted back in 2016 that CBS/Paramount’s fan film guidelines would utterly destroy Star Trek fan films that our little sub-sub-sub-genre is still very much alive and kicking.

And indeed, even nearly a decade later, Trek fan films continue to be produced and posted to YouTube—quite a lot of them! Buy, hey, don’t just take my word for it. Check it out for yourself below. In fact, there were so many to cover that I’ve split this year’s compilation blog into TWO parts!

Many of the following fan films were ones that I had intended to cover here on Fan Film Factor, but life and robotics got in the way. So instead, I’ll be spotlighting them here with short blurbs for each one. There’s probably at least a few you haven’t seen, and I strongly recommend that you check out any that intrigue you—and possibly some that don’t, as you might be pleasantly surprised. Let’s dive in…

STARSHIP ANTYLLUS completes its 12-year, 30-episode mission! (video interview with GEORGE KAYAIAN)

They say nice guys finish last. Well, one very nice guy just finished a fan film journey that started 12 years ago…at last! However, that’s only his most recent fan film journey. For GEORGE KAYAIAN, his very first Star Trek fan film dates all the way back to the 1990s with THE INFINITE CHAIN, filmed literally in his parents’ basement and featuring his MOM as the captain! Now George himself is the father of a 16-year-old daughter.

The first of what would become 30 episodes (actually more than that, as several episodes were two-parters) of George’s latest magnum opus, STARSHIP ANTYLLUS, premiered on YouTube in September of 2013. It was never intended to look sleek or dazzling. The budget was barely enough to buy a Happy Meal, and the sets were constructed mostly of materials you would find in a typical crafting shop. But the actors all had experience, and George himself led the cast as Captain Holt Allen, a troubled but skilled starship commander who begins dying in the very first episode.

Yes, you read that right. Antyllus is the saga of one man’s race with his own mortality. As such, you can probably imagine that the feel and style of this fan series is pretty unique, focusing mainly on a single character. However, there is an extensive supporting cast, including George’s daughter Anya, who started working with her dad behind the scenes on his Antyllus at the age of four and began appearing as an alien crew member in the series six years later. With the Kayaians, Star Trek fan films is definitely a family thing.

While I invite you to watch the entire series (here is a YouTube playlist with every episode), please be aware that Antyllus is not for everyone’s taste. As I said, it doesn’t have many bells and whistles. And the episodes don’t move particularly fast. But the overall story is complex and engaging with fan actors and a writer/director who are truly committed to providing the best film-watching experience that they can. Like so many fan series, Antyllus‘ true strength lies in its heart and the love and dedication of the people who made it. If that’s not your thing, there are certainly plenty more Star Trek fan films and series out there for you to enjoy!

Below is the director’s cut of the Starship Antyllus finale…

As I alluded to at the beginning of this blog entry, George is one of the nicest guys in all of Star Trek fan films, and I always enjoy chatting with him. So I was looking very much forward to doing a video interview with George and Anya to discuss the end of this particular fan film journey for them both. Unfortunately, Anya wasn’t feeling well that night, and Christmas was rapidly approaching—making rescheduling problematic. So instead I had a lovely discussion with just “Captain Allen” himsrlf, and I am happy to share that with you now…